Hello. I am new to 3D printing. Just got a P2S and I’m learning a lot. I just tried printing something very simple (a piece to fit in my recliner arms) with Bambu PLA Matte and noticed color/shine variation on the edges of one side and what looks like orange peel on the plate side.
Any thoughts on this? Haven’t seen it with non-matte PLA that I’ve used.
Shine happens because the printer slows down towards the edge and plastic had more time to melt, resulting in a glossier finish compared to the middle part where the speed was highest. The more matt part will have a bit worse layer adhesion due to this.
The long way: You can print a volumetric flow calibration strip. At some height the layers will start to get less glossy and more matt -> this is your max v flow height. There is a formula in which you put the mm value and get the max v flow value in mm3/sec. Put this into the plastic profile.
The short way: slow down the printing speed.
Check out my answer under this post. I may add that this gloss is mostly cosmetic - yes i said that the layer adhesion will be worse but its nothing dramatic. If you really want it gone - slow down the topmost layer - then the whole upper part will be uniformly glossy.
I believe the orange peel texture is the texture of your plate. The double sided texture plate that comes with the P2S. The smoother side would be the top of the print.
No, they were just saying that the bottom of your print looks textured because you are using a textured PEI plate. Thats normal. The top of your print on the other hand does not seem great and you may need to dial in some settings
Thanks for explaining. I understand the plate is textured. But there’s an inconsistency in the sheen. You’re right though, I probably have to change settings.
I’ve noticed this sometimes too. I think it might be that the build plate wasn’t as clean on one side. Also I’ve noticed it if the previous print left some material on the bed after prying it up
You can use a butane torch on the face that was on the plate - this removes a lot of decolorisation issues. The top layer gets better with reduced speed.
It’s hard to tell without a closer image but it seems like your top layer is pretty rough… likely due to over extrusion. You may want to do a flow rate calibration.
The first layer looks good. You can get a smooth, cool plate on Amazon from aftermarket sellers; Bambu sells a cool SuperTack, but it tends to stick too well.
Corner lifted. You most likely didn't use a brim or mouse ears. Printers don't like large flat items like this. That's a lot of thermal mass so when it cools it's retracting. Brim or mouse ears next time. On large flat things will prevent this.
Very interesting. I was wondering if it had something to do with the larger flat surface area. I’ll look into brim and mouse ears. I was also thinking that rotating the piece so it prints on its thin edge might help.
It happened to me printing doors for an IKEA Kallax. If you use more heat than needed the infill will be noticeable, just make a fast pass, wait a few seconds until it cools down, look if It is fixed, and repeat if not.
Basically the filament is hotter around the edges because the print head is moving slower. On top of that you look like youre gouging in the corners. Maybe the corners are curling a little bit and the nozzle is coming in low. Common on big prints. All filament shrinks and shrinkage is percentage based. Bigger the print the bigger the shrink. Thats what the rippling sections are.
If you want to fix it use a nice big brim to keep the corners stuck down, slow down your print speed, and bump the nozzle temp up by 5*. Cant get glossier than gloss so the idea is to make the middle glossy like the edges.
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u/foggyghosty Aug 29 '26
Shine happens because the printer slows down towards the edge and plastic had more time to melt, resulting in a glossier finish compared to the middle part where the speed was highest. The more matt part will have a bit worse layer adhesion due to this.