General tips and tweaking after first prints

noobmaker

So, I've printed a few tests on my newly acquired A5, and also switched slicer from JGCreat to cura 3.2, and I'd like to further improve the print quality.

I was impressed with the first benchy that I printed, using JGCreat default "Normal" pla profile, the only issues I had were with the characters at the bottom not being very clear.

This benchy actually took about two hours, which is also more than it should have, and I'm not sure if maybe it's the printer, or anything else, that made it so slow.

The problem I'm facing right now, however, is stringing, and generally some extra material being printed in the wrong spots, which is an issue especially with tolerances and parts that should fit together.

First attempt at an All in One test with default Cura settingsComparison with the second test made with the default JGCreat profile.

Also, when printing the upper parts of the overhangs I noticed that the layers weren't flat at some point, I don't know how they ended up looking somewhat straight.

I forgot to say that I've followed the first advices on how to level the bed, and already cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol once, and now I'm not sure wether or not to update the firmware with the community one. Does it make a big difference in quality?

So, what are the first settings that I should check to improve the quality? I'd like to be able to print parts that can fit into oneother to build more complicated structures.

Samuel Pinches

I'd recommend the community firmware - it will not help the inaccurate print times (in fact, it will probably be worse!) but the quality should be improved a little bit, as well as a number of other advantages.

There is also Cura 4.0 if you want to try - there is a basic A5 profile already in there included now, but you can still tweak it further for your printer.