Tube, seams and poor search skills

[jaysenodell 13]

I would like to suggest that I strugle with searching for answers, but I seem to have gotten this far with my skills so let's go with my skills have failed me at this point. 

 

I'm printing a long tube. It would be "nice" if the tube didn't have a seam that was a straight line. I've fiddled with things to make the line less visible but it hasn't mattered until now. Any suggestions? 

 

Here's the project for the "big tube" were this is least critical but likely easiest to fix. Maybe. 

Tuna Tubes.3mf

[PartySausage 13]

There are settings such as coasting that are supposed to reduce the effect although I haven't seen it make much of a difference when I tried it. The only other way I know is to use a random seam but it can result in a rough surface finish

Edited January 16 by PartySausage

[Slashee_the_Cow 280]

2 hours ago, PartySausage said:

There are settings such as coasting that are supposed to reduce the effect although I haven't seen it make much of a difference when I tried it. The only other way I know is to use a random seam but it can result in a rough surface finish

In this case I'd try changing the Outer Wall Wipe Distance first (Walls > Outer Wall Wipe Distance, I'd try setting it to 1mm or so) which is actually the opposite of coasting.

 

Which one works better mostly depends on whether the visible deposits are created at the start of the seam (a little blob forms while the nozzle is travelling from its last position to the seam, which isn't likely in this case because it's just moving up, no travel move) or at the end (when the nozzle is dragging a bit of a blob behind it, then stops and moves to the next layer). At the start, you want Coasting, since that tries to compensate for a blob being there by underextruding up to the end, but that can also leave gaps in the walls. At the end, you want to wipe, so anything it's dragging along has a chance to get spread out rather than being placed in one spot.

 

As @PartySausage said, you could also try setting Walls > Z Seam Alignment to Random, which will make the seam be in a different place on every layer, but if a single instance of the seam is noticeable, you'll have them in random locations so the surface will like like it has teeny tiny chicken pox.

 

If you don't need strength (which unfortunately I'm guessing you do), this is also the perfect sort of model to spiralise (Special Modes > Spiralize Outer Contour). This makes it draw one continuous line which slowly goes up, resulting in no seam whatsoever, but the disadvantage is that you only get to have one line, because you can't have any travel moves.

 

Just remember: small scale testing is your friend. Don't print full size while you're playing with settings.

Edited January 17 by Slashee_the_Cow
removed dire warning about line width

[jaysenodell 13]

49 minutes ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

Your settings show you're trying to print 0.8mm wide lines with a 0.4mm nozzle

This is interesting. I have not knowingly changed this. Let me adjust and verify that this is not set all over the place. 

[Slashee_the_Cow 280]

2 minutes ago, jaysenodell said:

This is interesting. I have not knowingly changed this. Let me adjust and verify that this is not set all over the place. 

I reloaded the 3mf to double check and now it says 0.4mm.

 

I'm not crazy, I swears!

[jaysenodell 13]

I’m showing 0.4 line width, 0.28 layer thickness, 145% initial layer width. 
 

Wall thickness is 0.8. 
 

I still had the project open from when I started the print (which was when I saved it).

 

Coasting must be one of those “not in the normal exposure” levels. Seems outer wall is as well. I’m going to let the last couple glasses of rum dissipate before o dog for those. 

[jaysenodell 13]

Added the outwer wall wipre distance and z seam alignment to per model settings for now. 

• Wipe == 0.5mm
• Align == Random

 

Had to redesign this a bit but effectively the same. I'm using 50% scaling to avoid the long print and waste. I've debated nozzle swapping to larger to make this thing faster but I think that would have negative effects if I understad the impacts of large diameter nozzles properly. 

[jaysenodell 13]

19 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

so the surface will like like it has teeny tiny chicken pox

Seeing that. Less "bad" that the overall seam. I'll need to get the unit off the printer to see if it is acceptable though. those "pocks" ... is that the coast or the wipe? I'm a bit cautious as I do need to be concerned with solid and strong-ish here. 

[PartySausage 13]

20 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

In this case I'd try changing the Outer Wall Wipe Distance first (Walls > Outer Wall Wipe Distance, I'd try setting it to 1mm or so) which is actually the opposite of coasting.

I did take a look at the Outer Wall Wipe Distance, which took me a while to get my head around how it differed from Coasting, but your description is very good.

When I tried it I didn't push the setting as far as 1mm & set it to a maximum of 0.4mm, which is the same as my nozzle size & any reference to recommended values I could find suggested not to exceed 0.5mm so do you find 1mm offers good results?

[Slashee_the_Cow 280]

10 hours ago, PartySausage said:

When I tried it I didn't push the setting as far as 1mm & set it to a maximum of 0.4mm, which is the same as my nozzle size & any reference to recommended values I could find suggested not to exceed 0.5mm so do you find 1mm offers good results?

Brain fart. That's what I had it set to on the previous printer I had which was stringy as hell so I had to use extreme measures. You're a lot more on the money.

[PartySausage 13]

3 hours ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

Brain fart. That's what I had it set to on the previous printer I had which was stringy as hell so I had to use extreme measures. You're a lot more on the money.

😂