What are the best settings for the smoothest finish on the final layer of a flat print? Checking "enable ironing" in Cura has not provided a consistently smooth top layer.

[TheMainMan 0]

What are the best settings for the smoothest finish on the final layer of a flat print? Checking "enable ironing" in Cura has not provided a consistently smooth top layer.

[Slashee_the_Cow 621]

It depends on a lot of things. What you're printing, what material you're printing with, your printing settings (not just ironing, things like line width, temperature, top/bottom pattern, printing order - turning on Top/Bottom > Monotonic Printing Order and Monotonic Ironing Order can help it look its smoothest, number of top/bottom layers, infill pattern and percentage), your printer, even what colour you're printing.

 

Plus, the fact is that with a FDM printer you will never get a perfectly smooth finish because filament is being laid in lines and layers. Commercial products use injection moulded plastic and the templates they use are completely smooth.

 

There's no universal "best settings" for a 3D printer, because there are always changes and tradeoffs to consider (like line width: thicker = fewer lines = fewer gaps but bigger gaps). You're best off just messing around with settings and creating small test pieces to see what works (just label your test pieces so you know which settings you were using on the one you end up liking the most).

[PartySausage 32]

14 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

turning on Top/Bottom > Monotonic Printing Order and Monotonic Ironing Order can help it look its smoothest

Hi I'm interested in this & was wondering where the  Monotonic Ironing Order setting is? I can find the Monotonic Top/Bottom Order & Ironing settings but not the quoted setting or are they one and the same? 

[SensataPDS 2]

These settings work very well for me using ASA

[Slashee_the_Cow 621]

8 hours ago, PartySausage said:

Hi I'm interested in this & was wondering where the  Monotonic Ironing Order setting is? I can find the Monotonic Top/Bottom Order & Ironing settings but not the quoted setting or are they one and the same? 

Make sure you have it set to show all settings by clicking the hamburger button (three horizontal lines and yes that is the technical term but it's more often a menu that comes up on phone apps called the hamburger menu) and choosing All.

[PartySausage 32]

9 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

Make sure you have it set to show all settings by clicking the hamburger button (three horizontal lines and yes that is the technical term but it's more often a menu that comes up on phone apps called the hamburger menu) and choosing All.

Hi I have the settings visibility set to All, however after a bit more digging I found the setting is only visible when the Ironing Pattern is set to Zig Zag & it was set to Concentric

 

 

 

 

[TheMainMan 0]

Do you have the rest of your settings set on Fine, Extra Fine, Fast, Extra Fast, or Normal?

Edited January 25, 2024 by TheMainMan

[Slashee_the_Cow 621]

11 minutes ago, TheMainMan said:

Do you have the rest of your settings set on Fine, Extra Fine, Fast, Extra Fast, or Normal?

Extra fine will probably give you the best results, since that will probably set line width lower, which means smaller gaps between lines. However it might also change the layer height, and if you're only worried about the appearance from the top that will make the print take longer without any benefit, so you might have to change that back manually.

 

It's also worth manually setting Speed > Print Speed a bit lower than the default because slower = more accurate. Especially with how fast some printers these days are - I think the default speed for the Ender-3 V3 SE is 180mm/s (it can go up to 250). Most filaments aren't designed to be printed anywhere near that quickly, so they're not going to set properly. I usually print PLA with Print Speed set to 120mm/s, which will make only make it do infill that quickly, and then everything else at a pretty responsible pace (half the print speed, by default). If you have one of these speed demons which seems to exist mostly for bragging rights about whoever can print a Benchy the fastest, you should probably also go to Speed > Enable Acceleration Control and set it to much lower than default. The aforementioned E3V3SE can accelerate at up to 4000mm/s² and that's so fast it's actually pulled parts of my prints with it when it zooms off on a travel move. I set the acceleration for all the things to 500mm/s². I've read (but can't confirm) that the printer sometimes doesn't respect the speeds in the gcode file and goes as fast as it can anyway and to turn down the maximum acceleration on the printer's control panel.

 

Remember: a good, slow print is better than a quick waste of filament.

[GregValiant 1,492]

Ironing is the best bet.  I've found that the "Ironing Flow" needs to be dialed in to get the best results.

 

"If you want a finish like 12 coats of hand rubbed lacquer then put on 12 coats of lacquer and rub it out by hand." - Me