I’ve been making little Disney trinkets for my wife to hand out when we go to Disneyland, and feedback has been positive enough that I thought I’d try a little Etsy store to make some filament money.
Initially I added it into my base template in TinkerCAD but it kept coming out real bad, so I’ve been trying adding the text within Creality Print, and usually it looks pretty good but it can be wildly inconsistent.
The top two are from a batch of five where I set one up and then duplicated it. The middle two are from a batch of eleven, all duplicated from the first five that looked nice, and then the bottom two are that same batch of five that I tried printing a second time and it turned out way worse.
Any idea on why it varies so much and what I could do to resolve it?
It’s a one month old printer so I hope it wouldn’t have that, but it’s so nice looking compared to my previous printer that I hadn’t thought about the fact it could have manufacture defects…
Yeah I just moved to a K1 Max and have auto leveling for the first time, and the five batches that varied were from the same bed location so I’ll go through and make sure everything is tightened up, thank you for the idea!
There are multiple ways I have solved this. You can add a small chamfer into your design for every edge of the lettering, although this is a pain, or you can adjust the first layer expansion compensation.
Go with the empirical method and measure how far off the first layer is expanded compared to what the measurement should be. Then dial this average figure into your first later expansion compensation.
I know how this works with prusa slicer but I do not know how this terminology translates to Cura if you are using it or something else.
Your first layer seems inconsistent. What z sensor are you using? Were these printed in quick succession or did the printer have time to cool?
My thinking is this could be due to thermal drift in your homing sensor. First print will be solid, then subsequent prints will have a warmed up sensor resulting in a different z offset. Try minimizing variables by making your preheating consistent. Or just baby step the z-axis during the print start.
Back to back prints so that may play into it, good point! Haven’t used it for a day so I’m kicking off a calibration and then printing a five batch to see how that looks.
For consistent preheating are you meaning like preheat the bed and hot end and then run the calibration? I just moved to a K1 Max from a CR-10 that I paper leveled so I’m very new to auto leveling and tricks for that. Thank you for the feedback!
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Don’t forget about the possibility of bed warp, if your cover or bed is a little beat up it might be time for a few tests
It’s a one month old printer so I hope it wouldn’t have that, but it’s so nice looking compared to my previous printer that I hadn’t thought about the fact it could have manufacture defects…
I mean I could be wrong but if you want to be absolutely sure you can pick up a dial indicator for not more than $40 to test the surface
I don’t think your issue is the text, it’s your first layer. A number of these prints have pretty significant gaps between the extrusions.
Do you have auto leveling?
Do different prints from “the same batch” look different from one another? If yes, your bed is likely not level.
Do different prints, from the same location, look different between print jobs? If yes, it’s likely that something is loose.
Yeah I just moved to a K1 Max and have auto leveling for the first time, and the five batches that varied were from the same bed location so I’ll go through and make sure everything is tightened up, thank you for the idea!
Can you shrink the text size so it shows up in only the wall pattern on the bottom layer?
So it wouldn’t be indented really, just kind of there so drawn into the bottom layer? I’ll give that a try and see how that looks!
One file I downloaded had that and I’ve thought about it since.
There are multiple ways I have solved this. You can add a small chamfer into your design for every edge of the lettering, although this is a pain, or you can adjust the first layer expansion compensation.
Go with the empirical method and measure how far off the first layer is expanded compared to what the measurement should be. Then dial this average figure into your first later expansion compensation.
I know how this works with prusa slicer but I do not know how this terminology translates to Cura if you are using it or something else.
Interesting, I haven’t heard of using chamfers before, that’s a cool addition, I’ll look into that!
Your first layer seems inconsistent. What z sensor are you using? Were these printed in quick succession or did the printer have time to cool?
My thinking is this could be due to thermal drift in your homing sensor. First print will be solid, then subsequent prints will have a warmed up sensor resulting in a different z offset. Try minimizing variables by making your preheating consistent. Or just baby step the z-axis during the print start.
Back to back prints so that may play into it, good point! Haven’t used it for a day so I’m kicking off a calibration and then printing a five batch to see how that looks.
For consistent preheating are you meaning like preheat the bed and hot end and then run the calibration? I just moved to a K1 Max from a CR-10 that I paper leveled so I’m very new to auto leveling and tricks for that. Thank you for the feedback!