Neosanding / ironing

[prb4 6]

I was wondering what other peoples experience of Neosanding / ironing has been? Generally I have found it works well, however not always. I have three Ultimaker 2+ printers. On two of the printers at 0.1 layers ironing is great almost every time. On the third printer I have a lot of problems. The ironing process doesn't leave as nice a surface finish. There are areas which are perfect and areas which have small holes. I know it isn't the model I am printing or the settings because the other two printers work great with the same gcode. I haven't been able to work out what it is about the third printer (and newest) that is different to the other two. Hence the question, what have other peoples experiences been of Neosanding / ironing? And to pass on more of my experience, all three printers struggle with ironing when I use 0.2 mm layers. Indeed I have decided to stop trying because it fails to give a completely nice looking top far more often than it doesn't with 0.2 mm layers. Out of interest, the poor top surface with 0.2 mm layers looks very similar to the areas of the top surface that fail with my thrid printer, so perhaps this is a clue as to what is happening? I'm out of ideas, in all other aspects the third printer works well enough. I am interested to hear about others experiences? Peter

[DidierKlein 729]

Do you have pictures maybe?

[prb4 6]

I find it difficult to post pictures.

However I am not asking for someone to solve my particular problem.  I would like to hear of anyone elses experience of using ironing?

It would also be good to hear anyones thoughts on why one printer is just not as good at ironing as the others?

Peter

[fergazz 60]

Take a look at: https://ultimaker.com/en/community/22649-neosanding-automatic-layer-sanding

Neosanding was a @neotko creation, incorparate by Cura 2.7 named as Ironing. Cool stuff!

I will give it a try, my friend got some awesome results using S3D and Prusa mk2.

[prb4 6]

Hi fergazz

Thank you for the link but that information is old, it was available before the feature was released in Cura.

I would be interested to hear how you get on with Cura ironing particularly if you have an Ultimaker 2+.

As I said in my original post, I have had mixed results depending on which printer I am using.  I can improve the results on the worst printer by modifing the profile for that printer.

[neotko 1,417]

Ironing/neosanding depends highly on how much flat cone is around the nozzle hole. Some hotends/nozzles dont have flat area or have too much. That’s what will impact on how it works. A no flat area nozzle will need more passes to ‘scratch’ the surface and a nozzle with flat cone will need less passe sto scratch/flatten the irregularities of a top layer.

Printer itself won’t make much difference but the nozzle used.

[prb4 6]

Hi Neotko

That's a useful insight.  All 3 printers are using the 0.4 mm nozzle originally supplied with the printer.

Perhaps this suggests that the bottom of the nozzle on the new printer is not perfectly flat. I could take a file to it but unless I was able to file very accurately I suspect I would only make matters worse.

What I do find strange is that parts of the top surface look perfect and other parts don't.

Thanks

Peter

[neotko 1,417]

Hi Neotko

That's a useful insight.  All 3 printers are using the 0.4 mm nozzle originally supplied with the printer.

Perhaps this suggests that the bottom of the nozzle on the new printer is not perfectly flat. I could take a file to it but unless I was able to file very accurately I suspect I would only make matters worse.

What I do find strange is that parts of the top surface look perfect and other parts don't.

Thanks

Peter

 

That can be easily the path planning or a difference on bed level. Avoid filing a nozzle, it can be done sticking a file paper, (if the bed is perfectly level) and moving the head x/y slowly with pronterface. Most brass nozzles flat area last 4-6months, then they start to get small curves on the edges. That’s why I prefer to use ruby nozzle, it stays the same shape after year+++