Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Hello everyone,

I just finished printing a pretty large "tree" and it came out ok, minus tons of stringing and misaligned layers on the underside (no supports used). My question is, how would you go about cleaning up the mess? I'll use a scalpel for the strings, but for the wavy bottom side, what is a good method? Sand and XTC-3d? I'm open to ideas.

Thanks

Hi,

Which filament you used ?

Hatchbox PLA

I have a bit of experience with XTC-3D... It's great stuff, but more intended to fill in striations between print layers, smoothing out your print (it's pretty runny, so it really can't do more than that). If you go that route, be mindful of pooling in depressions and at the bottom of your print. For armor pieces I've done, I usually prepare the print by giving it a rough sanding, then hit it with XTC (more sanding), then hit it with automotive primer (and a final sanding) prior to painting. This is time consuming, but the finished result looks awesome. Having said that - nothing cuts down more on post-processing more than a great base print... Have you played with your hot-end temperature and retraction settings? I'm no expert, but It looks to me like your printing too hot and/or don't have enough fan cooling. I usually print my PLA at around 200c (+/- based on the filament).

Thanks RichWP. I printed this particular piece at 210. I tried to go lower in 5 degree increments and when I got to 205, the filament started to break apart out of the nozzle so I had to turn it back up to 210. Fans were on 100%. I have my retraction distance set at 6mm (very high), vertical lift .30mm, retraction speed 110mm/s, coasting and wipe nozzle are both on as well, so I am clueless at this point. I asked S3d support and those were the settings they told me to try...and you see what I got with that.

...are you simply ignoring what people have been telling you? I've seen more than reply stating that you need to treat the HE280 like an E3D v6. Small retract distances (~2mm), SLOW retracts (~25-40mm/sec) and ~4mm vertical lift, otherwise you're going to have a mess (or a jam) on your hands.

Below are my retraction settings for S3D and PLA....works great.
g.

^^^^ What the honorary geneb said.

No I'm not ignoring anything. I have tried everyone's advice and have ended up here. I used the settings you recommended a while back and they reduced the stringing, but not by much. I don't know ANYTHING about an "E3D V6, nor how to treat one !!!? I'm new to this and still learning, obviously! No need to bite my head off! Forget I even asked.

As RichWP says, XTC-3D are more for smoothing out your print. In your case, sand your part is probably the best option before the XTC-3D

But the key is to work on your printer/slicer settings. Because with less stringing and more beautiful surface it's always easier to do the finishing.

Please point out where someone told you to use a long and super fast retract so that I may apply a LART to the person in question for leading a newbie astray.

Another thing - S3D has got a stupidly slow default Z rapid speed. I suspect it's due to them pandering to those poor cartesianists and their glacially slow Z axes. The rapid speed for deltas should be 250mm/sec for all three axes. You're not going to snap a PLA string while lumbering along at 50mm/sec. You'll just annoy the thing.

g.

^^^^ What the honorary geneb said.

mhackney wrote:^^^^ What the honorary geneb said.

Honorary,,,, is that how they spell "ornery" on the east coast?

Autocorrect has never been kind to mhackney. It's an Apple thing I guess.

g.

geneb wrote:Please point out where someone told you to use a long and super fast retract so that I may apply a LART to the person in question for leading a newbie astray.

Another thing - S3D has got a stupidly slow default Z rapid speed. I suspect it's due to them pandering to those poor cartesianists and their glacially slow Z axes. The rapid speed for deltas should be 250mm/sec for all three axes. You're not going to snap a PLA string while lumbering along at 50mm/sec. You'll just annoy the thing.

g.

Below is the actual file sent to me from S3d. I figured I'd listen to them since they write the actual slicing software, but I think I'll listen to the actual users of my printer

Once you get the printer settings figured out,,,, You'll discover that not all filaments are created equal.

Mac The Knife wrote:Once you get the printer settings figured out,,,, You'll discover that not all filaments are created equal.

Which brands do you prefer for
PLA?
ABS?
PetG?

I suspect their "factory" v3 settings are assuming the older, PEEK equipped hot end. That hot end could take really long and fast retracts without any problems since 98% of the filament path was PTFE tubing and didn't hit metal until the nozzle orifice itself.

g.

Geneb, this is using the EXACT numbers you posted. The stringing is still pretty bad. I'm thinking it might be something mechanical at this point, but I don't know what I should check.

Is that with a 4mm z-lift? Those strands look really thick - printing too hot maybe.

Your best object for dialing in retract is a cylinder. Print two at once and adjust until there's no strings between the two parts.

g.

Yes, it's w/4mm Z lift. I'll try the cylinders now. I'm really starting to lose hope in this machine.

It's not the machine, it's the slicer settings.

g.

I wish I had someone local here that could come and help me get this right. Like you said, I don't want aggressive settings that will destroy the filament. Do you have any other settings I should check? I set my multiplier like you had yours at 1.00, nozzle dia at 5.00 and extrusion width at .60.

Well, I just printed with Mattercontrol instead of S3d and so for there is absolutely ZERO stringing happening! Settings. You are correct gene

Mind posting your Mattercontrol settings? I'm also fighting some stringing.

the ONLY setting I changed was the multiplier. I set mine to .95 and that seemed to do the trick. In s3d I had .95, but I probably had a messy formula with the rest of my settings. Try that.