MakerGear Forum

Here's my S3D settings/info

.35mm nozzle
Blue makergear ABS 1.75mm, measures 1.75mm.
1.00 mulitiplier
.40 extrusion width (Maximizes detail accuracy on high detail pieces with the above settings)
.28mm layer height
20mm/s speed on the outline.

I'm using this tiny cup for seam calibration/testing, takes 17min to print: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:934062

I tested it between a coast setting of 0mm to 4.8mm(0,.9,1.8,2.8,3.8,4.8) and it seems to me that 3.8mm had the best overall appearance. 0 had a tiny detectable blob with slight layer tearing, .9 had a smaller blob and little tearing and 2.8 had no blob but looks a tiny bit worse than 3.8, 4.8 has tiny holes before the layer switch whereas 3.8 looks best 'overall'(Little to no holes and no layer tearing)

Now what combination of extrusion width and outline speed would produce the best seam? I'm going to try .42mm and lower the speed for testing at 3.8 coast.

Edit: The above settings with a .42 extrusion width just seemed to leave a slightly larger 'gap' at the seam, producing a more visible seam, probably due to increased dimensional inaccuracy. I'm sticking with .40 and am going to lower the extrusion speed, to see if it lessens the seam visibility.

Edit: A 10mm/s outline speed made the seam /more/ visible! Seems like there's a little bulging at the start of each layer, causing a 'hump' that increases the appearance of the seam. Will try a faster outline speed - 35 mm/s. It appears that the original speed, 20mm/s, has a smaller outward hump at the start of the layer that could be increasing the seam's visibility/appearance, so going faster might decrease that and make the seam less visible/unsightly.

Edit: A 35mm/s outline speed seemed to decrease the number of polygons created by the slicer as it went around, creating slightly visible angles in the surface. As a result, the seam became a little more visible. I'm assuming flatter surfaces wouldn't have this issue and faster outline speeds might actually decrease the seam appearance. Now I'm going to try small steps for the extrusion multiplier. Since it seems to produce a tiny bit of bulging at the start of each layer at the current setting of .40 and .42 created more bulge, I'll try .39, then .38, then .37.

Edit: Tried .37, .38 and .39 extrusion width. It seems that .37 and .38 creates the best seam (You can still feel it, but it's barely raised around the edges and it doesn't reflect nearly as much light) however, it seems that .38 and .37 creates pronounced oscillations in the surface of this smaller cylinder whereas the oscillations in .39 and .40 aren't nearly as pronounced and are barely visible (Looks just like a smooth cylinder in the .4 version). I'm not sure if these oscillations would be present in flatter surfaces and if it's just a peculiarity of this particular model, but it's something to be aware of. These oscillations seem to occur right at the start of the layer change, and my z-vertical lift might be responsible for it.

So, to sum, the best profile I have among all my test cylinders to optimize the seam appearance(Makes a barely visible line, no bump):
1.75mm blue hatchbox ABS (measures 1.75mm)
.35mm nozzle
.28mm layer height
1.00 extrusion multiplier
.38 extrusion width
1.00 retraction distance
0 restart
3.8 coasting
20mm/s outline speed (Going faster might improve this, but would expect to only improve seam appearance on a flatter surface. Going slower seems to adversely affect the appearance, making the gap more pronounced.)

Must be the day for boogers.

Try lowering the layer height to .2mm. You want to try to maintain a ratio of width to height of over 1.8. So 0.4mm width /0.2mm height is 2, which is ideal. With ABS, you might need to still keep a bit of coast or wipe - I know we need it for PETG, but getting the relative size of your bead correct is going to cut way down on the end boogers.

Have you run the calibrations? You might find it an easier way to determine the correct settings for your machine, rather than having to keep reprinting 17 minute pieces. At least the calibration squares don't take forever to print.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1964

Jules wrote:At least the calibration squares don't take forever to print.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1964

As much as I'm a fan of finding the "technically correct" settings, I'd much rather use experimentation/results to guide my finding of the optimal settings. I want the results to dictate the 'best settings', not something that's 'technically correct' but produces suboptimal results.

swbluto wrote:

Jules wrote:At least the calibration squares don't take forever to print.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1964

As much as I'm a fan of finding the "technically correct" settings, I'd much rather use experimentation/results to guide my finding of the optimal settings. I want the results to dictate the 'best settings', not something that's 'technically correct' but produces suboptimal results.

That's kind of the point of the calibration square. You dial in your z height and extrusion multiplier using that and then tweak other items from there. It has nothing to do with it being "technically correct" and everything to do with it being practically correct. I have had 2 rolls of the same type of filament. Both 1.75 mm on the dot as far as width , both of them the same manufacturer and yet they needed different extrusion multipliers and ultimately diff temps. If not for the calibration square I would have had no idea. That's why you print them.

If I cared to get exactly 3.00 mm, yes, that matters but I care far more about the best appearance/visual-quality. If that means my settings produce 3.01mm instead of 3.00mm in the model, then so be it. I don't really care about being off by .1mm if means I'm making a Mona Lisa (Which I often am.).

You'll have to repeat your extrusion calibration for each different filament (brand, color, etc.) whatever method you use.

One quick tip for calibrating "by eye": set your slicer extrusion multiplier to 100%, then use the jog dial in the machine control panel during a print. You can easily try many settings on the fly, then copy that into the setting.