PolyTerra PLA experience and problems

[Tian]

Hi Guys,

Im new here and tested PolyTerra PLA with my X1C. Ich tried to print Benchy but I got some problems, not only the Hull line.
I just wanna share my experience and show you what I did. Maybe you guys can also give me some idees for improvements.

First of all, i used default setting for PolyTerra PLA and printed the Benchy. It was quite bad. Here is a photo.

I dont know that happened. So i switsched from inner wall/outer wall to outer wall/inner wall. Here some pics.

It actually had many lines on the surface and many stringings.

So i thought, maybe i should do calibrations and dry the filament. Which i did later. Those are my settings after many tries.
Print Temp: 205
Bed Temp: 45
Flow Rate: 0.98
K=0.016
3 walls
For better overhangs, the line widths:

For less Stringing:
Retraction length = 2mm
speed = 50mm/s
Z hop = 0mm
And i also slowed down the speed, use 50mm/s for outer wall and 150 for inner walls.

I printed Benchy again with outer/inner wall. It was much better except the ugly Z seam and hull line. I wondered, maybe i can change infill/wall overlap to give the filament more space to cool down, i tested it with 0%, -25% and -50%. It wasnt really better.

I read some pages in the forum, and changed the setting to inner/outer/inner wall. Here something weird happens. I got two lines! Even if i dont print the top, i got one line below the hull line.

I tested many times and it always had a line below the hull line. Which made me really confused. And i also printed it again with default line width. Nothing changed.

I dont wanna go back to outer/inner wall because i cant take the ugly z seam. So i thought maybe its because of slicer. I switched to Orca Slicer and used the inner/outer/inner. Problem solved!

At the end.

Im actually happy now but i saw there are many printed Benchys without hull line.
Does Anyone can give me some advices to make it perfect.

Best Regards
Tian

[RandomKhaos]

The quality should pretty much be the same between Bambu Studio and Orca Slicer, especially if using the default settings. I use that exact same grey Polymaker PolyTerra PLA for all of my prototyping and so it’s my most used filament; I do not experience the same issues.

Since you noticed a significant quality difference when switching between slicers, it may be something as simple as you have the wrong nozzle selected in Bambu Studio. Double check your nozzle selection is the same as what you have installed. Also double check you don’t have any of the fans disabled.

Can’t help you with the hull line, as it’s been there when printed on all my printers, regardless how much I’ve refined the print settings.

[Tian]

Thanks for the answer!

I actually did the tests many times and im pretty sure i had the same settings.
I may have exaggerated a bit before, after all my setups, the final result with bambu slicer was still fine, just one more slight line if i use inner/outer/inner.

But whatever, i switched to orca now.

I’m curious about the last photos for the end result I sent in the last post, is it good quality for you? Although im actually quite happy with it.

[RandomKhaos]

I should have taken a picture, but maybe I will later when I get home, but I printed a benchy with the same filament last night to see what mine looked like. It turned out pretty close to your last few pictures, so I’d say it’s pretty good. It could be a bit better, but that could be a lot of factors. Have you tried drying the filament to see if it further improves on the result? I’m at the point where I dry all my filaments before keeping them in dry boxes to remove the possibility of moisture being a problem.

[Tian]

I also always dry it. Just dried it in 55 celius degrees for 6h.