Jump to content
UltiMaker Community of 3D Printing Experts

How to Print with Baby Smooth Bottom ?


ian

Recommended Posts

Posted · How to Print with Baby Smooth Bottom ?

Morning guys. For the fun last night, I took off my captain tape off my heated bed and tried to print directly onto my alu plate.

I set the alu plate to a confortable 60 degrees... printed slowly at 40 and a temp of 220.

I really wanted to try and get a really shiny beautiful flat bottom... test...

What happened of course was, the first layers went down beautifully... really nice.

then it printed without problems for 30 minutes, with cooling fan full blast...

after 30 minutes, the energy heat in the corners of the printed walls was too much and started turning up.. this suddenly snapped the connection between the model and the print surface... and of course i woke up to PLA spagetti ;-)

My question is... what is the best method in printing without captains tape, that i can get a shiny polished bottom surface ??

is it doable ?

Thanks.

Ian :-)

 

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How to Print with Baby Smooth Bottom ?

    Hopefully someone else can answer this as I don't know techniques for printing directly on aluminum but...

    Have you considered getting larger kapton tape? Would 6 inch wide be enough for most of your prints?

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How to Print with Baby Smooth Bottom ?

    yes the 6inch tape would be good for me, but that gives a nice flat surface but i have seen models with almost polished bases... im just trying to find out how that works ?

    Ian :-)

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How to Print with Baby Smooth Bottom ?

    I get a mirror-smooth finish printing on 8" wide kapton tape on a cold bed... but it only works for flat/thin parts, else the print starts to curl up off the tape.

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How to Print with Baby Smooth Bottom ?

    I had great luck with printing ABS on plain glass and on frosted glass, at least for certain types of objects (large and flat, as illuminarti said). frosted glass gives a beautiful surface, sort of matte, and impervious to finger prints. plain window glass makes super shiny surfaces that show every finger print. I start with 115C glass surface temp, and drop to 100C after the first layer(s), minimal airflow (if any at all).

    it is important to slightly overstuff the fist layer, to make sure no or little print lines are visible (click the table up 1-2 clicks during the skirt). ridges around the print head are necessary, which will cause additional drag, so make sure you print the first layer at modest speed (40-50mm/s), and make sure your glass plate doesn't shift around.

    frosted glass has less adhesion than regular glass and airflow under the print will delaminate it almost instantly. plain glass makes a better seal against the air, and has better adhesion. YMMV (i don't use any special trick, no abs juice, no hairspray or anything)

    The 2012 360Rig was printed and produced in this fashion: http://freedom360.us/about/360rig/

    Sorry, I have little/no info/experience about PLA on glass.

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How to Print with Baby Smooth Bottom ?

    I'm printing PLA on 20cm wide kapton tape on a alu HOT bed.

    To prevent curling of corners with large objects, I setup the model to print with a brim , at least 6 to 8 lines.

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    • Our picks

      • UltiMaker Cura 5.3 stable released
        In this stable release, Cura 5.3 achieves yet another huge leap forward in 3D printing thanks to material interlocking! As well as introducing an expanded recommended print settings menu and lots of print quality improvements. Not to mention, a whole bunch of new printer profiles for non-UltiMaker printers!
          • Thanks
        • 21 replies
      • Here it is. The new UltiMaker S7
        The UltiMaker S7 is built on the success of the UltiMaker S5 and its design decisions were heavily based on feedback from customers.
         
         
        So what’s new?
        The obvious change is the S7’s height. It now includes an integrated Air Manager. This filters the exhaust air of every print and also improves build temperature stability. To further enclose the build chamber the S7 only has one magnetically latched door.
         
        The build stack has also been completely redesigned. A PEI-coated flexible steel build plate makes a big difference to productivity. Not only do you not need tools to pop a printed part off. But we also don’t recommend using or adhesion structures for UltiMaker materials (except PC, because...it’s PC). Along with that, 4 pins and 25 magnets make it easy to replace the flex plate perfectly – even with one hand.
         
        The re-engineered print head has an inductive sensor which reduces noise when probing the build plate. This effectively makes it much harder to not achieve a perfect first layer, improving overall print success. We also reversed the front fan direction (fewer plastic hairs, less maintenance), made the print core door magnets stronger, and add a sensor that helps avoid flooding.
         

         
        The UltiMaker S7 also includes quality of life improvements:
        Reliable bed tilt compensation (no more thumbscrews) 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi A 1080p camera (mounted higher for a better view) Compatibility with 280+ Marketplace materials Compatibility with S5 project files (no reslicing needed) And a whole lot more  
        Curious to see the S7 in action?
        We’re hosting a free tech demo on February 7.
        It will be live and you can ask any questions to our CTO, Miguel Calvo.
        Register here for the Webinar
          • Like
        • 18 replies
      • UltiMaker Cura Alpha 🎄 Tree Support Spotlight 🎄
        Are you a fan of tree support, but dislike the removal process and the amount of filament it uses? Then we would like to invite you to try this special release of UltiMaker Cura. Brought to you by our special community contributor @thomasrahm
         
        We generated a special version of Cura 5.2 called 5.3.0 Alpha + Xmas. The only changes we introduced compared to UltiMaker Cura 5.2.1 are those which are needed for the new supports. So keep in mind, this is not a sneak peek for Cura 5.3 (there are some really cool new features coming up) but a spotlight release highlighting this new version of tree supports.  
          • Like
        • 22 replies
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...