First layer of print comes out poorly even when placed on a raft (which prints fine)

Question

I'm printing PLA with the Creality Ender 2 and my print comes out totally fine with the exception of the first layer.

Here's the weird part though, if I place a raft or a brim below/around the print - the raft or brim will print perfectly cleanly. Even on a raft though, the very first layer of the actual print comes out ugly, as seen in the photo below, but the raft itself will be perfectly printed.

Following that first ugly layer of the actual print, the rest of the print will be 100% clean. This happens consistently every time I print any object.

The perfectly printed raft can be seen on the right and the ugly first layer that printed on top of that raft can be seen on the left. Be sure to click the image to see the details of what I mean.

Please add which material you are printing. E.g. PLA does not require a raft. — 0scar, Aug 05 '18 at 08:17
Edited - I am using PLA but read my comment below on why I added raft. Cheers — Matt, Aug 05 '18 at 15:24

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 05 '18 at 06:25

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Turns out it had to do with the nature of the small holes that I was printing. I had to slow the speed of the initial layer down from 25mm/s to 15mm/s and also set Cura to 'optimize wall printing order' so that it didn't jump back and forth between holes constantly.

I also sped up the travel speed to 50mm/s on the initial layer to minimize oozing (although I'm not sure this actually did anything). Print came out beautifully.

Didn't even need the raft.

answered Aug 05 '18 at 06:25

Matt

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The first layer of your product is always more rough when printing on a raft than on the plate or glass. It is the nature of the raft. – 0scar Aug 05 '18 at 06:41
@0scar it wasn't just the raft though, I initially tried printing on the bed and had the same issue so I added the raft because I thought the issue was caused by poor bed adherence – Matt Aug 05 '18 at 15:23
SInce you had success at two different speeds, it would appear speed is irrelevant. You might want to edit your answer accordingly. – Carl Witthoft Aug 06 '18 at 15:38
@Carl I didn't have success at 25mm/s - I was saying I had to lower the speed to 15mm/s from the initial 25mm/s in order to print successfully – Matt Aug 06 '18 at 20:56

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 05 '18 at 05:33

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Sounds like you need to get the printing nozzle closer to the bed. In the case of the raft you can adjust the 'air gap' which is how much it raises off the top of the raft before starting the print.

answered Aug 05 '18 at 05:33

Perplexed Dipole

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First layer of print comes out poorly even when placed on a raft (which prints fine)

2 Answers2