I cant seem to get nice prints

[Sanju]

I am a complete noob when it comes to 3d printing, I received a M2 the other day and finally got around to setting it up yesterday. My first few prints (the MakerGear samples) worked beautifully, but when I try to print something from Thingverse they turn out looking horrible and the layers don't stay together. Some insight into what I need to do would be awesome. I am currently using the free software MakerGear recommended and I downloaded the M2 general configuration for Slic3r.

[kaiser]

I don'the know much about slic3r but I tried printing with a few different programs. but when I bought "S3D" I seemed to be getting much nicer prints and the interface is very easy to uwe and understand

I also tried a lot of modeling programs but I chose "Cubify Invent" after failing to understand the others as of yet, it is cheap and a good starting program I think for learning.

Both of these increased my print quality.

I am also a noon at this like you some may have better info just telling you what is working for me so far.

1st pic free programs

2nd pic cubify and sd3

[jsc]

Post your Slic3r settings (zip it up first to get the forum to accept it). You can also take a look at some of the Slic3r M2 settings linked to from the "M2 tips" thread in the tips forum.

[ednisley]

Some insight into what I need to do would be awesome.

The most important thing: careful calibration.

That requires aligning ("leveling") the platform so that the first layer adheres properly, adjusting the extrusion temperature for proper plastic behavior, tweaking the speeds and accelerations to suit the material, and so forth and so on. It may seem tedious, but you won't get good results without good preparation.

You'll find most of your problems have been raised / discussed / resolved in earlier forum threads, so a few days devoted to learning from the mistakes of others [grin] will bootstrap you fairly quickly.

[Sanju]

Here is the Slic3r settings I'm using. Also some Pictures of Bigfoot from MakerGear and a filament feeder bar I tried to print off Thingverse.

[ednisley]

The thin results on the flat feeder show that the slicer expects more plastic to come out of the extruder than actually happens, producing that scanty fill.

You must do two things:

• Measure the actual filament diameter & set that in the slicer
• Run off a few thinwall calibration cubes to find the correct Extrusion Multiplier

Then you can tune speeds and suchlike.

This post may be helpful:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1809&p=7657#p7657

[jsc]

Ed is (always) correct.

Some things that struck me: your first layer height is 0.35, with a first layer extrusion width of 200% (computed over first layer height). That will attempt to lay down your first layer as if it were at an extrusion width of 0.7mm. That is not going to work out with your 0.35mm nozzle. I suggest setting all layer heights to 0.20, first layer extrusion width to 100%, then double carefully leveling your bed and setting the z-height mechanically until it works great. Then you can start modifying those settings. Also, your z offset is set to -.3, is that intended?

Retract lift of 0.8 is excessive. You only want it to barely clear the surface if you're lifting. 0.1 or 0.2 is usually enough.

Your printer dimensions is set to 200x200. You're missing 50mm of usable room in the Y axis.

Ah, here's your main problem. "Combine infill every" is set to 10 layers. That isn't going to work out for you. Set it to 1.

Oh, and please resize photos in the future, the forum doesn't do it automatically.

[Sanju]

Thank you so much for all the help and information, my prints are going good now, just have some fine tuning to do here and there.

[Matt_Sharkey]

Can I hijack this thread a bit: i have similar print issues. I dont have access to my configs until Monday though.

Support bases tend to peel up, this is a really bad case of it:
(as an aside i feel like where the infill meets the perimeter could be better.)

Bad Supports

15846294214_5c73480fc2_z.jpg (88.2 KiB) Viewed 14381 times

Overall quality looks okay but....

okay quality...

16282924707_5279de6f09_z.jpg (59.14 KiB) Viewed 14381 times

The first 2 layers look pretty abysmall 0.35mm base and 0.2mm layers:

16282924707_fd3fe9c185_o.jpg (181.63 KiB) Viewed 14381 times

Finally, the perimeters seem to be a bit anemic...

16281116248_0de274978b_o.jpg (167.84 KiB) Viewed 14381 times

I know this last one is blurry but you can make out that the perimeters have a gap between them

[jsc]

1. Are you using anything on the glass? Try hairspray or glue stick or diluted white glue. Bare glass will work for a few prints, but it will quickly stop holding on tight enough to prevent peeling up unless kept meticulously clean.

2. You are probably printing too far from the bed. Get a set of feeler gauges from Amazon or an auto parts store, they're very cheap. Find the one that says 0.006, then adjust your z stop until it just drags out from between the glass and the nozzle when the stop trips. Check several areas of the bed. You can see in that base print that your first layer looks thicker than the others.

3. Run Ed's suggested calibration to dial in your extrusion multiplier. (Or just keep bumping it up until your perimeters fill in if you don't care too much about absolute dimensional accuracy.)