Continuing to dial in my benchy.... Where to go from here?

[exos]

A number of blobs, stringing, and layering issues. Overhangs seem to be suffering. Suggestions?


http://m.imgur.com/a/uzGUR" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bubbasnow]

those actually look pretty good, i made a quick list of things i noticed started from the first picture and going down.

1). those blobs might be indication of extra material being pushed out at the start of a new layer change.
2) the chimney looks a bit wobbly, extra fan blowing on the material would help because of the lack of layer time.
3) first layer adhesion, i would either lower your z0, or adjust first layer height (different for each slicer)
4) overhangs are overhangs, more perimeters might help, more layer fan might help
5) those are pesky material build ups when the nozzle travels, you can do more retraction/wipe or do a bigger zlift
6) looks good, nice top layer no gaps
7) nothing i haven't mentioned already

general notes on glossiness change, with pla the less time each layer has to cool, the more/less glossy the material can look.

[exos]

those actually look pretty good, i made a quick list of things i noticed started from the first picture and going down.

1). those blobs might be indication of extra material being pushed out at the start of a new layer change.
2) the chimney looks a bit wobbly, extra fan blowing on the material would help because of the lack of layer time.
3) first layer adhesion, i would either lower your z0, or adjust first layer height (different for each slicer)
4) overhangs are overhangs, more perimeters might help, more layer fan might help
5) those are pesky material build ups when the nozzle travels, you can do more retraction/wipe or do a bigger zlift
6) looks good, nice top layer no gaps
7) nothing i haven't mentioned already

general notes on glossiness change, with pla the less time each layer has to cool, the more/less glossy the material can look.

I really appreciate the reply, this is great stuff. Is there a setting I can change to fix the possible extra material being pushed out at the start of a new layer?

My first layer needs improvement. I'm printing at .2 but I moved the first layer to .35 to help with adhesion to the bed. I'll move it back down to .3 and see if that cleans it up.

Any idea why the layers had issue on the 'helm' of the ship in picture 4?

Also... I don't quite understand 'wipe'. At first glance it sounds like I'll be extruding extra material over the 'wiped' area vice at the start of the new layer where I want it. Is that correct?

Btw... This is ABS, no fan cooling other than peek fan.

[Polygonhell]

Picture 4 is just showing the angle of the overhang being too great for the temperature/speed combination of the motion.
For that print, I'd run a layer fan even for ABS, it'll clean up a lot of the overhang issues, you also want to get the extrusion temperature as low as you can, so the time to cool newly deposited plastic is as rapid as possible.
As to the blobs, it's hard to tell without watching the print, it's probably a retraction issue, either too fast or having asymmetric retract/prime, what slicer and what are the retraction settings?

[nebbian]

Bridging: Set your bridge flow ratio to 0.5 - 0.75. This will extrude less material when bridging, which stretches it between points rather than letting it sag down.

Overhangs: Lower your temperature by 5 degrees, or set your layer fan to run slowly. Yes, even for ABS.

First layer: Your extruder is too high on the first layer on that print, you can't adjust this in the slicer. It's something you address in the printer itself, either adjusting the Z offset or sorting out auto leveling.

Chimney: This is showing evidence of being too hot. Either the lower temperature plus layer fan will help, or you can print a cylinder next to your benchy to help it cool down.

Blobs: Not sure about this one. Maybe a flying extruder might help. I haven't really had much experience of blobbing, so can't help here.

Good luck.

[3D-Print]

I agree with watching. Grab a beer or other beverage. Watch the printer run and see if the blebs are happening when the printer pauses. My iMac would do this when something else would slow down the computers processor. I would avoid by minimizing other iMac processes. Recently upgraded my iMac and all those blebs went away.

Nice job!!

[exos]

Gents, thank you all for the help. I was at working when I was posting yesterday so I was unable to get as quickly as I would have liked with printer setup numbers. After reading your responses, I realized I would not be able to make the changes you recommended with my current slicer, mattercontroller, and downloaded repetier host and set up slic3r. I've changed my bridge flow rate to .60 and I have reduced my print setup to 220 vice 228 degrees. I've moved my first layer height from 0.35 to 0.30. Currently, I am trying retraction settings of 0mm z lift and 1mm length at 50 mm/s. These are the base settings that slic3r provided as I didn't have a working point to change from with mattercontroller. I do not having a cooling fan installed, I will do so later. I realize I am changing a lot of variables at once, but these are all good things that I can finally play with regarding slic3r vs mattercontroller. Back to the board for calibration and individual variable changes after this. Stay posted!

[Eaglezsoar]

From all of these answers it appears that no one uses supports anymore.
Rather than using a layer fan for overhangs, what is wrong to generate supports to help?

[AlanZ]

I think the approach is to tweak as many settings as possible to get the best 3DBenchy print without supports/
It is a torture test for printers, so supports may mask problems that can be solved in other ways that benefit printing overall.

[exos]

You hit the nail on the head. Benchy is a calibration piece, supports will come once I've maxed out my printers capabilities.

So I switched to Slic3r on repetier host. I also moved retraction to 6mm after many 20cm cubes printed and 150mm/s retraction speed. I've reprinted my Benchy and the good news is the blobs are 100% gone. Additionally, there are almost no 'stringy ' clumps as there was last time.
However now there appears to be certain areas that have rough appearing surfaces. Unfortunately I don't have a picture to upload at this time, more to follow.

My main question is... What slicer? I thought I'd be happy with mattercontroller but it didn't have the functionality I needed and it couldn't handle filling up my print area. Slic3r seems solid, but am I missing out not using Simplify3d? I would love to control wirelessly . I have a raspi2 installed and ready go. And a spare raspi3 if needed... But I'm worried about the computational power for large prints. I currently printing from a brand new iMac. Should I expect better prints doing this? Degraded performance controlling from octopi? With astroprint? Better performance with an SD card? Upgrading to a raspi3 provide better prints?

A lot here I know! I expected uploading code to octopi on a raspi2 would be fine but I filled up my plate and the hot end moved extremely erratically so now I'm doubting my original analysis.

Edited: for grammar now that I'm off my phone...