I am trying to use my P1S to help out a friend print his signage in PETG on my P1S printer but despite everything I try I can’t seem to get it to either look similar to how their older Ender 3 Printer can do (but he has to swap the filaments in order to do multi-colour printing) which more or less looks like my last 2 pictures which are in PLA to show the model does print quite well/nice in PLA.
Since they are able to print it ‘properly’ but very slowly on their printer it makes me think I have one or multiple PETG settings still ‘wrong’ in order to not get some of the black to end up in the clear sections or the outer wall looking ‘cleaner’ (yes I know PETG won’t be as good at finer detail then PLA).
This is done using a 0.4mm nozzle with the ‘top’ of the bottom printed face down
Quality - Standard settings for 0.20 mm
Layer Height is 0.2 mm
Toggled on/off with no changes: Order of Walls Inner/Outer to Outer/Inner
Toggled on/off with no changes: Smoothing wall speed along Z
Strength
Wall Loops 2 for Clear, 3 for Black
Top/Bottom Shells:
Top Surface Pattern: Rectilinear
Top Shell Layers: 5
Top Shell Thickness: 1 mm
Top Paint penetrations layer: 5
Bottom Surface Pattern: Rectilinear
Bottom Shell Layers: 5
Bottom Shell Thickness: 1 mm
Top Paint penetrations layer: 3
Internal solid infill pattern: Rectilinear
Spare Infill density: 30%
Spare Infill: Pattern: Rectilinear
Infill/Wall Overlap: 15%
Speed:
Default for .20mm Standard as well as Slower Speed:
Initial layer: 40 mm/s
Initial layer infill: 80 mm/s
Outer wall: 125 mm/s
Inner wall: 200 mm/s
Sparse Infill: 200 mm/s
Internal solid infill: 200mm/s
Top surface: 150 mm/s
Overhang speed
20 mm/s 25%
20 mms/ 50%
10 mm/s 75%
10 mm/s 100%
Bridge: 50 mm/s
Gap infill: 200 mm/s
Support 150 mm/s
Support interface 80 mm/s
I have also tried changing filament settings as well:
Bed 80C up from 70C default for PETG
Nozzle: 255-265C
Max volumetric speed 10 mm/s
Settings Overrides
Length: 1mm
Z Hop when retracing: 0.4mm
Retraction speed: 40 mm/s
Travel distance threshold: 1mm
Wipe while retracting
I’ve tried the following with no improved or sometimes worst results
Stock Speeds with Bambu PETG Settings
Stock Speeds with Generic PETG Settings
Stock Speeds with the higher mentioned PETG Settings
Slower speed listed with Bambu PETG Settings
Slower speed listed with Generic PETG Settings
Slower speed listed with higher mentioned PETG settings
It seems the slower prints speeds give me the best outer wall printing but still not ideal and all still result in some of the black getting captured in the clear section as shown.
Thanks for posting clear pictures. I may not be following which part of the images you’re unhappy with, so I want to confirm that the contrast shown in the two photos is what you’re referring to.
As noted earlier, differences in surface sheen (shiny vs. matte) are often speed-related. Try the following:
Change wall order from the default inner/outer to outer/inner. This allows the outer wall to set first before the inner walls are laid down. If there is contraction or density-related behavior in the filament, this can influence surface finish.
Increase the number of wall loops. If you are currently using 2, try 3 or 4. If you are using 3, try 5 or 6.
Reduce wall speed to 25% of the current value. If that resolves the issue, increase speed incrementally - for example, from 25% to 37.5%, then 50%, and so on - until the effect reappears.
As a time and filament-saving diagnostic, use the cut tool to isolate a portion of the model that reliably reproduces the issue. If you cut out a corner or feature and fit 4-6 copies on the build plate, you can vary wall and speed settings per model and run multiple experiments in a single print. This is similar to what Orca’s calibration utilities do, except you’re using your actual part geometry as the test case.
There are a few things I am not happy with, the first is in your image where it’s not consistent texture the entire way. That ‘top’ would be part of the bottom layers as is printed with the cover facing downwards.
I’ve already tired that and did not find any noticeable improvements. I actually found it slightly worse with the adhesion of the inner clear to the outer black when I did that in a few spots.
I am using 2 walls for the clear portion and 3 walls for the black (shell), I can try that out to see if that helps
Reduce both the outer and inner wall speeds you mean or just the outer?
I am also trying to get rid of what I guess I could call random black stringing that ends up in the clear section, such as if you look at the O you can see some black filament in there. I do have a Prime Tower and I’ve even tried max flushing between black to clear.
Yes, I outer wall speed as inner wall speeds likely will not address the issue. Sorry for not being clear.
While on the topic. Have you tried a simple cube on both printers just to see what the differences are with the filament? It would be ideal if the same spool could be used as this will eliminate a variance in one batch over another. A long shot I admit but worth pursuing.
Printing a Z cube, Orca, Voron, Bambu etc. would be a good place to start.
No problem at all, I appreciate the time trying to help me figure this out.
Unfortunately I am unable to do the simple cube test on both at this moment as we don’t live close to each other. They themselves were using more generic PETG whereas I’ve been trying with the Bambu PETG (HF and the older non-HF).
Maybe I missed it but wouldn’t that be the first thing to rule out? Can you get a spool of the identical PETG they are using just to minimize variables?
They’ve used multiple brands of generic PETG so I/we ruled that out as the odds of multiple brands working for them and Bambu not working for me on a Bambu printer being low.
Especially with those outer walls Bambu should be able to do it with their own filament as well as it doesn’t solve the black filament stringing sometimes into the clear sections for no good reason. I’ve also replace the cutter, cleaned the nozzle, and replaced the nozzle whipper too. All we can really think of is it is one or multiple Bambu specific settings causing this.
I had only the worst experience with the old PETG basic. PETG-HF is much better in my opinion. I guess the image with the partially matte and glossy surface was the basic?
I also see lots of VFA, those vertical repeating lines resembling waves. I just yesterday did a VFA test on my X1C and worst occurrences were between 80 and 150 mm/s. Only above 200 and below 50 mm/s I didn’t see them at all. If your printer behaves similar to mine, it would be best to avoid that range. 125mm/s was right in the area of worst VFAs at any direction. With PETG-HF I would use 200 for outer walls. For PETG basic, that is too fast in my experience, so I would reduce to 50 mm/s.
Then, I would suggest wall order inner/outer/inner with at least 3 walls. That combines an outer wall that is not influenced by infill etc but also has no retraction at end and start of the line, which gives a much nicer seam.
Next, in filament settings in tab cooling, you could enable “don’t slow down outer walls” for consistent sheen.
Are you ok with the transparent part being cloudy? If you wanr it clearer, you probably have to print reeeaally slow. There are some guides online that achieve almost glass like transparency. Of course you could prefer the milky look for its light diffusion.
If you see stringing, that most often comes from moisture in the filament. Have you thoroughly dried the filament and stored it dry? That especially applies to PETG-HF, which typically is wet right out of the box.
Which transparent PETG did you use? PETG-HF sadly isn’t available transparent. The BBL transparent wants to be printed very slow for good results.
It is possible that some of the options I proposed are only visible in developer mode. So if you can’t find them, try enabling it.
I am sadly seeing it with both the old PETG Basic AND the PETG-HF too. I was hoping it’s lower k value and better flowrate would help solve some of the problems but same fun issue.
I’ll see about lowering the outer wall speeds down to 50 as the future filament I will eventually printing these in bulk will be on Creality PETG (which ain’t HF sadly).
It was already at 3 walls, though I never tried inner/outer/inner so perhaps that may help too.
Another site has recommended “don’t slow down outer walls” to help with the consistent sheen.
The transparent part is honestly one of the few areas with no issues/comments/complaints at all, outside of the odd black stringing on some of the first few layers sometimes showing up
I can confirm that moisture is not an issue as all filament I have been using was dried before any of printing attempts.
I am using the Bambu Transparent PETG, but again that portion of it has been printing with no issues (outside of that odd black stringing appearing sometimes).
