How do I get cleaner prints?

[berard-3d 2]

Hello Ultimaker Community,

I am very happy with my Ultimaker original, but I'm wondering if I can make it print even better quality. I've attached one image, and am wondering if some upgrades will help with the consistency of the quality in my prints. The print on the left has some artifacts such as lines that are uneven, while the print on the right does not--even though I used the same settings

So, my questions: is it possible to upgrade my Ultimaker original to print better? If I buy a Ultimaker 2 heated print bed and double fan, would I be able to retrofit my Original to use those parts (like attached in the screenshot)? Thank you.

-Jack

[gr5 2,210]

Heated bed won't help with PLA quality. The difference in the above prints could be temperature - temperature alone can make quite a difference. More fan will absolutely help quality for printing PLA. Although many (most) fan shroud designs lower the air flow by 10X and cause more harm than good - they should have very little constriction if any. If you will be constricting flow you need a blower rather than a fan.

The lines in the print on the left are because I think your shell width is only .4mm. Try .8mm next time. Right now the infill is showing through a little bit.

Regarding temperature - higher temperatures can hide things like infill showing through but most of the time lower temperature means better quality.

[gr5 2,210]

Oh - to clarify - speed is more important than temperature (except on overhangs) and so lower speed is the most common way to get better quality. Lowering temperature without also lowering speed may cause underextrusion and cause quality to get worse.