Help me dial this PETG in...

[MikeWi]

Hatchbox. That just happened to be the right speed to cancel out or prevent the ringing. At that time, I had done nothing to tune that out, so I can't take credit.

 

[great white]

Everyone has a different view of acceptable. I print parts that have 0.8mm walls that are visible inside parts that must look as if they are machined with absolutely no stringing or nubbing. PETG will never give you the detail you can obtain from a quality PLA. What you are showing is perfect for it's purpose and I would be happy with it.

Not to be argumentative, but I can print same quality in petg that I can in pla. Do it all the time.

In fact, in many ways, I prefer petg to pla.

I prefer abs over both.

Abs is notoriously difficult to print well, but I’ve got my equipment set up and processes down to the point its easy for my to print abs. YMMV.

if you see line layers in the pics I posted, thats because they were printed with a 1.0 nozzle to reduce the print time.

Those were for structural uses, so I cut down my print time with a larger nozzle. Surface finish was not overly important for the purpose the finished pieces were intended for, so I sacrificed surface finish for a shorter run time.

If I want surface finish quality, I drop down to a .2 or .4, adjust a fee parameter like retraction, travel, etc and just accept that its going to take a day or so to make simple prints.

IMHO, there’s no substitute for TI with whatever equipment and filament type you’re using.

 

[weston1968]

I have shipped thousands of parts. I have the advantage of printing the same parts over and over so I have a real good feel for the strengths and weakness' of brands ands types of filaments because I compare identical parts. I buy production rolls 100 at a time, and use creeping incrementalism to very very gradually improve quality.

I build my own machines with large quality bearings. I can grab the bed or the print head and there is zero play. I use heavy GT2 belts to reduce shadowing and the design has zero axial load on the .9 degree x,y steppers. I use the Robo R2 code which I ported it into a different control board that I designed. My extruder uses a dual gear feed and the path is through brass tubing all the way down to the heat sink. I machine my own heater blocks out of brass because aluminum has a much different rate of contraction. I find that printing problems to be like an onion. As you solve large problems you expose smaller problems, on and on with each set of problems being lesser. So I decided to reduce the effect of the hardware.

I have fooled myself very many times. Printed parts that were acceptable with lesser machines I now find unacceptable. with my new machines. I suppose as I improve the hardware my expectations for quality in parts will rise. I am now at the point where filament brand is the most important consideration.

It also means that we can not compare our output since our expectations and parts are different, we do not know whos are greater. The only thing that can help in the comparison is finding out each others settings and experimenting. I have never been in a place where someone else did not do it better.

 

[MikeWi]

Nice! We get a request for config files all the time on the discord channel, so my response has become somewhat automatic, but it remains true that most of what really matters is just too individual. Didn't mean to sound pompous!

 

[MikeWi]

That said, I can't believe that you can't get good prints with that setup. I'm still willing to help you out if you have questions, but I use different firmware and slicer software.

 

[weston1968]

That said, I can't believe that you can't get good prints with that setup. I'm still willing to help you out if you have questions, but I use different firmware and slicer software.

I did not say that I could not get good prints. I print and sell production quantities of PETG parts that I find only acceptable. PETG I use where temperature is a problem. I want to print high definition parts that look as if they were machined. I can get that with my best PLA+.

When I said unacceptable with my new machines I was not clear. My new machines print so much better that I will no longer accept the quality from the old machines.

I have gone through every PETG manufacturer in the US and many outside. No PETG will match the strength of my strongest PLA+. As I reduce flow rate to get better definition I get better visual results, by my very fussy standards, but strength also degrades. What I find is that good finish with PETG corresponds to lack of detail. By detail I am talking about 0.8mm walls that look machined.

 

[7milesup]

I did not say that I could not get good prints. I print and sell production quantities of PETG parts that I find only acceptable. PETG I use where temperature is a problem. I want to print high definition parts that look as if they were machined. I can get that with my best PLA+.

When I said unacceptable with my new machines I was not clear. My new machines print so much better that I will no longer accept the quality from the old machines.

I have gone through every PETG manufacturer in the US and many outside. No PETG will match the strength of my strongest PLA+. As I reduce flow rate to get better definition I get better visual results, by my very fussy standards, but strength also degrades. What I find is that good finish with PETG corresponds to lack of detail. By detail I am talking about 0.8mm walls that look machined.

Not sure what you are asking, then.
It sounds like you have done enough printing to understand the capabilities of your machine. Are you looking for very fine detail in super thin walls? If so, then you need an SLA machine, simple as that.

 

[weston1968]

I get fine detail in super thin walls in production with the right PLA+. On these same machines I can only get acceptable PETG parts. Others are doing much better, not just you. I am trying to find out what I am doing wrong. I would like to see someone's settings who is getting good results. As far as I see it there are a few major settings, speed, flow, temperature, acceleration. and lots of minor settings retraction, coasting etc. Someone who gets good results would give me a chance to see if I am doing something that could be improved on.

The cost of making an acceptable part is the same as making an excellent part and I want to make excellent parts. I have years of research and thousands of dollars into every manufactures materials with $10,000 into printers. SLA is not an option because lots of people like yourself have the ability to produce good result and I am hoping you will share.

I could really use the help.

 

[7milesup]

Ah, I see what you are after now @weston1968.
I am afraid I have only made "good" parts on PLA and PETG. I have a Prusa Mk2.5s, which has worked very well over the years, but it seems to be showing its age. It is five years old and has had a lot of printing done on it. I am currently building a Voron 2.4r, from which I am hoping to get better print results from.
I have printed a fair amount of PETG, and it is my go-to for the most part, but I don't believe (actually, I know) that my parts would not be up to your standards. I am ok with that because up to this point, my application of the printer is for my use in my shop and making items for friends, etc.

 

[weston1968]

Ah, I see what you are after now @weston1968.
I am afraid I have only made "good" parts on PLA and PETG. I have a Prusa Mk2.5s, which has worked very well over the years, but it seems to be showing its age. It is five years old and has had a lot of printing done on it. I am currently building a Voron 2.4r, from which I am hoping to get better print results from.
I have printed a fair amount of PETG, and it is my go-to for the most part, but I don't believe (actually, I know) that my parts would not be up to your standards. I am ok with that because up to this point, my application of the printer is for my use in my shop and making items for friends, etc.

I fully understand and I use my Robo R2's for making parts. Unless I am making parts for sale and each part must print reliably and look great I do the same. Most people look at the parts I print for them which are coming off my R2' and say they look great. Perfectly okay if you are making one part. If your run is 500 and each part must come off the printer with no waste and people are paying for them, they have different expectations because they no nothing about 3D printing. They are comparing to injection molded parts. I come damn close with one or two brands of PLA. I have some simple parts I can print in PETG. I have never received a complaint, but the parts are not up to my standards. I have to modify designs that use PETG to make them stronger. I can use 30% less plastic in a strong PLA and haver greater strength than any PETG I have tested and that includes Hatchbox.

In no way am I denigrating anyone else's parts. People print parts for a purpose and everything I have seen here looks good for the purpose intended. The printers I build have their parts printed on R2's because finish quality is not the priority, availability is since it takes months to print all of the parts. Some of which are 2 parts to a 1kg roll. The finish on those parts looks "good".