On the whole, I’ve had success with the Snapmaker. However, I’ve noticed that I get imperfections in some of the most visible areas of my prints. These will sometimes manifest on Wings of airplanes, Windows of automobiles, on faces of characters, etc.
Here is an example. Unfortunately I’m limited to uploading a single image as a newbie here, but you’ll get the idea.
I’ve tried adjusting temperature settings which I thought might be the most likely cause. It seems to happen more often when parts face one another. Can anyone give me any guidance on this?
Thanks for the quick response. This does not appear to me to be scarring, but rather under extrusion of material. It almost never happens on outside facing prints, and almost always happens when there is an adjacent model or component being printed next to it. There seems to be some issue with consistent flow. If I print two components next to one another, I will find the risk of imperfections will be consistent until the adjacent component has completed its print (for example when it has a lower total height). The issue occurs less often or not at all if there is no adjacent facing component being printed at the same time. Here is an example of two sides of a print I did today. The outside of the VW which had no facing component came out flawlessly, while the alternate side facing a component had flaws up until the height max of the adjacent component. See images.
Generally:
Watch the toolpath as the filament is being laid down, you’ll usually be able to spot something odd as it happens. Very difficult to do just looking at a still image.
Specifically:
Upload your gcode and model and maybe there will be an obvious cause.
Also:
Have you done a full calibration suite? Extrusion steps, linear advance, etc? These flaws are minor compared to most 3D printing flaws and you might have to dive deep into the weeds to troubleshoot this.
I’ll have to keep an eye on the toolpath next time I do a print, unfortunately its hard to predict when it will happen. I’ll move one of my cameras near it to see if I can catch it happening.
I’ve only done general calibration available from the printers main menu which positions the axis, heads, etc. Is there more advanced calibration that can be done, and if so, how do I run them?
Just a little chime in, from my limited experience - it is near impossible to make a flawless finish on a part.
With that said, yeah I think that can be better, just making sure that you have realistic expectations.
Quality of filament can have a big impact on things.
Running on the slow side can help too.
There are a great deal of fine tuning methods available on the forum, as Brent shared. Using a different slicer instead of Luban, if you aren’t already doing so, will also give immediate improvement once set correctly.
I spent a very long time tuning my machine in just right, personally now I am having more stringing/slight overextrusion perhaps in some areas. I always have a hard time getting the stringing down because the test seems ok but when a real part comes up the story changes.
Perhaps this is not particularly helpful but I hope you make some progress. 3D printing, especially on the snapmaker 2, is a challenge with a lot of skill and experience needed to hone your craft.
I’m going to take some time this weekend and see what can be done based on some of the comments here, including calibration. The general sense I have is that I won’t have perfect prints, at least not with this printer. What I should probably do is spend time researching best practices for paint-prep, including possibly adding filler before sanding. I’ve moved to use the cura slicer directly, although I must say that its increased the complexity of the printing process with many new available options - particularly the support structures which I’d like to perfect. As a separate issue, I’ve seen videos online of creators simply popping out their supports - meanwhile, I spend enormous time removing them even when configured with the same slicer settings they use (they don’t use the snapmaker). I’ve become used to working on fixing models while on long zoom calls at the office
Thanks for sending over the link. It looks a bit involved, and I’ll get into it over the weekend.
As to your question, the flaws seem to happen anywhere on walls of the print, it does not seem to be specific to the lower or upper regions. In the case of the wing in the initial image, it occured in several spots (upper, middle, lower) but again, only on the side facing another object. I’m also looking potentially at retraction distance settings as a culprit (all currently default).
Sometimes flaws happen where the nozzle starts or stops a line - that’s something to pay attention to. There are things than can sometimes be tweaked if that’s the case.
Support adhesion has settings that can be tweaked, namely the offset from the part. As you’ve found with close spacing the part will adhere to the support. With too much space it will sag. There is a sweet spot that comes from experimenting. I’ll note Simplify3D is often lauded for its easy to remove supports, although many people find it doesn’t justify the cost they charge for it.
I’m fully on board with not accepting flaws and striving for continuous improvement. But yes, sanding and filler is a standard part of the process often.
Like for instance, here:
You could configure Cura tree supports to support that small area, and probably waste a bunch of filament and increase the print time significantly. Or, just accept the steep overhang will have issues and sand/patch.
Best of luck.
PS I will note your prints are of good quality, if you do end up going through a full calibration battery save your M503 output first so that you can restore it or compare against it. I would expect you wouldn’t have to change any values significantly. And these odd start/stop flaws may not be something that can be eliminated - often slicers will have a setting to make the nozzle start and stop in a certain area and you could choose an area that will not be visible.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll report back on how these work for me. Of final note is the idea of “ironing” which I have not yet tried. I’m curious to know if it will resolve what appears similar to wood rings / grain on the tops of my prints. In some cases I feel that they’re actually a nice residual, but at times unexpected and unwanted.
Again, I realize I can sand and coat with putty (considering Elmer’s Probond wood filler:
Here are two examples (visible as I’m laying down paint layers on the VW) as well as on the Tesla Roadster model.
If you get good enough with the machine - using ABS plastic (not easy to do on snapmaker) would allow you to use a vapor bath to smoothe the parts out.
consider that a long term goal, not something youll be able to do too easily right off the bat.
Ditto on the ironing. Makes for a nice flat surface, but curved surfaces and surface details such slots and ridges will just look goopy from the filament being pushed around. There’s also the problem of the non-ironed sides looking awful in comparison - I printed out a Grading Die as a joke for the missus, and only one of the twelve sides was smooth and legibile.
M503 output information will help you to achieve a consistent print quality. The console will print a concise report of all current settings (in SRAM) to the host console. You can save the information in a file and restore it after you upgrade the firmware.
