I had quite a few printers over the years, some home build ones as well.
But even with my near new P1S I run into prints that are less than acceptable at times.
From my experience bad looking VERTICAL walls can be caused by an endless list of issues, not all can be fixed.
The filament quality and how dry it is play a vital role.
But also the entire transport chain, like the tubes and extruder.
I had a Flashforge that started to produce all sorts of problems…
In the end I figured out it was the actual motor for the extruder dying…
With my P1S I struggled badly when I tried some old filament that was kept in a sealed bad with silica gel - it was TOO dry…
One of the biggest issues in the 3D printing world is still repetition…
We expect that all lines will follow the exact same path for a wall - but quite often this does not happen…
Let me try to explain:
If the filament extrudes without the required accuracy and consistency the wall can’t end up perfect.
Unless this actually IS accurate you can never tell for sure whether the defect is caused by how the filament comes out or by the actual nozzle position.
I had no issues getting ‘perfect’ prints from a threaded rod Prusa, slow but great…
The more speed, the higher the chances of things getting messy
And like it or not: Calibrating a roll of filament PROPERLY can be hard, but that is nothing compared to properly calibrating your hardware…
Thanks for the help, your explanation makes sense.
But when the nozzle laying down layer unevenly would be the most thing causing this problem, the inconsistency would be worse at higher speeds right?
Is there a way to find out whether my extruder motor is dead or not? I still suspect my extruder motor/gears to be the culprit…
Did you ever figure this out? I have the same problem on my A1 - Tried everything i can think of. Opened a ticket and was told to do flow calibration, however i’ve already done this many times.
You simply cant. Its your filament diameter, since it has its tolerances. Even 0,01mm will drastically change your extrusion. You can try to tweak it, but only for the existing geometry of the part. Another part, will need another tweaking. Those machines are meaned for production in series.
If you want perfect prints, you need between 2-10 prints average, to find out where to tweak, depending on your experience. Layer bonding is the most important part. So sometimes you dont want to have maximum cooling.
I wanted to update you on my experience. I ended up buying three P1S printers, and no matter which one I used or what filament I tried, the surface finish looked the same. After comparing my prints with friends who also own 3D printers, I realized that the lines I showed you before are actually normal. When I first started, I was very focused on perfection and wanted each layer to be perfectly aligned. Testing with simple cubes made these lines seem worse, because flat walls under bright, direct light—especially in summer—really make every detail stand out.
Over time, I’ve learned that these small imperfections don’t matter as much as I thought. When I print real products now, the results are very nice, and I’m happy with them. The lines I used to worry about are really just a minor detail. I’m sure that future machines will offer even more incredible precision, perfect for anyone who wants absolute perfection. For now, though, I’m satisfied with what I’m getting…
