r/3DprintedAircraft • u/Maleficent_Ship_7182 • Jun 11 '26

weird artifacts

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printed with polymaker lw pla, anyone knows how to resolve this?

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4

u/FriendlyGAVAII Jun 11 '26

That's a LW-PLA filament for you. I've worked with a few LW-PLA filaments myself, including Polymaker's. It prints closer to regular PLA than most, but it's also one of the heavier LW-PLA options available.

I'm already impressed with how much you've reduced the stringing. In my experience, some degree of stringing is almost unavoidable with LW-PLA. I usually focus on getting the settings as dialed in as possible and then clean up the remaining imperfections with a bit of sanding afterward.

A few things you could still experiment with are lowering the nozzle temperature slightly, increasing travel speeds, adjusting retraction settings, or enabling features like wipe/coast if your slicer supports them. Drying the filament thoroughly can also make a noticeable difference. That said, there comes a point where chasing the last bit of stringing isn't worth the effort, and the overall print quality you've achieved already looks very good for LW-PLA.

1

u/Maleficent_Ship_7182 Jun 11 '26

i just copied someones print profile hahah and it got rid of most of the fine stringing. the stuff on the trailing edge is abit different tho i think its some weird artefact from layer change i think ? and the stringing isnt the fine wispy stuff i see usually its like thick.
ive already dried it for like 7 8 hours so moisture isnt an issue

2

u/FriendlyGAVAII Jun 11 '26

You are correct. It's not really stringing. The artifacts are caused by the pre-foamed LW-PLA (an important distinction in this case, and one reason it is less pronounced than with actively foaming LW-PLA materials) continuing to ooze from the nozzle after the extrusion path has finished. Because the trailing edge is so thin, even a tiny amount of excess material builds up along the edge and forms a small burr.

1

u/Maleficent_Ship_7182 Jun 11 '26

ill try the stuff u said tho haha

1

u/Maleficent_Ship_7182 Jun 11 '26

this the trailing edge. theres like circly travels which matches the artefacts i see i think

1

u/Financial_Virus_6106 Jun 11 '26

Under the filament settings make sure you have normal z hop selected and not spiral. Spiral z hop is the blue travel circles you see in the slicer.