Makerbot Replicator: Poor Print Quality

[bigseb]

This is not a dig at Makerbot :!:

I sent a model of one of my projects the local Maketbot reseller to have a sample printed. My line of work is injection mould design and related product design (so mostly thin-wall stuff) so printing toy rockets and the like is not really a good test.

I received the sample earlier this evening was quite shocked to honest. Its nowhere near is good as I expected. Obviously I don't expect it to be of moulded quality but this was quite poor. I have uploaded a screenshot of the model and a photo of the printed part. Note the circled areas in the screenshot.




Is this result normal?

 

[MikeHenry]

Wow, that does look pretty bad. Perhaps the feature dimensions are too small for a good 3D print. Do you know the layer depth and material it was printed with? Probably PLA? Did you run it through GMD's printability feature?

If you are still looking for printers by the time I get my Zortrax, I can try to run a sample for you on that.

Mike

 

[bigseb]

Do you know the layer depth and material it was printed with? Probably PLA?

Layer depth is 0.15mm. That's fine for a sample like this i.e. the layer resolution isn't the concern. it's all the garbage that shouldn't be there. Looks nothing like the model... And yes, its PLA.

Did you run it through GMD's printability feature?

No. Should I?

If you are still looking for printers by the time I get my Zortrax, I can try to run a sample for you on that.

Cheers!!

 

[MikeHenry]

Wish I could help more, but am probably more of a novice than you at this, given your mold work background. It seems that I've seen threads of material like that in photos of others work when the filament hadn't cooled enough and the extruder head dragged some slightly molten material along on it's next jog. Possibly fan speed or other driver settings could at least improve the appearance if not fix it outright. I've been reading and YouTubing slicer topics and there are interesting challenges in printing parts like this at high quality. I've read that ABS can be a royal PITA to get right and even experts can go through a couple trials before getting good results. PLA is supposed to be more forgiving there, which is discouraging in the case of your sample print. Maybe the reseller didn't have enough time to do a proper job of it.

If you haven't already done so, you might try posting the images on the Makerbot forum and see if anyone there has some useful comments. Hopefully one of the 3D printer folks here will pipe up with some insight.

Mike

 

[rcheliman]

If you send over the file I will print it out for you for a comparison.
I have seen better results off of a Makerbot. If the printer is one of the old (wooded) replicators then I from my experience, yes, that is typical. If it is from a newer machine (black metal case) then something is wrong with his printer or its setup.
Let me know if you want me to do a test print for you.
David