MakerGear Forum

Hi All,

New(er) Makergear M2 dual extruder owner here and I'm about to pull my remaining hair out over my prints from Simplify3D. I've upgraded from a Wanhao i3 to the Makergear. My prints from Simplifiy3D have blobs and zits but my prints from Cura do not. I've attached some pictures below. You can see while the Cura print doesn't have any blobs, bumps, zits or ridges the simplify3d is a "tighter" printer overall. I'd love to see if there's something else I can change. I'm using the VEDual PLA Left Single Extruder profile found here on the forums. I've tweaked it to get it to this point.

Note: I set the latest print to start each layer in the same place thus the seam on the print. If I don't, I get the random zits and blobs. Here are my current settings

Extruder
Retraction is checked
Retraction Distance - 6.00mm (high yes, but this is what is set in Cura)
Extra Restart Distance - -.05mm
Retraction Vertical Lift - 0 (this didn't seem to make a difference)
Retraction Speed - 2400mm/min
Coasting at End is not checked
Wipe Nozzle is not checked

Advanced
Only retract when crossing open spaces is not checked
Force retraction between layers is not checked
Minimum travel for retraction -v.7mm
Perform retraction during wipe movement is checked
Only wipe extruder for outer-most perimeters is checked
Avoid crossing outline for travel movements is checked

I would appreciate any and all help to get rid of this seam and/or zits and blobs in Simplify3D. Thanks!

Have a look here https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin ... s-and-zits

sthone wrote:Have a look here https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin ... s-and-zits

Thanks, I've seen that and made many of my changes based on it. It hasn't helped much. I feel like I'm missing something small as the issue ONLY seems to be in Simplify3D. I'm open to all suggestions at this point!

Your retraction at 6.00mm seems really high. (don't think I've gone over 2mm)

You can try playing with the coast & wipe settings too but it helps to watch and see if the blobs are forming at the start of the layer or at the end.

Don't know what to tell you - the original you loaded had a higher negative Extra Restart Distance (-0.2 mm), with Retraction for PLA = 1.0 mm.

You can always try adding a little Wipe of about 1 mm or so. Might help.

sthone wrote:Your retraction at 6.00mm seems really high. (don't think I've gone over 2mm)

You can try playing with the coast & wipe settings too but it helps to watch and see if the blobs are forming at the start of the layer or at the end.

Agreed on the 6.00mm but tried it as a "what the hell, because Cura has it" moment.

Blobs are for sure at the beginning of the layer

Jules,

Can you explain this more?

Jules wrote: had a higher negative Extra Restart Distance (-0.2 mm), with Retraction for PLA = 1.0 mm.

should I go back to these settings as "square one" and start again tweaking?

No you don't necessarily have to go all the way back....just add more negative Extra Restart Distance there....you've got -0.05, I used -0.2.

The 6 mm retraction you have might be working against you because it might be shooting out too much to compensate. Try cutting that back. PLA doesn't really need a lot of retraction.

It's hard to get that little octopus dialed in - circular shapes always show some slight mark at the starting and stopping point. But you can reduce the effects. I personally prefer to scatter the starting points to not get that ridge, but some folks like to just shave it off.

It's just a matter of fiddling with it a bit.

Yeah I picked that model specifically to have the seam stand out (or zits when I randomize start points). I'll make some changes tonight and update this thread probably tomorrow.

Thanks for the help!

Happy tweaking!