I am making a part for my next door neighbor for use outside in the weather so I used PETG. First time I have printed with it and the sides seem to have some surface issues.
Is there a known cause for these kind of marks. They are on the same place in the z direction and one of the parts was printed at .2 height and the other was printed at .16. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Might help if we had a little more detail,
What brand PETG
What temp
Retraction
Printer
My 1st thought is that it’s over extruding a little or maybe the temp is a tad to hot
I just looked at the part I made in in PLA, I gave it to the person I made it for before I looked too close, and it had the same property.
I’m using Overture PETG with the temp set in the middle of the temperature range on the package, 230 - 250 so I picked 240. From your suggestion I am making one now with the temp at 235.
Not sure what to look for for retraction, I am new, new, new, trying to figure out just what to expect.
The printer is an Ender 3 S1 Pro.
I will add more info for next question, I appreciate your thoughts.
Because the marks lined up and I used a different layer thickness for each and now I know it was the same on the PLA filament, My thoughts are leaning toward a slicer problem. The marks are on the sides of the piece at different z layers.
I normally run retraction at 0.80 most of the time. I’d have to look and see what I’m printing my Overture PETG at.
It’s also possible that your filament is wet, PETG absorbs moisture, I store mine in cereal containers I bought off Amazon and put a pack of desiccant in it. I store my TPU the same way.
Hello I will be following this thread too. I need to print in PETG as well for some outdoor bird feeders and such. Southern California weather and sun. Is PETG the best choice. I will be using a pursa 4 but I am really new to 3D printing. Really like the channal Irv BTW.
Nothing to do with filament… It’s a slicer setting… Keep on fiddling and watch even more YTube.
The only issue with figuring this out is, how to make a test piece that doesn’t take hours to print. There are so many slicer parameters, I could spend the rest of my life trying to sort this out. I know the parameters that could affect the outside are limited, time to learn more.
The filament was not wet, at least I highly doubt it. I just opened it from the vacuum sealed bag just before the print.
I will look for how to set the retraction, way too many parameters, argh. Need to keep a lab book.
Retraction is on the Printer tab.
It is possible for new filament to be wet but it’s rare or at least for me. You can actually use your printer to dry filament. Cut the lid off a filament box, tape the window up if it has one. Lay the filament on the bed put the box over it and heat the bed to 45c and let it sit for 4 hours.
I took a food dehydrator and made it into a filament dryer that I can dry 2 rolls of filament at a time.
There is a pretty good learning curve when you 1st get into 3D printing but it does get easier. Check out Erv’s Youtube channel, same name as the forum. He has many videos to help 1st timers and old timers too.
To get the retraction dialed in for PETG the best way is to print a retraction tower which is a pretty fast print. With you you can tune the retraction and the temp to stop most of the stringing which can cause the globs you are seeing. This might help you get it dialed in
@Nefarious Here’s my PETG profile for PrusaSlicer, I’m using Polymaker PETG in the profile. Hopefully this will get you closer to your desired results.
PS-PETG-config.ini (9.7 KB)
I think you could try checking the print removal: PETG filament can be very tightly bound to the surface and there is a risk of damage when removed. If it sticks too tightly, consider using a cooling technique (allowing the bed to cool completely) or a tool to gently lift it.
