Surface finish
The print holds its shape and the surface is still wrong. Four different surfaces, four different causes — none of them motion.
Rough, “turbulent” walls
Section titled “Rough, “turbulent” walls”Perimeters that look disturbed rather than smooth, as if the melt were churning. This is a flow and material symptom, not a mechanical one, and the feedstock is the usual variable: the same machine and settings can print a clean filled grade smooth and a recycled grade turbulent.
| Cause | What to do |
|---|---|
| Irregular or recycled feedstock — uneven particle size, uneven melt | Sieve the fines, try a more uniform grade, recalibrate Rotation Volume for the batch |
| Wet material — steam bubbles read as turbulence | Dry it: Starting the dryer. See PETG foaming and moisture |
| Flow not dialled in | Rotation Volume, then Pressure Advance |
| Too hot — the melt is being cooked | Check the zone temperatures against the profile: Multi-Heating Zones |
If you report it, send a clear photo of the wall. Turbulence is diagnosed by eye, and the photo saves a round of questions.
Horizontal stripes at regular intervals
Section titled “Horizontal stripes at regular intervals”Repeating rough bands up the part, with the layers uneven in quality though the print holds shape. PLA printed too hot. The excess heat gives slight over-extrusion and an unstable surface at that temperature.
- Bring all three zones down 5–10 °C from what the profile sets
- Some grades want less again — the shipped PLA profiles range from 185 to 215 °C by grade, so 185 across all zones is a real setting, not a floor
- Check you are printing with the profile for the grade actually in the hopper
A wavy edge on the first layer
Section titled “A wavy edge on the first layer”The first-layer perimeter wobbles, most visibly on flat test parts. That is the initial layer jerk set too low — jerk is how sharply the head can change direction, and on the first layer a low value smears the corners.
The shipped process profiles set it to 3. If a profile you inherited has it at 1, that is the wave. Process → Speed → Initial layer jerk.
Transparent and translucent materials
Section titled “Transparent and translucent materials”What they can look like, so the limit is not chased as a fault:
- Clear PETG is fully transparent without colourant, and the layers stay visible — refraction at every layer boundary is inherent to printing in layers and cannot be removed
- Milky first layers on PETG come from those layers cooling slowly. The shipped PETG profiles run the bed at 80 °C and are tuned around it; the milkiness is the trade-off, not a misconfiguration
- Virgin PLA is slightly yellow by nature, never water-clear
- rPLA in white gives a good diffuse translucent effect; clear rPLA is inconsistent batch to batch
- “Shadows” between layers are nozzle position instability. Contact Ginger Additive support — there is a mechanical fix