elephant feet on top?

[cloakfiend 992]

I've been away a while and just changed jobs hence my absence, and just started to print some logos, but was getting quite extreme elephant feet on the top of my prints? i cant ever remember getting these before, im sure ive tried a few square flat tops before, but seeing as my usual prints are more curved or organic, has anyone got any suggestions? im using my usual settings as i do for everything, 0.06 microns 30mms everything else default temp 185....mind you im still using cura 15.04.2 so i guess no one will be able to help me, lol. i even get them with a small bevel which should be preventing them completely.

[yellowshark 153]

Are your fans at 100%? I print squares at about that height during testing and your settings are probably very similar to mine. I do not print as low as .060 but then my temp will be 190-195; but I am running 100% fan. Like you I do not recall ever seeing elephant's feet on the top.

[avogra 68]

is that PLA? Recently someone in the german subforum had a similar problem. with small layerheights, in first 2..3 mm vertical walls seem to contract / pull in a little bit. maybe your top layer is just the first back at nominal size and the layers below are too small?

[cloakfiend 992]

Its a simple extrude object so no weird angles, just straight up. I don't know, weird, i did higher stuff and even the higher ones had them, maybe it just colorfabb orange. its quite liquidy compared to the others. I just sanded them down, they wont be examined for quality so i doesn't matter for now, but ill have a play around when i have some more time. Ive given it away now along with the other one so I cant even take anymore photos.

[yellowshark 153]

Lol I use their Dutch orange a lot too, a close match to a customer's logo - very strange result

[darkdvd 966]

Is the rear fan ok ?

[IRobertI 516]

Hmm... that's a weird one. Could you be over extruding slightly? In the middle of the print there's space for the plastic to retreat into the voids between the infill lines. On the top you have solid layers that could be causing the plastic to get displaced outward?

Sounds very far fetched to me as well, I know, but it's the only thing my tired head can manage at the moment.

[cloakfiend 992]

thanks for the suggestions, ive no idea, im gonna try the old nozzle in a bit, i have a feeling that as the top layers are taking longer, it heats up the area too much and the plastic just slowly melts out causing the result shown. maybe infill would help, but i never use it. i rely on bridging. ive been away from the printer for a while now running errands, and feel like i need to go back to my basic settings i loved so much and even reinstall the old original nozzle, as i feel it helps for smaller more detailed prints as i normally am accustomed too, the larger block and nozzle adds slightly too much heat for me, even when printing sub 185 degrees.

[cloakfiend 992]

Never got round to installing the old nozzle, but have confirmed that the issue is the dutch orange (like i thought! as its quite melty) as I used a red and it prints just fine with no changes to temperature, infill, no infill and or any other settings.

Basically if you are printing detailed hard edge flat topped geometric shapes, stay away from dutch orange, imho.

some pics. not the greatest quailty though. sorry. but even the slight bevel on top came out nicely.

Edited November 10, 2016 by Guest

[yellowshark 153]

Hi @cloakfiend, good to hear that you have solved your weird problem. It did throw a question mark in my mind though, as I have never seen this with Dutch orange which I uses extensively. My customer parts are maybe a similar size to your letter M, maybe not quite as high and the flat top layer is considerably more complex. I would note that I always have infill and on this part it is 100%.

[cloakfiend 992]

I never use 100 infill usually 0 or 18, dutch orange is just more melty, so when it starts to do the top layer it ends up slightly melting the surrounding layers unfortunately.

Edited November 11, 2016 by Guest