xeno

I had the same happen, and while the print is smooth it shows these darker bands, and I think it was caused by (very) minor temperature fluctuations, when the cooling fan is a bit obstructed during the print, and not blow as much air around the print head. and only shows itself with this particular silver PLA I Have it looks a bit the same when I cast polyurethane resins with added silver or aluminum powder, you always get these lighter and darker bands, in swirly patters that show the flowing of the resin. this is also caused by not stirring the two components properly, and the resin not curing (heating) evenly.

why not have the print head only move at 45 degree angles when moving on the top layer, at least then the lines will integrate into the fill pattern.

I had a lot of success with adding more weight to the z-stage, and a bowden dampener is something I will also try and please share the file, so we can do a comparison print also printing with an opaque color will also show more detail.

After 10 Hour print, the upper arm part is done, the joints between the lower and upper arm are movable I added some details just to see how it would turn out, and it looks fantastic, even the knurling on the detail is well done at this scale, I love the Ultimaker :mrgreen: printed with 0.06mm steps

unfortunately the halves are not flat :( and for this size I will not bother doing halves, and it is better to print upright anyway, it is better for the details for the life size parts, those will be printed in halves, and will be more easy to mold

The evidence points to the z-stage, as bouncing of the head would produce blobs on the outside, and I see a few of those on the prints too, but the difference in layer thickness all around the object points to the z-screw not working right. I have added some more weight to the platform and printed a part, and it looks better, when I have the time I will thoroughly clean the z-screw parts and see what happens then

Printed the lower forearm, took it real slow to get a nice print. and worked pretty good :cool: needs a little work, but it is more easy to work on the physical model then in CAD :-P

I already redone the z-bed, and is very sturdy, Belt tension is always a problem, what is a good tightness ?, I did re-tighten them recently. this is what my revised bed looks like

I did print this at 0.1mm, I just wanted to play safe, and not have a ruined print after 12 hours :-P and you can't choose where you want support, and where not, and I find the support feature severely lacking in the last few Cura updates, it is harder to remove, and doesn't always creates support where it is really needed. I'm starting to learn to add my own support in Rhino3D, this saves print times, and I can choose where to put it.

I did not dare too, the mouth and eyes are what makes the facial expression, and drips would probably ruin it.

I was indeed talking about the horizontal lines :eek: and you saying it might be z-stage related makes sense somehow, but the hands I printed are perfect smooth and smaller then the other parts, as soon as I print a larger part it shows the horizontal lines. might be time to clean the z-screw and see if that maybe improves it, I also have already added some weight to the z-stage, might need a bit more. thanks

Printed the head last night, but still had the same problem, even after reducing the speed to 65%. I sanded the front to see if it was still usable, or I would sand away the detail to get it smooth. it took a lot of work and still some lines still show very clearly.

Just a "head"s up for my latest print. took a lot of work to get the support material in the mouth and eyes removed. started sanding the front, but PLA is not easy to sand, and still have ridges in the print.

I added both, and started printing, lets see what happens :cool: I'll let you know tomorrow.

Could I just add both to the list of the startup code ? M205 X15 ; set XY jerk to 15 M201 X3000 Y3000 or am I being silly :-P @3dcase: I added the 0.5mm underneath to add tension, but I don't feel any improvement, I will probably start looking for replacements that have a snug fit, like the X-Y sliders, and maybe change to 8mm also ?

Unfortunately, I don't have a Ulticontroller :( and I don't have the experience working in G-code, I wouldn't know where to put the code

I will try that for a temporary solution,thanks Edit: But would that cause friction when the printhead moves to the sides ? while lowering the speed would solve a part of the problem, but I don't want a 3day print turn into a week print the bearing just don't fit properly, the wiggle at the bottom of the extruder assembly is more then 1mm stupid that I never noticed it !, I wonder if all the UM1's have it ?

Printed the upper part of the torso, but I am not happy with the result :mad: seems there is a lot of shaking in the printer head with bigger prints, I hope that I can resolve this. it seems the bearings just don't fit properly, and can move slightly. and also the support material was very difficult to remove, and I damaged the print itself, when I had to use pliers.

I'm having trouble making smooth large prints, and after some investigation I found that the original bearings in the extruder head, don't fit properly. both bearings wiggle ever so slightly, this results in a larger movement lower down, they just don't fit well :( I can imagine that making fast and sudden moves of the head would cause ripples in the print, like on the image can I replace these with solid sliders, en where could I get them ?

Just another hand, but this time I tried to add details that are way too small to print I did a test to print the hand details separate, and it work perfectly, at 0.02mm, I just made a frame with a set of 10 pieces connected to each other. and glued the details on the hand and am really happy with the result

Give the man (or droid) a hand :mrgreen:

If I am in the room when it runs out, I just feed the next one. but if I don't want to wait, I just melt the two together with a lighter, and file it down a bit, works perfect And buying 2Kg spools also helps

That would spoil it I'm printing with normal 25% infill, otherwise it would take weeks the top of the feet look like 100% but are closed slices of the leg part.

I found out it is indeed a plane to show the current height of the print, but it does not show it all the time, it pops up more often when I do a Spiral contour print, but I cant find the trigger that makes it visible...DAID ?

And some feet, that still need a little bit of cleanup