The default profile has ironing enabled. At first I printed the gear and the base. The gear came out very good with a very smooth surface (default ironing settings). The base also looked good, except for a part where it is very thing (6 or 7 layers)
Then I printed the top part - the result was terrible (see attached photo). What I find strange is that most of the black parts look terrible except for the one that is higher? Btw. all filaments used were Bambu PLA Basic.
So I went back to calibrating the flow rate of my filament first (the filament was dried). I find it curious that I always end up with a flow rate greater than one (1.02 - 1.04) when doing the calibration built into Bambu studio. Bambu says somewhere in the wiki that flow rates greater than one are unusual and a sign of a clogged nozzle or extruder. But I changed nozzles, checked the extruder and even replaced the gears (and the PTFE tubes) to no avail - I always get about the same result.
There were several good looking squares, I choose 15% flow and 20 mm/s speed. Then I printed a small square (40x40x0.6) with these settings and the result was again terrible. Of course the calibration model is way thicker, so I did another print of a small square (40x40x2) with the same settings and it came out good (see the other attached photo).
So my question is, am I doing something wrong? Is my flow rate calibration off? Is there anything to consider when ironing thin/flat parts? Iâd like to be able to print the model in acceptable quality. Currently Iâm not sure if it would even work since the surface is so rough.
You followed the procedure correctly. First the flow calibration, then the ironing calibration. Your values also seem accurate; nothing appears to be wrong. If you keep getting poor results despite calibration, I would proceed step by step:
Make sure you check the screws on the tool head and the nozzle. If they are too loose, this can lead to poor results. Of course, when ironing, the nozzle essentially scrapes across the material.
Leave the ironing aside for now and focus on making sure that the surfaces look like this even without it. Ironing might enhance the quality of the surface, but only if it looks good to begin with.
The surface should not be too thin when the nozzle presses down on it. The best approach is to use a good infill, such as gyroid, first, and then increase the surface layer thickness to prevent bending.
But, as I said, based on your description, it seems that you have done everything right. I would guess that the screws might be too loose, maybe. I could be wrong, but it wonât do any harm to check. While youâre at it, check that the extruder gear isnât too dirty. It probably wonât be the problem, but itâs worth checking anyway.
Iâm afraid I wonât be able to increase the top shell layers since the model is only three layers high at its thinnest part. So I guess it could also be a thermal issues - maybe the surface is just too hot since itâs also close to the bed.
A thin square without ironing looks pretty consistent (please ignore the black spot, that was some debris).
I already checked the nozzle, it sits firmly in place, but I will double check.
Hmm, the surface looks normal, but not ideal. It should look much smoother without ironing. Itâs not that itâs bad, but itâs not a good foundation for starting ironing. On the other hand, even Bambu shows the surface like this. You did the calibration according to this tutorial, right?
Just a basic question, but youâve already selected one of the high quality profile, right?
And just to be on the safe side, you also use a prim tower, right? Because multicolor printing and the fact that the nozzle can build up pressure.
Sorry for the simple question, but sometimes things get overlooked. Somewhere, a selection box must have been checked incorrectly. maybeâŚ. thatâs really strange.
Yes I did the calibration according to the wiki, but Iâm struggling⌠I find it very hard to assess and honestly, I think the printer produced smoother surfaces when I first got it (with default settings). I just canât seem to get the same quality again. Donât get me wrong, itâs nothing catastrophic
Concerning the part, itâs very hard to photograph, the look changes heavily depending on the angle etc, so it might look less or more smooth than it actually is. Another thing I noticed is that the Archimedean Chords pattern gives a smoother surface.
I did print the model with the standard quality profile but the prime tower was enabled.
I might be on a similar journey as you, you can check my post Poor surface quality with dried original BL filament - I also went nuts over the calibration cards and it never quite came out as when I first unpacked my P2S a few days ago. Ultimately I now run the best with some aftermarket 0.4mm High Flow nozzle I tried for fun. So far I am quite happy and the under-extrusion got better using HF as well. Granted I use PETG HF filament as well, so that might factor in. But ultimately not using ironing actually creates smoother surfaces for me with more conformity.
Sorry I cannot provide a fix, just a different perspective. Fingers crossed you come closer to the result you are hoping for. I am also curious if and how you can improve the outcome!
I wont speak about this in terms of settings, just in terms of physical reality re: your 0.6mm test vs 2.0mm standard test
Take a cross section of that ironing swatch and youâre going to see an infill void area. Do it again on the 0.6mm cube and youâre going to see solid plastic. Ironing is sensitive to how uniform the top surface is to begin with, and a top being built over infill is going to be different than one that is only 3 layers tall and maybe oversqueezed from the âunmovable brick wallâ that is the buildplate. If youâve ever printed something with 1-3 top layers instead of 4+ youâll know what I mean about the top surface over infill - it sags initially and needs a few more layers to catch up.
tl;dr - if your print has room for infill so should your ironing test, and vice versa
I would also calibrate your overall flow rate before beginning to calibrate ironing because when you change one you will effect the other
If it were me, I wouldnât have done any calibration. If calibration was off, it would have likely printed all parts poorly. Since it was only one part that was not ideal, I would adjust the ironing setting such as ironing flow (increase), or remove the ironing if adjusting doesnât work out.
Sometimes I wish Bambu would just say: âOkay, guys, ironing isnât perfect; itâs just a temporary solution. Do it the way it was done in the old days: use a little heat, very fine sandpaper and polishing paste.â
Thatâs how millions of mobile phones and screens were polished in the '90s and â00s if they had scratches, and it works perfectly with 3D printing, too.â Ironing is actually such a bad habit that itâs better to do it properly. In less than 15 minutes, a 3D print can be polished to a finish that is superior to any ironing.
Almost every cosplayer knows how to do this⌠and spray painters too, of course. There are also tricks like acetone or epoxy for those who want it to be absolutely perfect.
The model I printed has surfaces at different heights which all are supposed to be ironed, so these surfaces all have different types infill underneath them. The ironing calibration model has of course a uniform height. And a flow rate calibration was the first thing I did after the result wasnât great at all.
@RetroSharky honestly, I tried to stay away from ironing so far, because when I tried before once or twice, it made things worse at the default settings. But here I hadnât noticed that it was enabled and the first parts turned out pretty great, so I went with it.
Have you seen the photos below the 3D model? I just did that, as well as the 3D model itself. Somehow, almost no one manages to get smooth surfaces with this model. Just one example of many:
Those with smooth surfaces used a 0.2 nozzle. Whereby, if I understand correctly, itâs not the creatorâs fault, but rather there are simply so many curves and narrow paths for the nozzle.
What Iâm saying is: Have you ever tried this exact model with a 0.2 nozzle?
Donât look at the coin for now, just the surface behind, thatâs the difference between 0.2 and 0.4. No ironing.
Yeah some of the other pictures donât look great either.
The default profile does have ironing enabled on the object level.
I printed it again with the 0.2 nozzle⌠itâs better but not great (ironing disabled). I maybe made a mistake and printed with the default flow ratios again since I didnât want to do the calibration all over for the 0.2 nozzle. Especially the black areas look underextrued to me.
And again, Iâm struggling with flow rate calibration. It looks that I need to raise my flow rate for all my Bambu Basic PLA filaments. The wiki says: " If the flow rate value in the Bambu Studio is set too high or too low, overflow or gaps will occur. It is very rare for the filament to require more than a 1.00 flow rate value in the Filament profile. You can do this in Bambu Studio by clicking on âFlow rateâ in the âCalibrationâ page".
Please find attached two photos of a calibration run. I ended up going with the 5 sample in the first pass and endet up sticking with it by choosing the 0 sample in the second pass.
