eliminating tiny holes?

I am very impressed with some of the detail on my first few prints.

but I notice these really tiny holes in the outer layer and some bumbs
is there a way to reduce these? what exactly causes them?

I have been reading about dipping into acetone , acetone baths and xtc 3d coating to get a smoother finish .Even read about coating with clear epoxy
But I want to try to improve the print as much as I can before going down that road. dont want to risk losing some of the detail trying to get a smoother surface.

please share some of your best practices.
Thanks

 

Wow, lots of info in that link. I think my heads gonna explode.


Attached are a couple pics. Seems "zits" r there. Posted another pic showing how clean the sides of another project are. But that one has problems with bridging . Didnt see that mentioned. And why sides are so clean on one and bumpy on another.

 

pics here

 

I had/have the same issue when there is too much friction on the filament spool. (Not 100% sure that is the cause, but it seems like it)

P.S: just the holes not the bumbs
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

yes, it is the sample roll, why?

I did have a problem with the filament getting tangled. i dont know how it happened. I was very careful not to let it unravel.

what other factors create friction on the filament
I had changed out the spool holder with a 3d printed version

 

I just dont know why the skull has bumps but the other piece is so smooth.

any thoughts on why the bridging isnt working on that other piece? its a test piece to a digital sundial, the coolest thing i have found on thingiverse. I really wanted to print that out.

Thanks Geof. Could you give me an idea what slicer setting i might want to change.
Like i said, i am confused why the skull is bumpy and sundial is smooth

 

Okay, i have a new white filament. I will re print with that

 

so the print is going to take 5 hour so I figure I'll print in the am, (long day today)

I thought I d do a little research.
I find that I am under extruding by about 10 mm.
but I cant go any further cause in the eeprom configure tab I cant find the current extruder steps per mm. the only thing I see is "steps per mm, but its for "X" "Y" "z" and "e".
I dont think thats it.
I gotta call it a day. maybe tomorrow it will be clearer.

 

thanks for the file attached is a pic. will do another in new white filament a little later.
I was able to calibrate the extruder.

since mark mentioned perhaps the slicer did a bad job. I thought I would try the other slicer engines.
cura said it would take about an hour longer than matter slice and use about 40 grams more filament.
when clicking the layer veiw to see how long the print would take with slicer. It never displayed anything. like it got stuck.

for the heck of it I tried to print using cura slicer. but it was very choppy so I cancelled. I think I recall it being choppy for a little while when I printed with matter slice. But not to the extend of cura.