Printing Miniatures

[Critical20 0]

I'm pretty new to the 3d printing world. Very new to this forum. I've had my Ultimaker 2+ for about a year now and have made some pretty awesome things. But now I'm trying to print some miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons. I'm having trouble with these smaller prints. Mostly with the prints they build up in spots or curl part way through. I'm assuming its a settings issue when I'm going to print since the settings are untouched. Can anyone recommend some settings to try or any tips in general to help make with the miniatures.

Thanks,

Critical20

[peggyb 170]

did you try the 0.25 nozzle for this?

[Critical20 0]

I tried that tip. It printed great but it globbed up on parts.  I don't know if I need to have cooling between layers or what. it only really prints bad when its a small piece of the print.  It's kinda like it prints to fast for the filament to cool.

[Torgeir 242]

Hi Critical20,

Most of my printing is small things, I'd learned that never use the heat bed when printing small thing.

Reason, close heat radiation to the print object from both heat bed and extruder.

So, use blue tape or glue. I'm using glue and no heat, works well.

PS. Printing on "high" support, approx 4 cm also work..

Thanks.

Torgeir.

[geert_2 557]

If the problem is only on small parts, the cause might be not enough cooling time for each layer, and slight overextrusion due to the print head having to slow down and change direction very often.

A solution you could try: print slow and cool (e.g. for PLA: 180°C to 190°C, and 20mm/s). And print a dummy block or tower next to your models. So the printer has to spend some time on that dummy block, and the real models get enough time to cool down. You could also try to set the flow rate to 95%. In my experience this helps for small parts.

[Critical20 0]

I will definitely give the slow and cool along with the dummy block a try. Will report back with my results. Thank you!!