Recommended Settings For MatterHackers Build Series and Prusa MK3?



  • I've bought a few Matter Hackers Build Series spools (Black, Blue, Glow In the Dark). The default Prusa MK3 settings didn't quite do it and I ended up with 220/65 for the first layer and 215/65 for the others. Works great but does seem to cause quite a bit of stringing. I've been following both the MatterHackers retraction guide as well as Prusa and E3D's suggestions. I think I've improved things (so far enabling firmware retraction and lowering my temperatures down to 205 and 200) but I still get some thin strings.

    I am using a .4 hardened steel nozzle (I installed it for the glow in the dark stuff) in case that matters. I did get stirnging on the .8 copper/nickel nozzle too but those were for structural parts where stringing was mostly a non issue.

    Any thoughts? The Prusa PLA seems to print very well and likewise the Bamtack! PLA (though at lower temperatures). I was hoping to standardize on one brand for most of my PLA needs to limit the need for a bunch of different profiles and spending a lot of time calibrating (plus if/when I get the Prusa MU upgrade that would seem to make things easier).

    Thoughts?



  • I should probably mention I'm mostly using Black. I noticed that for small parts the lowered temperature seems to work ok, but for large parts seems to cause some adhesion to the first layer and have since cranked my temperatures back up to 220/215 but with a higher base fan speed (75%) to see if that helps. I'm also going to try another MH Retraction test print with 2mm retraction, though I think the strings might actually be more temperature related and I'm not sure if I can really optimize those away given the above conundrum.



  • Hearing Crickets I thought I'd share settings that, so far, seem to be quite an improvement over where I started. Starting with the Prusa settings at 0.15mm layer height, generic PLA, and the MK3 .4 nozzle profile, these are the changes:

    Print Settings:
    First Layer Speed: 10mm/sec

    Filament Settings:
    First Layer: 220/65
    Other Layers: 215/65
    Cooling: 75-100%

    Printer Settings:
    Retraction: 1.4mm

    The higher retraction is a tad worrisome since, while E3D says you can go up to 2, they said no more than .8mm for PLA should be required. Going to 1.2mm is passable for some models but stringy for others and .8mm tends to be a mess. If I lower the other layer temps much below 215, I get layer adhesion issues.


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