I still have no idea what I’m doing really. Just too determined to give up I guess, and it’s been such fun. Anyway I made a guitar pedal light switch cover. Still a lot of work to do, and every time I look at FreeCAD the wrong way, the model breaks, but it’s been a fun experience nonetheless.
On a side note, anybody have any idea why the face of the model is rough textured, while the foot switch on the lower half is flawless?
It appears that you need to get the nozzle closer to the print bed. You shouldn’t have gaps between the lines like the rough side. Also, check the slicer settings to make sure it’s doing several top layers/walls.
Please forgive my rudimentary knowledge here, but if it was a z height issue, wouldn’t it affect the bottom part of the print where it’s nice and smooth as well? I clean and level between every print, and the corners seem to be very snug at least using the paper method. It’s just enough clearance that I can still push and pull the paper without it catching on the nozzle
How can you tell that OP hasn’t leveled their bed properly? You can’t see the bottom layer in their picture.
Not level, Z height. Z height shows as lines spaced too far apart. Could also be under-extruding.
Sure, on the first layer. We can’t see the first layer here, only the top layer, so it can’t be the z height.
As far as I know, z height affects all layers. Check out https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/original-prusa-i3-mk3s-mk3-how-do-i-print-this-printing-help/rough-top-layer-surface-on-new-prints-after-recent-z-axis-calibration/ and see if that makes any sense.
This has happened to me before - a messed up z height will affect all layers because the squish isn’t there at any layer. You’ll always have that difference in height between the surface being built and the nozzle no matter what layer you’re on.
Skimming that post shows a lot of people saying that first layer doesn’t affect top layer. What is your definition of z height? We may have a definition issue on our hands here. To me, it means the distance between the nozzle and the bed on the first layer.
I’d be with you on the underextrusion though if the very top layer didn’t look so good. I would bet OP doesn’t have enough layers on top of the infill leading to an artifact that resembles underextrusion.