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What would cause this effect, and how can it be avoided?

This is a PLA print, and it should look like this. I tried 215 and 225°C and both had the same effect. An earlier similar print at 220°C was not as bad but it still had some catching- it seems hit and miss and not strongly related to extrusion temperature.

Outside:

enter image description here

Inside:

enter image description here

I'm using a QIDI dual extruder printer with Makerware 2.2.2.89 software and these parameters:

enter image description here

enter image description here

Speed is 60/80mm/s.

Spehro 'speff' Pefhany
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2 Answers2

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I think that you should first verify that you have the latest firmware and a newer version of MakerWare. I experienced similar issues around that version of MakerWare and remember a lot of print errors came with it.

I believe the MakerBot Dual firmware is somewhere around 7.? and is no longer in development.

MakerWare is also no longer in development as a standalone application and seems to have been ported over to the MakerBot Desktop. However I've personally found v2.4.1 to be substantially more stable than v2.2.

I have not tested it, but supposedly the new MakerBot Desktop (v3.10) is compatible with the Replicator Dual "Original". I had tried an earlier version of MakerBot Desktop and reverted back to MakerWare 2.4 because I ran into issues with connectivity. However, I'm not certain it was an issue with software so much as the exploding voltage regulator...

It might be best to give the new software a shot and/or try v2.4 of MakerWare, if you can find it.

Here's the link to the latest MakerBot Desktop

Here's the release notes for MakerWare/MakerBot Desktop v1.0-latest (v3.10+)

tbm0115
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2

As pointed out in the comments, what you are seeing could very well be related to lack of cooling:

You may notice that the irregularity in the print become more and more pronounced the further up you see. I believe this happens because the area that is printed is reduced gradually closer to the top, which in turn will give each printed layer less time to cool. (The frequent revisits of the hot nozzle will not allow the top layer to cool naturally.)

This problem is very common when printing models with small cross-sections, and are typically solved by:

  • Installing additional print cooling fans (cooling the actual print, not the hotend/heat sink)
  • Printing several items at the same time (to increase the cross-section)
  • Reducing print speed (gives more time to cool, but might not work for very small models)
  • Reduce printing temperature

If you can, installing additional fans and/or printing multiple objects at the same time are probably the most efficient solutions - in my opinion. However, either method would be worth exploring.

PS: When printing PLA, set your fans to full. ABS, on the other hand, does not like cooling.

Tormod Haugene
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