I am having issues calibrating the retraction on my printer. the model on the left is the bridge section from 3DBenchy, while the one on the right is a retraction test tower I designed (although that is too strong a word in this case). The issue is that the 3dbenchy (and this subset of it) has quite a lot of stringing at pretty much all retraction settings, while the test tower, which has similarly sized features and spacing, has no stringing at pretty much all retraction settings. Does anybody have any idea why benchy is stringing and my test isn’t? All settings are the same…
1 Like
Can you share the the gcode files?
My guess is the more complex geometry of the benchy is causing more moves crossing the middle than the ideal geometry of your test piece.
If that’s the filament that came with the printer, try something else.
Also, changing the position of a model can help.
With that said, you really shouldn’t have to mess with the retraction settings.
Have you printed a temperature tower with that filament? When I have stringing, I usually solve it by lowering the temperature, more than I solve it with increasing retraction, although both have their place in an optimized filament profile. There is a good reason that OrcaSlicer has Temperature as the first calibration and Retraction Test is the fourth calibration.
I also try to use a few standard filaments for everything I print. I love trying new filaments or getting a bargain on some cheap filament I’ve never used before but that’s a false savings. A few extra dollars for a spool of my tried and true filament is a bargain if I can avoid spending an hour getting the “bargain” filament to print well.
I’ve been using other filaments, I was just using this spool for recalibrating everything after various upgrades. Unfortunately, it appears that whatever Sovol is using for their filament, it’s not good. I did indeed give up on it and have good retraction with PLA with:
[firmware_retraction]
retract_length: .3
retract_speed: 75
unretract_extra_length: 0
unretract_speed: 65
This doesn’t really explain why the stringing only happens on the 3D benchy, though. It Is A Mystery…
The filament they sell is good, I don’t know what they are giving away with the printers.
Every filament spool supplied with my printers was of poor quality. Either too dry or too damp.
But your’re right, otherwise their filaments you buy are of good quality.