3D printing advice appreciated :)

[Holydohnut]

I'm fairly new to this myself, but it looks like you might be under extruding just a tad. Have a look at this link on the simplify3d website. It's great for diagnosing iffy printing!
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin ... eshooting/

[RetroRocket]

Agree with all of the above. Are you using Cura or Slic3r? If Cura I can share my print profile. Your bed looks pretty level, but may be a little too close (resulting in underextrusion like Holydouhnut said though usually you'll get little blobs where it jets out randomly) or a little too far (so the melted filament doesn't quite blend with the neighboring line.

Hard to tell without your gcode settings, but decreasing your layers to .2mm is probably a good start. That being said, your layers look pretty nice, so I think your stepper calibration is good. More than likely just print settings could be improved.

As far as first layer adhesion goes, are you using a brim? For PLA I generally print at 200 C, with a 50 C bed (no glass) as was said earlier, you'll need to increase your bed temp with a glass layer, and let it preheat longer before you start your print to ensure the glass itself is up to temp. I use painter's tape with good results, though I've heard Kapton is better, as is hairspray on glass.
Cheers!

[dashtag]

I carried out the live Z adjustment whilst printing the 75mm calibration squares as mentioned above. I found the optimal setting was to move it down by 0.055mm, which means the nozzle was actually too high.

My latest attempt at the faceplate is miles better. This is using a 0.25mm height on all layers, so my next attempt will be to go thinner. The only problem I've had is on quite a few attempts, the button perimeters have become detached and moved around on the first layer.

IMG_7960.JPG (1.55 MiB) Viewed 5952 times

Thanks for everyone's help

[dashtag]

Agree with all of the above. Are you using Cura or Slic3r? If Cura I can share my print profile.

I'm using Slic3r Prusa Edition.

[wermy]

My settings vary slightly by color, but here's what I use in simplify3D:

For 0mm-0.4mm:
0.22mm layer height
125% first layer height
100% first layer width
0.94 extrusion multiplier

For the rest I use:
0.24mm layer height
0.95 extrusion multiplier

I'm not sure how useful those numbers will be to you though - they will likely vary quite a bit from printer to printer. You'll need to mess with your z-offset, first layer height and extrusion multiplier quite a bit to get it just right. The idea is to have the first layer be probably more squished than you normally would want it on other prints, but you also need to extrude less and have your toolpaths closer together or you'll end up with weird bits where the lines overlap. Depending on what your build platform is made out of (mine is a nice smooth PEI sheet), you can get a nice smooth finish:

20634741_1957513627851439_5886922801440358400_n.jpg (66.66 KiB) Viewed 5942 times

[dashtag]

Thanks for the settings Wermy, I'll see how they can be used with Slic3r.

When you say "For 0mm-0.4mm", do you effectively mean the first two layers?

My printer is pretty new, so the pei on my heatbed is still nice & smooth.
I'll probably end up ordering the parts from you in the end! Lol

[wermy]

Thanks for the settings Wermy, I'll see how they can be used with Slic3r.

When you say "For 0mm-0.4mm", do you effectively mean the first two layers?

My printer is pretty new, so the pei on my heatbed is still nice & smooth.
I'll probably end up ordering the parts from you in the end! Lol

For my settings yes, but it all depends on your layer height.