i finally have most of the printer dialed in and am now trying to tighten things up a bit to get the prints as perfect as possible. The one item that seems to be eluding me is zippers and zits. If I use a set starting point I get a very noticeable seam. If I use random starting points then I get zits. I have retraction set to 1.70 as opposed to the default 1.4. Should I increase this again? Thoughts or advice?
I wood not increase that. I personally have best results with 1.2mm at 70mm/s. In your case I would slightly reduce the flowrate, but it depends on material and temperature. Hard to say.
Have you got a non-zero value in extra restart distance? If it is > 0 as it is in some profiles then put it to 0
What material is that @Steven Burns ? Remember to checkout the guide https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/#blobs-and-zits I had some success with a small amount of "coasting", but as they say you have to watch like a hawk to see the exact moment the zit is being deposed, whether it is at the start or the end of a track etc.
You'll likely find that each zit is repeatable - print the part again and get the same spot in the same place - and linked to what is going on "inside" the part, the exact moves that the nozzle is making and that you can preview in S3d (enable various visualisation settings in the preview like "travel moves", maybe "retractions")
After playing around for a while neither of the S3D solutions really worked. If I retract at the end of the run then I get a hole and coasting did not do anything at all. I played around with the retraction a flow setting and came up with this... I'm fairly happy so far and I will figure out the blobs issues sooner or later as I am playing. Thanks for the help!
Let us know if you crack it I have a similar issue, seems to be worse with nGen than e3d every day pla, I need to check E steps I think and reduce flow rate to 0.95 as next troubleshooting steps
The funny thing is that when I reduced retraction and increased the flow rate in S3D and stopped randomizing the starting points, my prints got better. Go figure.... I will get it eventually and post my results.
@Steven Burns Yeah, I look at it this way when I got my first printer the first 3-4 months were rubbish prints, I feel like I am 80% of the way there in only a month so well ahead of my tweaking and tuning schedule If I crack anything as well ill let you know.
@Steven Burns, in fairness one can't compare vases with more complex parts. The test of whether your settings are "working" for those original parts will be if you print (one of) them again.
