FlashForge Creator Pro - Bad Print Quality (first time) - Adjust settings?

Hi Everyone,

My name is matt, I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, and I recently purchased a FlashForge Creator Pro 3D printer.

I completed my first print last night, and I'm wondering if you can assist me with tweaks necessary to achieve better results. I've attached some pictures. One, the gray one, is the model I printed with the FlashForge Creator Pro. The other, the white one, is a print I had done at my library with a Makerbot Replicator 2. As you can see, they're noticeably different in terms of quality.

I've read online posts in which details of tweaked settings and such were explained, in order to achieve optimal results. Basically, my problems with the FlashForge print are as follows:

1) There are parts of the model that simply didn't print - they look as though they were "eaten away" from the final product. I've tried to take close ups of said areas for reference. In addition, there are parts of the figure that seem to have accumulated excess bits of filament. Again, I've shown photos for reference. How to I keep this from happening, to create a smoother result?

2) I'm unhappy with the banding, compared to the MakerBot print - what I mean by that is that the "lines" of printed filament are very, very obvious in the FlashForge print. On the MakerBot print, they seem to be more smoothed out and compacted. They're still somewhat visible but certainly not to the degree of the print from the FlashForge.

Help! Haha.

I'd love to know how I can remedy these problems. I really want to stick with the FlashForge Creator Pro - I've heard great things about it and, up until the actual print, I was very happy with it. Any advice you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!


matt
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It's really hard to help without some detailed print settings. What slicing software is being used? What materials... What layer heights... Etc. Post as many details as you can.

It's obvious that the layer height is much thicker on the FF print (looks like a .1 vs. a .3 print--you can easily count the massive difference in the number of layers), it also appears to be underextruding. The gaps are probably caused by strings pulling off the part due to lack of layer to layer adhesion caused by the aforementioned issues.

I've had issues with layer adhesion when printing at .3 layer height with the .4 nozzle, I never go over 0.25.

Try the same print at .1 and you'll surely get much closer results. My results with my FF are better than what I see with your "good" makerbot print.

Definitely a high layer height. A lot start at that height for some reason and I don't know why. .2 is the best bet when you are new and most prints are just fine at this setting for the long term.


I also have never had luck with .3 height on a .4 nozzle, probably due to the small melt zone that can't keep up with the volume demands of .3 printing. Probably need to go to .6 nozzle to do that reliably.