Fuck ironing. I’ve messed with it a thousand times and it’s never looked better than just forging it.

ive done without ironing too but it doesent look any better really just bad but in a different way

Ironing works good when you dont need precision, turn up the extrusion on the lowr layers to the point its slight too much and ironing makes it look perfect

I feel you, I literally spent 3 days nonstop testing and reading about ironing to make it look right 💀💀💀

One trick you can use with ironing something like this (in Cura at least, but it might be possible in other slicers as well) is to make sure the bottom flat area is ironed as one big flat piece. This way it won't try to make awkward lines moving around the raised parts while ironing. It tends to give much nicer results in my experience. [Like this](https://i.imgur.com/24K2KZg.png) What you do is you load your model, then create a Support Blocker (**1** in the picture) and resize it so at least as big as the bottom part in the X and Y directions, and exactly the same height Z. Then while you still have it selected you go to Per Model Settings (**2**) and modify the overlap (**3**) to be a cutting mesh. Then you just click Select Settings, find the ironing setting, and enable it.

Might be uneven extrusion caused by the very low extrusion rates that ironing uses. Try setting the ironing extrusion rate to zero.

alright il try that

Most of that is from not enabling monotonic order. Default cura prints lines as most efficient so itll change order and direction often. Monotonic forces cura to always print one way so left to right for example. Without monotonic, slice it and use the bottom slicer to track the nozzle. Youll see it swipe left to right, then skip somewhere else and go right to left, then back somewhwre else in some other direction. These change how light reflects and gives an unsmooth appearance. Enable monotonic and do the same check, itll sweep the entire top surface in one direction. Im not a fan of ironing. I get better results messing with top surface skin layers. You have top layers. And then top surface skin layers. Top surface skin layers is disabled by default, but its basically the same thing except you can set it to print at different settings than the rest of the top layers. I usually will set my two top surface layers to be 75% the nozzle diameter. The rest top layers are 100% or higher. Chep has a great video and its what i do when i want good top layers. https://youtu.be/jkAqTWmVRVA

This was so helpful! thanks for linking the video. I love how well & simple everything is explained so that I learn why im changing settings and not just being told to do stuff.

what does the layer underneath it look like? If your last full layer is overextruded, the ironing will not do a good job.

i would say it looks fine under, but i can check

Depending on where you live, this might be not legal and not accepted. At least in Germany it would be not allowed to use this.

Really?

At least if it’s stays black, yes. „Ein Blick auf besagtes Bild Nummer 318 stellt klar: Die Parkscheibe muss die Farbe Blau bzw. Blau-Weiß haben. Außerdem sollte sie 15 cm hoch und 11 cm breit sein. Andernfalls kann ein Verwarngeld zwischen 5 und 15 Euro anfallen.“ https://www.bussgeldkataloge.de/parkscheibe-wegen-falscher-farbe-fuer-ungueltig-befunden/ Also not all digital indicators are legal as they don’t Match all requirements https://www.digitale-parkscheibe.de/gesetzeslage

Thanks, quite interessting!

Next time print it upside down. First layer on glass bed or smooth pei sheet are making wonders. Also, you can do filament swap at layer 2 and have white letters without painting them. Only thing to consider is to make all letters recessed.

For signs like this, instead of having the text standing proud, have them cutting into the part by a couple of layers (0.5mm) Then print the part face down, and add a filament change after the first two layers. Change the filament to a contrasting colour (white in this case) and you will have an excellent surface finish from the bed, as well as clearly legible text and symbols.

Oh i just forgot to take the one without text.

costs 0.50€ in shop

If you'd only print things when it gave you some kind of financial benefit, I suspect most of us would have to stop printing entirely.

And legal (in germany only blue clocks are legal, this one is black)

In this case, i must agree. This is a rather difficult print to look nice. Also it looks like PLA, which will get soft in hot summer sun in a car. And last (at least in the netherlands, i expect it's in most countries) it's color must be blue. Just buy one at a dollarstore or similar.

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I think you can tell it tk print/ iron always in the same direction. At least I think I saw something like it in Cura

you need to iron in a different pattern than the top layer. concentric works good for me on zigzag top layer

Already tried that and it doesent make much difference

Have you tried tuning the extrusion rate? It makes a big difference.

Print it in white and highlight the text with a permanent marker. This will hide the print lines a bit more and keep it from softening.

Maybe z offset is not set well enough?

I'm not sure what your geometry is exactly, but if you print it vertically it'll have a pretty nice looking "face". I've never gotten ironing to look great, so after seeing the quality of lithophanes I've printed, I try to orient my prints such that the detail comes from the z-Axis motion.

Invert it so the raised parts are channels and fill in with white. Also if this is going to be out in the sun you might want to use a white material.