Rough curved surface

[markstruct 0]

Hi, I have noticed that my Ultimaker Original seems to have a rough print quality when printing curved surfaces lately. I have tried lowering the print speed to 70mm/s but it did not help. The filament diameter seems to be pretty consistent, 2.86mm +/- 0.02mm.

Please refer to the photo below, the issue is especially obvious when printing the horse legs:

I have printed with 0.1 layer height as well, and had the same issue. Thanks for any tips.

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

First thing to check is the layer view in Cura. If you see the steps there too it's a slicing issue and you probably use Cura 14.03.

If you say lowering speed to 70mm/s, what speed have you printed normally and at what layer height. If it is 0.2mm or even higher at speed 70mm/s then I would strongly recommend to lower the speed significantly as fluctuations in the flow are more likely at such high material flow (e.g. 0.2mm (layer height) x 0.4mm (nozzle size) * 70mm/s =5.6mm^3/s is rather high).

It seems to me you try to print some kind of four legged animal with standard Cura support. If you haven't yet, you may try Meshmixer support; you'll have much less troubles with removing the support and will need lesse material.

 

[gr5 2,192]

Try a newer version of Cura - a bug that causes surface bumps was recently introduced that is fixed once again here:

http://software.ultimaker.com/Cura_closed_beta/

Also 70mm/sec is fine for very large parts with long smooth moves, but with small tight curves like this you will improve quality quite a bit at 30mm/sec. Or even 20mm/sec. This is because the extruder isn't constantly speeding up and slowing down as it will never go below 10mm/sec (3 to 1 speed change ratio versus 7 to 1).

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

There is Cura 14.06 since yesterday, so no need anymore to work with a release candidate.

[markstruct 0]

Thanks guys, I have installed Cura 14.06, and reduced the print speed as well. I will try to print again later.

I was printing at 0.2mm at 70mm/s, so what is the reasonable flow rate for UM1?

@ Dim3nsioneer, yes, it's a 4 legged horse:) I am using the lines support now instead of grid, but I will give Meshmixer support a try as well. Thanks.

 

[markstruct 0]

New Cura and lower speed definitely improved the print quality a lot on the curved surface! Thanks guys!