Visible lines of the first layer

[S1y 1]

Took the Ender 3 Pro printer from my friend to play for a while.

First time printing, getting used to all this.

Trying to print a small puck-like cylinder.

After some tweaking got the "ironing" option just right, so the last (top) layer is almost perfect now.

But still having troubles with the first (bottom) layer.

I'd like to get smooth mirror-like surface, but the lines there are clearly visible.

Tried to play with initial line thickness and width, and you can see the progress with 5 pucks I made for now (see photo: from upper left to bottom right).

Is the bottom right the best this printer can do?

Cura settings included also.

Nozzle is 0.5 mm.

 

[Smithy 1,146]

The reason for the bad bottom layer is that your bed - nozzle distance is too high. Level your bed again and bring the nozzle closer to the bed. That improves your first layer a lot.

[gr5 2,269]

To make those gaps smaller, make the "initial layer height" thinner.  Try 0.1mm.  Your part is so small that I'm sure there is no difference in leveling from one side to the other side of the puck.

 

Note that shiny black filament will show up those lines more than any other type of filament (matte or lighter color).  Also you positioned the print at an angle so the light reflects off it perfectly to show maximum contrast.  So the flat areas are bright white (shiny filament) and the cracks are deep deep black (black filament not reflecting the light directly).

 

So one fix is to use white filament and/or not angle the part just right to catch the light.  Even your table looks worse in that area of the table.  🙂

 

You can definitely get those cracks a little smaller (maybe 1/3 as big as they are now) but they won't go away 100%.

[geert_2 558]

Your first layer should probably look more like these:

 

 

 

 

 

[S1y 1]

Set initial layer height to 0.15 mm. And changed top/bottom layer filling to concentric, since the puck is round.

By the way, the top layer without ironing looks like this:

 

But the bottom layer is still ugly:

[Smithy 1,146]

I still think your nozzle needs to be closer to the bed. The first layer should be squished more into the bed, then you will get a better first layer. So level your bed closer to the nozzle.

[gr5 2,269]

Yes.  I agree with smithy.

[gr5 2,269]

This is queued up to 1:07 in my video.  Pause immediately and look at that frame that shows how much your first layer should be squishing: youtu.be/t58-WTxDy-k?t=67

 

[S1y 1]

OK, and how to get the bed closer without scratching it with the nozzle?

[Smithy 1,146]

The Ender printer has 4 screws under the build plate and I am sure you have a menu item on the printer where you have an assisted leveling process. Then you usually take a sheet of paper and the thickness of the paper is your bed-nozzle distance.

 

But I don't really know the Ender printer, so I cannot give you better detailed instructions.

[gr5 2,269]

The bed should be tough enough to handle hard scratching by the nozzle.  It should be fine.  I don't have an ender but the nozzle hits the bed often enough that the bed would be useless otherwise.

 

If you disable auto leveling (does ender have auto leveling?) then just turn those 4 leveling screws to move the bed up.  Try turning all 4 the exact same amount by 1/4 turn to start with.  I show this in the video - were you able to watch the video?  You might have to copy and paste into your browser as the link seems to not work quite right.

[Mari 38]

... the ender 3 pro has a flexible magnetic mat... this mat has a structure, so the bottom will never be as smooth as printing on glass!

 

I agree that the first step is to level the bed, I always use a Gcode-file from a guy called Chuck (CHEP on YouTube)... I run this file twice to get the best bed-leveling... and when its done correctly you can print many many hours before you have to level the bed again.  Take a look at Chuck's website for bedleveling your Ender 3 (Pro) --> https://www.chepclub.com/bed-level.html

 

Next step is to dial-in the printer... for the best result it has to extrude the right amount of material... I know a few people who have an Ender 3 Pro, we all had to calibrate the extruder e-steps...

[S1y 1]

Yep, I leveled my bed by that same method by CHEP.

 

OK, after several experiments I've got result that satisfied me.

Thanks for all the answers and suggestions!

 

The clues were:

- level bed by CHEP method;

- set level height as 1/2 of nozzle diameter;

- set first level height as 1/5 of nozzle diameter;

- use concentric top/bottom pattern on round object.

 

In my case the nozzle is 0.5 mm, level height - 0.25 mm, first level height - 0.1mm.

I suppose better result can be achieved using glass bed.

[Mari 38]

You can smooth the surface a little by wet-sanding it...

[bagomantus 0]

maybe its too late, but maybe i can help someone. i hang the mini objects in the air and create tree support underneath and now you can get smooth texture with first layer