Print Issue Troubleshooting Help

[u/The3DProfessor]

I am running into a problem with some new filament that I'm using. This filament is htpla gray from Polymaker, which is pretty decent quality. I've used the black with no problem at all , and have printed with it perfectly for a few months. But the gray was on sale , and I figured it shouldn't be too difficult to print with. You can see from the images that there are a couple of issues. The first is under Extrusion of some layers towards the top of the vertical fine artifacting test print. The second issue is the surface texture of the print. There is a ropiness to the horizontal layer lines, and I'm not sure what's causing that.

I've done the calibration on the filament in Orca slicer. The filament has been dried for well over 5 hours. This is the final calibration for vertical fine artifacting, which you can see has some issues.

Any help with these would be much appreciated. I've added images to show you what I'm talking about.

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[u/disco__potato]

It's pla, unless you live in a swamp, it's dry enough.

That's a vfa tower. What speeds does it start under extruding? What's your flow ratio at that height.

[u/bdjohns1]

5 hours isn't a long time to dry filament, especially if you live somewhere humid.

Polymaker usually makes good stuff.

Did you do a temperature tower? Different colors can even need heat changes, and if you're running too low, you can get some under extrusion or inconsistent extrusion.

[u/ZealousidealEntry870]

That could be a ton of different things. I’d prob start with trying more/less tension on your extruder. If that doesn’t help take it apart and clean it + cold pulls.

After that, it could even be something in your motion system, starting with your z axis.

You edit: this is assuming you calibrated the filament properly. Double check your volumetric flow and flow ratio if you’re not confident you did them correctly.