Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

I've been printing for a couple of weeks with mild success, but I'm running into a defect in my prints that I can't help but think is a simple calibration error. I've been over the manual, this forum, visual troubleshooting guides and YouTube videos without much luck. So far, all of my hurdles with my Rostock have been fairly simple, if not common, but I can't seem to nail this one issue down.

I've included pictures of two different models that I've made multiple prints of. On my cylinder, the outer two examples show the "back" that roughly faces the X-Tower. The middle one shows the front. The front conisistently prints beautifully, but I always get a "squished' appearance with little overhangs where the print should be just as smooth as the front.

The other model is a miniature soldier. His problem areas appear to be on the underside of areas such as his gas mask, his hands, his elbows, and the back of his ruck sack. In these areas I get little blobs of squigly lines. I have taken to calling him "Squid Arm".

Lastly, I've got a small print of a space ship that was printed with supports. Even between the supports and the model I'm seeing these squiggly lines. I've left most of the support in the middle intact for reference, but the "squiggles" can be seen at the front and tail of the ship.

Does anyone have any clues or ideas as to what I've missed or need to adjust?

Bob

What material are you printing with? ABS, or PLA?

I'd bet that your layer fan is on the side that looks good on the cylinders.

The toy soldiers could be helped by printing more then one, or slowing the print down and use layer cooling.

I agree with Mac The Knife and I want to know what he does plus the hotend temperatures and the heat bed temperarure.
Also what slicer did you use?

I'm printing with a 90 degree bed and 210 degree hotend with ABS. No fans. I've tried slicing with Cura and Slic3r, but mostly with Cura. The models in the pictures are a mixture of both, and the space ship was with Cura. I played with my extruder steps/mm, and I've reduced the effect significantly. However it is still there, and I've had to drop my steps/mm down to 90.5. That isn't normal, is it? When I watch it print the cylinder, I can see the "ridges" on the back side (generally toward the z-tower) form. It looks like it is somehow overdepositing in the back, and creating a little lip that curls up. After a while that lip gets pushed out by subsequent layers, and becomes a ridge.

Is the bed completely level?

I've checked and rechecked my level several times over the last couple of days. I had some initial adjustments to make, but it's been consistently level since.

Maybe you're getting over extrusion? Try reducing the flow multiplier, it might help. And actually, if it is overextrusion, here's a really dumb question...did you maybe set your slicer for 3mm filament instead of 1.75? Because it really does look like you're pushing out a ton of extra plastic there.

I just ran a couple of test prints of the cylinder. The one on the left was done in Cura, and still has the ridges. The one on the right was done in Slic3r, and just just has some deformation at the bottom of the protrusion in the middle.

I just double checked both slicers, and they're both set appropriately for filament diameter. I'm going to try dropping the flow, and run another print.

Decreased flow and speed to 80% with Slic3r doing the slicing. No ridges, but still have some deformation on the back of the cylinder where the protrusion is.