Consistent print quality issues

[tlawrence84]

Hi, I'm wondering if you could help me with this print quality problem I am having. I have attached a picture of a benchy that has very rough outer edges (the base is a bit messy as that is an uncleaned brim), and a much better maze puzzle that I made in fusion 360. Other than elephants foot (my bed is a tad too close during the first layer) and a visible seam, the maze puzzle has a very nice finish (although the camera seems to highlight imperfections that aren't really there). Both of these models have been printed with exactly the same settings in Cura. The settings used are;

Creality CR10s
PLA+ at 210
3mm retraction at 50mm/s
Bed at 60c
Flow rate 100%

I have tried reducing the flow rate to 95% leaving everything else the same, and also dropped the temp to 205 leaving the other settings the same, and the benchy's print identical to each other. I notice the corner of the roof is also not sharp, this has a bulge as if there is some over extrusion going on. I have also used 3 other filaments (one is the same but different colour, the other 2 are different brands and types) and each yields identical results. This leads me to think that there is something physical I need to do on the printer, like belt tensioning or checking the rollers. Rather than try things at random, I would prefer some advise as to the best places to start?

The only other thing I have noticed is that there is a squeaky noise when the bow is being printed, which is making me think that the 6 rollers for the bed are a bit tight.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
PrintQuality1.jpg

[tlawrence84]

Just a quick piece of extra info, the blue is 3D Filaprint PLA+, the green is Esun PLA+, both sliced seperately, they have not been printed with the same gcode file. I have highlighted some examples of the blobs and zits being in identicle places which actually looks closer on the actual model than the picture. This is consistent between 7 models

PrintQuality2.jpg

[Roberts_Clif]

My only question if what is your Print Speed percentage.

[tlawrence84]

I have tried:
50mm/s print speed, infill at 50mm/s, wall speed 25mm/s

and 60mm/s print speed, infill at 60mm/s, wall speed at 30mm/s

both giving the same result.

Other details are:
layer height 0.2mm, line width 0.4mm with a 0.4mm nozzle, 3 walls, 4 top and bottom layers, infill 25% Grid, infill overlap 30%

[tlawrence84]

I'm wondering if this is some kind of overlap or perimeter issue now, on the base of the benchy there is the CT3D.xyz

Mine prints CT3 .xyz fine, but the D is smooth as if it filled in the letter, the outline of the D is there and visible like it tried to print it.

[Roberts_Clif]

Try One more time with the flow rate at 95% 1st layer 40% print speed 60%

[tlawrence84]

I'll try again with 95 flow, I wonder if when i first tried this i set the initial flow to 95 instead of the normal flow. This could just be my esteps somehow getting out of whack, i don't know why my other prints come out so smooth though

[Roberts_Clif]

I'll try again with 95 flow, I wonder if when i first tried this i set the initial flow to 95 instead of the normal flow. This could just be my esteps somehow getting out of whack, i don't know why my other prints come out so smooth though

This is possible I was quickly trying to make adjustments getting into the wrong area throwing off some settings,
The Settings can be restored Using M502 : Restore Factory Defaults --- M500 : Save Settings on some firmware..

[tlawrence84]

It has worked previously with these settings though, I'm not sure why this is happening. I thought it must be slicer settings so attempted a Cura "Standard Quality" print, and it came out identical.

I have printed at 95% flow, and it looks exactly the same on the bow, but now I have under extrusion on top layers, and the D still doesn't print underneath. Adjusting the bed levelling has sorted the elephants foot, but I wasn't too worried about that. I just can't see how this could be a hardware issue, like a bad nozzle for example, if every print has the blobs and zits in exactly the same place. Itry rotating the model 90 degrees in the morning to see what that does, and will try a 0% infill to see if there are any issues with overlapping

[Roberts_Clif]

I had on occasion used some G-Code that was a previous users slice or a sample Sliced G-Code.
OR
Different slicer not configured correctly for my 3D Printer anyway somehow it changed some of the 3D Printers settings.
Then G-Code that I had previously sliced would not print correctly even newly slicer STL files failed..

That is until I purged the changed 3D Printers settings and restored them to the Factory Defaults.
Was about ready to throw away many partials rolls of filament thinking they had drawn moisture or just went bad...