Help me make this better, zombie van project

[biggsstudio 0]

Hey guys! I just got my ultimaker 2 and am printing some designs I made. I am happy with the results but I think it could be better but not sure what settings to mess with in Cura or on the machine itself. Im new to 3d printing but totally nerding out on it and im obsessed! I just want to be pro at it. Here are some pics of my print:

not bad... but could be better?

this is the top. Im pretty sure this is due to me setting the infill to 10%... my bad. the top would probably not look so bad and holy if I just put it up to 20-25% infill.

and here is one thing I cant figure out. The layers look a little inconsistent. towards the top you can see some of the layers look like they are separating or something.

other then that it just seems like I can get the face looking a little more detailed.

Im very excited about all this and dont get me wrong, im happy with the results, I just think with a little tuning this thing would be really awesome.

I used Cura and have my settings on the normal defaults with 0.1 layer height, 0.8 shell, 10% infill (probably needs to be higher?), 50 mm/s speed, Brim and supports from bottom plate up. Took about 17 hours to print. I used the glue stick it came with, and all the usual default settings on the machine. I dont really know what to tweak. I want good smooth resolution and detail. I actually printed the wheels separately. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[gr5 2,094]

This issue on the top surface of the van is called "pillowing" and there is more detail here (search for 'pillowing')

http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/23-a-visual-ultimaker-troubleshooting-guide

The upper layers of your van have some underextrusion. The first thing to check is your layer height/print speed/temperature combination. For your reported layer height of .1 and speed of 50mm/sec according to this graph:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4127-um2-extrusion-rates-revisited/

Your temperature needs to be at least 205C. If that's already true then something else is causing underextrusion. There are *so* many possibilities it's depressing. Google underextrusion for this forum and read about some of the causes.

 

[DidierKlein 729]

Also, try looking at the quickprint profiles of the latest Cura they work really well.

Is this PLA or ABS?

 

[biggsstudio 0]

I'm using PLA. What's quick print? And how do i see what temp I'm printing at?

[DidierKlein 729]

In Cura there are several quickprint profiles (using the latest version 15) you can select one then go to expert mode to see the settings applied and tweak them if needed.

The temp setting is on the printer, you can see them in the material menu or during the print in the Tune menu

 

[biggsstudio 0]

ok. I like the idea of the quick print profiles. So I decided to try the high quality quick print with support structure turned on. Cant seem to get a good first layer. Maybe my bed is not leveled? I thought it was but maybe i need to level it again? Seems like the nozzle is dragging across the layers and sometimes it seems like the flow of PLA is not coming out like it should. sucks when this happens. Very frustrating.

Seems like the beginning first layers are the most stressful because i get mixed results.

 

[personal-drones 44]

You need to carefully re-level your bed. Then in cura, set bottom/top thickness to at least 0.8-1. Decrease the speed to 40. Increase infill to 25. If you do all this you should get much better results, then you can work it from there.