i’ve been battling this wrinkling phenomenon for weeks. it shows up at random, and i can’t figure out what i’m doing wrong. i’ve changed layer height. i’ve checked the z-offset of the extruder. i’ve lowered acceleration to 1/10th of normal. i’ve lowered the flow rate. i’ve raised the flow rate. i’ve cleaned the plate with soapy water and IPA. i’ve checked for bumps on plate and the bed. i’ve flipped the plate over. i’ve done automatic and manual levelling. i’ve redone the bed compensation calibration like twelve times. i’ve moved and rotated my print. i’ve tried different colours, materials and makes. i’ve dried the filaments to under 10% humidity. i’ve switched extruders. i’ve placed the printer on a mass damper (a 25kg slab of concrete on top of a 2cm thick rubber granule mat). the last thing i did was physically holding on to the extruder as it moved (that’s what that thicker band in the top left is).
this can happen no matter how far along the print i am. it can be fine for the first 300 layers, then start happening on layer 320 and be so serious that the extruder hits the wrinkles and loses its place on layer 330. i’ve been sitting there staring at the printer as it does it and the filament just seems to… come out like that. it doesn’t expand or anything. and sometimes it doesn’t happen at all. the only common denominator is that all the prints that it happens on have large horizontal planes.
i don’t think this is caused by overextrusion of the first layer, partly because it never happens on the first layer, and partially because i did a bed adhesion test:
yeah adhesion is awful here. i forgot to actually clean the plate this time. but the part in the middle is the only one that matters, and that is clean. if anything that looks like underextrusion. i just don’t understand. i think i need professional help. first from the 3d printing community, then from a therapist.
here’s my bed compensation matrix, for reference:
I’ve seen wrinkling like that occur on taller parts with lower infill when the outer shell traps warm/hot air, which distorts the top of the shell as it tries to escape.
If that’s at play here (it doesn’t feel exactly right, though), then as others have suggested, perhaps it’s a cooling fan speed setting?
Any chance your bed is too hot, or some settings like first layer temp/final layer temp are causing unexpected issues? That’s a giant skirt for a large, flat piece. Is the thing tacoing on you?
My other thought on this could be uneven drying of your filament. Perhaps one side is drying to 10%, and the other side is not. Any way to rotate the filament as it’s drying?
How long are you drying for?
this printer reads the manufacturer settings from the spool so i was assuming it couldn’t be the fan. probably worth tweaking though.
i don’t know why but it just keeps coming loose. all the edges just want to bend up. a 2mm skirt wasn’t enough so i went to five.
this spool was dried in a polydryer on low heat for six hours at which point the hygrometer read 10%, left there overnight to see if the humidity climbed back up as it cooled (it didn’t), then tossed into my long-term spool storage (a big plastic bin with a half-kilo dessicant bag meant to dry out cars) where it’s been for something like two weeks. humidity in there is like 8%. if it’s not dried out after that i don’t know what will do it.
If the first layer is good, this looks like some sort of over-extrusion.
How many layers up is this? The more solid layers, the less overextrusion it takes to get this pattern.
And yes, it’s normal to have it in areas like this, with no good explanation of why it’s a problem “there”, and not “there”.
A good closeup would help diagnose this. Maybe even a nice closeup video of how it looks while it’s printing. When I get these results, it’s very clearly overextrusion, when I look closer.
If it is overextrusion, there are many solutions, each with different side-effects. You can consider doing an extension rate calibritation, with the exact filament roll you are using. Or maybe simply adjust the extrusion rate down a little bit.
on the original image it’s like 7 layers in, but i did another adhesion test (after properly wiping the plate) with two layers and wrinkling happened instantly on the second layer.
i’ve done a flow rate test but i don’t have time to sit down and look at it today.