I’m trying to diagnose what tuning I need to get a smooth top layer on a solid print.
The picture you see is a 50mmx50mmx1mm square (cube([50,50,1]); in openscad) printed with a .4 nozzle. (5 layers)
For tuning on the problem, I have looked into:
- z_offset – tried all kinds of values and if I reduce it anymore, it doesn’t squish into the bed and the center part is exactly 1mm – so unlikely to be that.
- bed level – bltouch is working well
- extrusion (esteps or rotational_distance) - played with this a great deal and any less and i start to have under-extrusion in the center area.
- different filament – same with PLA, PETG and ABS
- Different slicer – same with PrusaSlicer or Cura
- Different speeds – one on the left was printed at 20mm/s – the right was printed at 150mm/s
I also cant find any guides out there that show this issue. Anybody with some suggestions or threads I can pull?
It looks like overextrusion, but Im not sure. Did you change overlap settings?
I would try with taller cube to eliminate 1st layer error. You might be overextruding, but due to higher nozzle distance your first layer can still look perfect
No, overlap settings are default. Taller objects or objects with infill come out okay - workable but still show small signs of the issue. I’ve found the 5+ layer object with no infill showes the issue the most so I’ve been using that to tune.
You are absolutely correct that first layer tends not now show issues like zOffset to close to bed or over extrusion. The prints I’ve been using are 5+ solid layers to have any offset alignment or extrusion alignment issues increase with each added layer.