Variations in filament performance
Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 2:54 am
I was wondering how much variation people are experiencing with filament. I have used from two different spools of PLA. One is red from Makerbot. Mother other is black from some other source (I'm not sure where it came from).
The red was the first I used and I basically tuned my BOT to it. The print quality is very acceptable both on the sides and top surface. I get the best results at 200deg C. I am printing pretty slow shooting for quality rather than speed. I need to work on speed some day.
I just received and started using the black. The sides of my print looks as good as the red. However, the quality of the surface is lacking. I have adjusted the average diameter and experimented with temperature (185-205) but can't get as good of quality on top surface. It's kind of rippled almost like there is too much plastic being extruded. I have checked diameter and extruder calibration. I even went down a bit below the actual diameter but began to see gaps in the passes.
Any ideas? I don't have good enough light tonight for a good photo of the black surface.
Do you experience significant differences in brands of filament?
The red was the first I used and I basically tuned my BOT to it. The print quality is very acceptable both on the sides and top surface. I get the best results at 200deg C. I am printing pretty slow shooting for quality rather than speed. I need to work on speed some day.
I just received and started using the black. The sides of my print looks as good as the red. However, the quality of the surface is lacking. I have adjusted the average diameter and experimented with temperature (185-205) but can't get as good of quality on top surface. It's kind of rippled almost like there is too much plastic being extruded. I have checked diameter and extruder calibration. I even went down a bit below the actual diameter but began to see gaps in the passes.
Any ideas? I don't have good enough light tonight for a good photo of the black surface.
Do you experience significant differences in brands of filament?