After a major upgrade to my printer, I decided to dig a little deeper on calibration to see if I could get as good prints as I see on YouTube.
Having built my own Prusa i3, I always assumed everything was too crooked and not perfectly aligned to ever really work at that level of precision....but I was wrong.....I actually did a good job back when I had no idea what I was doing and these machines are crazy tolerant to dumbasses like me
So I started following this procedure:
[
www.youtube.com]
It's very complete and very helpful in isolating all the little variables that make a real difference to print quality.
But I'm also getting mixed results I can't really explain or properly deal with, so if some of you indulge me a little while, lets see if we can solve these questions, shall we?
First problem, I don't believe there is a solution just with slicing settings, I'm getting at the same time under extrusion symptoms AND thermal expansion symptoms.
If I give a go with the wall thickness calibration, it is printing too thick. But if I lower the extrusion multiplier, it starts having gaps on the top layer and outer walls.
I live in a pretty humid city and I'm also too lazy to build a dry box to the filament that is already on the printer.....so I think this is the problem and the solution.
But what else could cause this behavior that I could try to balance better?
Second problem, printing temperature.
According to the test, the best printing temperature for my printer/filament (basic PLA 1,75) is 215°. All the surfaces are smooth, overhangs and bridges are spot on! My printer never printed this great ever!!
But when I try on a real print, it's freaking impossible to control the ooze!!! I get almost solid walls of spiderwebs no matter what settings I use for retraction (went all the way up to 2mm).
This must be related with the third problem.....
Third problem, I can't reproduce the results of the retraction test on a real print.
According to the test, the optimal setting for retraction for my printer are (on Slic3r):
- Length 0.4mm
- Lift Z 0.2mm
- Speed 100mm/s
But the real print with this config, becomes just a mess of spiderweb and ooze pimples even if I set a lower temperature like 200°.
So what do you people think?
Should I just accept my fate and go back to the config I'm used to, that kind of works but not really?!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2021 08:02AM by aFrazatto.