Print speed

[Mangolemmon 0]

In general, does reducing the print speed decrease the likelihood of stringing and other minor print errors? (So I don't need to do as much sanding and other cleanup work) 

 

[GregValiant 1,258]

In general - no.

But everything affects everything.  Material, print temperature, Accel and Jerk settings, retraction distance and retraction speed, geometry of the model, length of travel moves, combing...a lot of things come into play.

#1 is probably retraction distance.  For materials like PETG the print temperature can be very important.

Too hot and PETG wants to drool all over.  Too cold and layer adhesion suffers and the prints aren't as strong.  All you can do is try to dial them in the best you can.

 

If you have a bowden printer you should keep an eye on how much the bowden tube slides in and out of the lock fittings on the extruder and hot end.  It can develop a millimeter of slop on both ends so your original retract distance of (for example) 6mm is seriously affected because 2mm might be just the bowden moving in the fittings.  Instead of the filament pulling back from the nozzle 6mm it may only be pulling back 4mm.  Trimming back both ends of the bowden by about 6mm every 30 or 40 print hours is a good idea.  Bowden tubes are considered "consumable" parts.

 

If you were to print a box, there wouldn't be much stringing.  If you are printing something like a table with the legs in the air the chances of stringing being a problem are much higher.  Any model that develops "islands" while it is printing is going to present challenges.  That's true even when the islands happen to be support structures.

[Slashee_the_Cow 271]

It might fix minor printing errors, but only if those errors were because you were printing too fast in the place. But as @GregValiant said, it depends on a lot of factors, especially material. TPU is stringy as hell and here's not much you can do to fix it, just because the filament itself has elastic properties so you'll never be able to retract it cleanly. I print TPU pretty slow - 20mm/s (I find it gives better layer adhesion and also makes the sides look smoother) and it's still got more strings than a medium size company who has nobody to handle IT's networking closet.