Filament print issues

Ender-3 V3 Printers
1

Hi everyone,

I’m running into some issues when printing with silk and chameleon PLA filaments, and I’m hoping someone here might have experience with dialing in the right settings.

I’m printing on a Creality printer (currently using standard PLA settings as a baseline), and normal PLA prints come out perfectly. However, when I switch to silk or chameleon filament, I start seeing problems such as:

  • inconsistent shine on the surface

  • slight under-extrusion in some layers

  • sometimes a rougher texture instead of the smooth glossy look that silk filament should have

  • the color shift effect of the chameleon filament not appearing as strong as expected

Current settings I’m using:

  • Nozzle temperature: 205–210°C

  • Bed temperature: 60°C

  • Print speed: ~50 mm/s

  • Layer height: 0.2 mm

  • Cooling fan: 100% after first layers

I’ve read that silk filaments can behave differently because of the additives in the material, but I’m not sure which direction I should tune my settings.

Some questions I have:

  1. Should the print speed be lower for silk/chameleon PLA?

  2. Is it better to increase the temperature slightly for a better surface finish?

  3. Are there recommended flow rate or cooling adjustments for these filaments?

  4. Any tips for improving the glossy silk finish and color-shift effect?

If anyone has experience printing silk or chameleon PLA on Creality machines, I’d really appreciate hearing what settings worked best for you.

Thanks in advance!

1 Like
2

Hi @user5119428671 . Trust you are well :slightly_smiling_face:. Whenever no specific profile exists for a filament, just start with a generic profile for the type. In this case the generic PLA/Silk PLA profile should be just fine. From there, you can make all of the adjustments based on your calibration tests. I’ve been using Orca Slicer and the general sequence I follow for calibration is:

  1. Temp Tower

  2. Max Volumetric Flow

  3. Flow Rate/Ratio (Pass 1, Pass 2)

  4. Pressure Advance (Pattern)

  5. Retraction

You can go further by doing VFA calibration if necessary, but I’ve found that this generally doesn’t have to be redone for every filament calibration as printers tend to produce relatively similar results across filament types once you’ve found a speed that doesn’t cause resonance artifacts. This has been my own experience though, so you’ll have to see if this holds for your setup.

Just a sidenote - Different filament colours/types (Even those from the same brand/range) will perform differently due to the addition of various pigments/additives which can alter properties. For this reason, I personally prefer to calibrate for each specific colour as well. To some this may seem somewhat overboard, but if you want the best possible results, it’s worth doing. After that, assuming that you’re buying filaments from reputable brands, there shouldn’t be too much variance in subsequent batches of the same colour. So recalibration of that specific filament colour within that specific range should not be necessary unless you are experiencing noticeable differences in print quality.

Don’t hesitate to ask if there is anything else that we can assist with here :slightly_smiling_face: We’re always happy to share our experiences and whatever little knowledge we’ve acquired.

Happy Printing! :star:

Alawhie

PS, The Build Plate Brain does some great videos/shorts on how to approach calibration.