Looks like we’re finally doing something right. Top cube comes out rounded.
You probably just have too much heat near it. Throw a small fan near the build and it should turn out better. Or print 2 of them so that the print head moves away on each layer, allowing it to cool.
This type of object is terrible for calibrating anything but temperature and cooling.
Maybe you should try a minimum layer time. If it is PLA, you could try a fan instead.
@Stephanie_A And me checking all my X and Y and Z steps against it time after time. Why is it terrible? Too small? Can you recommend anything? Or can we say multiply this one by 10 times, for better accuracy?
It’s too small. as you can see, the lower layers look better, because they take a longer time to print. as it moves up, it is shorter. This shorter layer time means that the plastic doesn’t have enough time to cool. this causes it to deform. you can set things like minimum layer time, but I found that only helps so much, as it just slows down the printing speed on smaller layers. the nozzle is still in contact with the plastic (heating it up and causing it to deform) and the radiant heat heats up the surrounding plastic.
My own solution to this is to add a cooling tower next to prints, and set the nozzle to park there and wait on smaller layers.
For calibrating, I find that printing boxes work well, until you’re ready to move onto test objects.
As I said, you need to set a minimum layer time.
@NathanielStenzel minimum layer time indeed. But in my case it did not help to fix the entire problem, until I upped the speed and the flow. @Stephanie_A is probably right - the head stays too close to that small layer, heating it.