Spent 3 hours calibrating for my print to look like this

Bambu Lab P1 Series Troubleshooting
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Wow, you have patience. Why waited so long before asking for help here?

You don’t want to do ironing, and it seems you can’t have that side facing down on the built plate. But you need a path to move forward, not going in circles here.

Maybe the next step is to see if there is someone in your area who has a Bambu Lab machine (P, X, or A series) and go see if theirs can produce the result that you want. This is just in case that what you got happened to be a bad one.

If you can’t do that, then maybe stick with the Ender that you have found satisfactory results? Or maybe reevaluate if 3D printing is the right technology for your purpose at this stage?

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Silly question, when you send the prints to the printer after slicing, are you unchecking the box for flow calibration? Otherwise all your timing will be for naught.

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Glad to see someone else mentioned print speed already :slight_smile:

It is possible to generate surfaces that are rough like sandpaper (like OP described) or reflective and glossy just by adjusting speed and no other variables. I made an example print a while back showing this. This is 1 layer thick PLA with no ironing and no other settings than default.

The speed that you need to use to achieve “glossy” finish is a function of temperature, so it may be difficult to calibrate this in a meaningful way using OEM speed profiles

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I shared a script in another thread a few days ago that allows you to adjust speed to any value you want. The script handles all of the MQTT connection info and payload formatting, but feel free to modify any way you like https://forum.bambulab.com/t/custom-print-speeds-script/75875

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Theres just so much, facebook and reddit are the easiest. You cant make a post as a new member on these forums. So had to go else where. Unfortunately i dont know anyone in 3d printing and just like on fb everything that gets recommended ive tried. I had greg the overture rep help me, he used his printer on my models to try to help. Definitely had some differences. Got into 3d printing for action figure display, huge community with all the top modeler use a bambu lab so i know what to expect.

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P1s, doesnt have that option

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Yeah i thought speed is the biggest factor but people pull perfect prints off using the generic profile and the exact same filament. Already tried from 200mms in intervals to 50mms the same as my ender. The effect is the same even at those speeds, also just makes it look worse. Bambus speeds are nice because it turns everything matte.

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There’s a temperature dependence on this effect. I am able to get that sandpaper-like texture with PLA if I print at 220C and vary speed between 50-120mm/s

When I get home later, I will share the model I made for testing this. It uses layer change gcode to apply speed changes to the default PLA profile, so you just set a temperature and from the print you should be able to identify the range of speeds that produce smooth surfaces.

Also, I read your first post again and your flow ratio is quite low. I would move it back up to 97-98. Surface texture is strongly affected by flow ratio, and as soon as you’re able to remove some of these variables from the picture, it should become much clearer how to better control surface finish or texture

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You say 50-120mms but its defaulted to 200mms. Honestly dont even bother, my x1c will be here tuesday. I tried for 9 months on this thing. I appreciate it.

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That was not my point though! That was the range of speeds I looked at, but surface finish is highly dependent on not just print speed but temperature and layer height. My result above was with 0.18mm layer height at 220C, but if you print with a 0.12-0.14mm layer height you could easily get a glossy finish at 150-200mm/s. I will do some testing tomorrow and see if I can narrow down a temperature range + layer height that will work at 200 mm/s for a shiny surface.

Also you need to remember that only the outer wall matters here! Say you used a 0.18mm layer height with PLA at 220C like I did. If you print the outer wall somewhere between 50-80 mm/s, you are very likely to get a glossy finish. Your normal print speeds can stay the same, so it only slows down for outer walls.

You are very close to a solution here. I’m putting together a couple different models which I’ll post here.

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You can actually predict what the surface roughness aka surface finish of an FDM print will be based on operating conditions of layer height, print speed, and temperature. You need empirical data to do this, but my point is it’s highly repeatable if the right variables are controlled.

One of many papers on this topic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10878859/

Someone a while back even made a slicer modification that allows you to spatially control the surface roughness of your prints. Nothing like this exists in Bambu Studio or Orca, but in time there will! https://www.repetier.com/velocity-painting/

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There’s a few parameters that coincide to achieve top layer results. I understood flow was your major doing but did you run a bed tram? see how you’re alignment was to the bed from the TH? New Hotend?

If you only print models around that size of the flow tests than you won’t really run into issues with surface quality. Otherwise you’ll really never get consistent settings to achieve a perfectly flat top layer or completely smooth… too many variables and inconsistencies with the machine parts unlike a CNC lathe or mill that are built to maintain tolerances.

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This is how my bed was from factory. Tried manually leveling it following wiki. I heard this isnt a good way to see if its flat. Dont have the patience to see if its square. I print all kinds of stuff, super small to entire bed length.

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I have X1C for ABS prints and to print toys quickly. Quality is meh. My ABS prints are weak because default speeds don’t lend to good interlayer bonding. Warping is always extreme no thanks to my banana shaped heat bed (it’s not flat) and top and bottom layer quality is always horrible. Yup, wasted like tens of hours on calibrations and various settings to no avail other than counterintuitively I cra k the cooling up to 85% as my default for ABS prints despite conventional advice saying to disable or lower cooling.

I have two MK3S for PETG and PLA and when I need the item to look good or I need strength from better layer bonding. They print beautiful prints albeit slowly every single time without fail.

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As some pointed out, I AM damaged goods when it comes to 3D printing.
I started during the early days when all we had was 3mm filament of questionable quality LOL

I am actually quite happy with my print results now, nut it took quite some time to get things right…

I really like to calibrate every new colour or material I add - from scratch and totally ignoring what Bambu has in mind as I find their defaults, how shall I say it? Unsatisfactory…
Have get the camera out one day to upload some pics I guess…

Take the dreaded top surfaces…
I have seen an endless amount of corresponding topics, all discussing how to get this vital layer look perfect…
Ironing, slight changes here and there but in most cases the result only gets a bit better but never reaches a quality I would consider good enough to sell a model like this.
I found that Bambu makes it way too easy for the user while at the same time making it quite difficult to get around certain issues.
Had to change my calibration and tuning routines because of this…
A top surface is NOT just the last layer of a model, it IS ALL top surfaces, with that whatever foundation they might have.
For some reason this seems to have got lost when we switched to faster and more capable machines/slicers.

The FIRST layer was always the most important one for a print, if you ask me then it still is.
This layer defines how well or bad the second layer goes down.
Since we usually print those first layers with 100% infill any minor issues keeps building up.
Becomes quite obvious when you try to print a test cube with 100%infill.
I can also find well meant replies where users recommend to NEVER use a 100% for inside a model - because it tends to turn into a mess… LOL
If you can’t get a clean and smooth surface with layer 3 then you never will…
And realistically already the 2nd layer should be perfect.

My flat top surfaces are smooth, clean and free from these bump lines around the outer walls.
There is no gap between the lines, no rough lines either…
No need for scarf seems on my end either…
An aligned seem IS visible but only a slight issues for tight push fits, for which I just sand over the seam if required.
With random start points I have a hard time finding these points and have to either feel them or grab a magnifying glass.
How did I get there ? Through ignorance and hard work LOL

Flow ratio and print temp come first on my list.
Then the K-factor, overlaps, retraction and so on.
Only after I am happy with the results I go and adjust the calibration factors for holes and outer dimensions in order to get the required accuracy.
I can design a M8 by 1.25 bolt and nut to DIN specs, print them and they fit together the same way they fit on the metal originals.
I don’t design with FDM tolerances in mind, I design to actual dimensions and print the parts like this.

Bambu has ease of use and high volume printing in mind, preferably only using their own filaments of course.
They did not re-invent 3D printing though and whatever we had to do in the old days to get good quality and accurate prints still applies the same way.
Yes, the defaults are MUCH closer to being usable than a few years ago but if you really want the lot you won’t get around proper MANUAL calibration.
And that only gets you as far as the flimsy hardware allows…

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Happy you’ve found the solution!

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hey @95Prints3D il take ur p1 printer lol where u live

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Already sold it but thank you

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Had the same trouble and changed line width to actual nozzle size, 0,4 nozzle = 0,4mm line width. Flow was not that low as you showed, I think 0,97-0,98 was good with most filaments on my A1.
Also the pattern to monotonic linear I think. Still not perfect but acceptable.

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