Why is this happening to my prints?

[curious aardvark]

printing too slow on a small model results in the plastic staying hot and still soft when the next layer goes down.
You can improve this by adding active cooling to the print area and/or printing several modesl at once which gives the plastic time to cool between layers.

[tigerprinter]

printing too slow on a small model results in the plastic staying hot and still soft when the next layer goes down.

I tend to disagree. I've found that when printing very small items with a normal/fast feedrate, the layer it's trying to print on is still soft so the whole thing gets mushed and wiggled around like jello as the extruder drags along the item. Slowing it down (via the "minlayerduration" option in Makerbot Desktop json file) as well as calibrating the feed diameter and feedstock multiplier solved my problem.

printing several modesl at once which gives the plastic time to cool between layers.

Fully agree with that--that's the best solution I've found.

[catalyst]

I have this same printer, and I'm having similar issues. Stefan, did you ever figure it out? Some of my prints come out good, and others are pretty rough. Any time I up the infill, they come out looking pretty rough, though. Should I be able to print ABS at 100% infill without issue?

I also picked up Simplify3D, but the print quality was worse that I was getting with ReplicatorG, so I likely need to fine tune and tweak the settings once I start reading up on it and learning it.

I am also using Microcenter's cheap $15 Filament, so I might grab a roll of something else today to try it out.

[RobH2]

Simplify3D is not unlike any other slicer in that you won't generally get amazing prints right out of the bag by default. You'll need to get in there and figure it out and tweak a bit. But once you get it you'll love it I think, especially once you start playing with the 'custom' supports.

[catalyst]

Yeah, I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, but with ReplicatorG's supports, my prints were coming out fine. With Simplify3D's, the bottom of every print is saggy and loopy.

I am sure I can fix it, but out of the box, it is significantly worse than what I had.

[stefan]

I have this same printer, and I'm having similar issues. Stefan, did you ever figure it out? Some of my prints come out good, and others are pretty rough. Any time I up the infill, they come out looking pretty rough, though. Should I be able to print ABS at 100% infill without issue?

I also picked up Simplify3D, but the print quality was worse that I was getting with ReplicatorG, so I likely need to fine tune and tweak the settings once I start reading up on it and learning it.

I am also using Microcenter's cheap $15 Filament, so I might grab a roll of something else today to try it out.

I can't confirm 100% that I've worked through all the issues, but I've attached my latest print of the 'fully printable PCB vice' drive screw from thingiverse, and it's my best yet. I was looking my printer over and found a few surprises, like my Y-axis stepper mount was broken, photo attached. After replacing the mount with the spare provided with the PowerSpec 3D Pro, I also tightened up the Y-axis belt (loosen the two mounting screws on back of machine, push down to increase belt tension, and tighten screws again), and also tightened the X-axis belt (loosen the four screws, increase tension by pulling to the right, re-tighten). I then leveled the bed once more after pre-heating to 105C and set feedstockMultiplier to 1.08 in Makerbot Desktop. I just got Simplify3D too, but haven't used it yet.

IMG_20141226_190907.jpgIMG_20141222_135731.jpg