ABS, small parts ugly perimeters, me not happy

[CaptainObvious]

I decided to give ABS another chance and I'm seeing some problems with small parts, or small parts in parts.
Here's a couple pictures of what the problem looks like, the grid is 1cm square to give an idea of the size:

IMG_7053.jpgIMG_7057.jpg

The ridges on the cylindrical parts seem to follow the polygonal structure of the model, the square part had no problems.
I used Slic3r 1.7 to slice the STL object, the heated bed temperature was 100C for the first layer, 80C after that. Extruder temperature 240C throughout the print and no cooling fan.
Perimeters were printed at 50mm/s, 60% for small perimeters, 80% for external ones, I used a very short minimum layer time of 4s, but since it moves from one stub to another when printing I would think that gives adequate cooling time between new layers.

I could think of several reasons for the issue, but going through all of them to find the cause(s) may take a while, so if someone with more experience with ABS than me can identify the problem it would be very appreciated.

[jimc]

my guess from the pic is not enough cooling time. you need to print this with other models so each layer takes longer. it might jump from island to island but your just soaking the print with heat.

[CaptainObvious]

Yes, could be that; there's also the issue that the left cylindrical stud was not properly infilled, it broke off easily.

[Geoff]

240 is pretty hot, I can't run colour filament in ABS that hot, I print it now religiously at 225c.

[CaptainObvious]

240 is pretty hot, I can't run colour filament in ABS that hot, I print it now religiously at 225c.

Hmmm... I'll try that temperature.
I only tried ABS for a couple tests before moving to PLA exclusively so I'm learning the ropes with it.
The reason I used 240 was because in a previous print I used 220 and the first layers delaminated (UHU glue stick on glass, as with PLA, works fantastically well). In hindsight I think it was more to do with too low a bed temperature (80C) and perhaps I should use 240 for the first layer and then switch to a lower temperature for the rest of the print.

[Geoff]

ABS has as many quirks as PLA for me, but essentially now for white filament, I use the stock 110c and 230c but for all other colours, my bed is around 106 - 107 and the hotend 225 or 226 for some.

I have alot of ABS that has different tolerances too, eg. I have 2 blue ABS, same colour, but one will not print at 0.1mm and one will, both from the same supplier.

I can print at 0.2mm fine, but when I try and go down, it makes a total mess of the print, whereas the other blue stays strong. I was getting really annoyed with constantly having to fiddle with temps after changing I tried to find the happy medium, and in a non heated cabinet, on an old crappy flashforge, 225c and 106c seems to be my magic spot on Kapton. With blue tape I can lower the bed to 100 and it still sticks like glue.

[Mjolinor]

With slic3r there is an option for a layer change custom Gcode so you can move off bed, wait some time then continue the print very easily.

[Geoff]

With slic3r there is an option for a layer change custom Gcode so you can move off bed, wait some time then continue the print very easily.

I have to admit I haven't really played with slicer much, I always just relied on makerware or replicator G to do the job and they have done fine, but now building one I realize why there is such a massive difference... it's chalk and cheese. Makerware covers up so much of that stuff that while it does make some things a breeze, you really need that level of control that you an get from slic3r, im going to have a good dig at it this weekend on my new printer, im sure I will run into all the same grief everyone else has

[curious aardvark]

yep too hot would be my call too.

Never gone as high as 240 for abs - but 235 gives quite 'wobbly' prints.

geoff - try cura as well.
All the stuff slic3r has, but slices so fast half the time you don't realise it's done it. The layout is much much nicer and when you add in the little extra modules, it's just got way more capabilities than anything else out there that's free :-)
Plus the 3d box for model layout is very similiar to makerware - just better.
It's ironic I spent about 9 months playing virtual printing with cura and inadvertently bought the only printer on the market it won't work with.
Life ain't always fair lol

Simplyfi3d might also be good - but no try before you buy, so no buy :-)

[Mjolinor]

After much time I have most of Slic3r clear to me but I cannot work out how to apply a filament config to an extruder. For example if you have Dual_L.ini and Dual_R.ini then whichever you have active in Slic3r filament tab will become "filament" in Slic3r.ini. It seems that in the platter view the top one is assigned to Right and the lower one to Left but it is really confusing and sometimes it seems to pick one at random from the filament directory.

I have it sorted so that I can do separate support prints properly but I wanted to be able to set separate configs up for left and right and left-support-right-model and right-support-left-model.

Does anyone have their head round this particular bit?