Help needed in printing small objects 2-4 cm width, 3mm height

[TonyNS 0]

Hello,

 

I am very new to this, Ender 3 pro and the whole reason why i got into this is to print small decorative things (like charms) for flowers and chocolates decorates

 

printer is doing well, after figuring out how to set things up and levelling the bed..etc, big things are printing well, actually i just managed to print a pretty huge vase with a lot of details which turned out just perfect (attached)

 

My problem is the small things, i cant print a small print with smooth sides and walls. please have a look at the attached, i have tried all kind of line heights, print qualities, types of fills also tried the ironing feature, i end up with messy, over melting top side most of the time and very tough walls like seen in the photos.

 

The best results of a print i got from the following settings:

Layer height: 0.16(tried 0.12 and 0.2, wasn't better)

initial layer height: 0.2

line width:0.4 (tried 0.2, came out with worse results)

Wall thickness : 1.2

Infill 25%

Retraction is enabled

Bed temp is 60

extruder 200

 

PLA 1.75, 

Ender glass bed

 

 

Any help or tips are seriously appreciated 

[DivingDuck 104]

These kind of parts should be printed more than one in a print as you will maybe don't have enough time for cooling an actual layer. Print slow (all speeds should be the same, except travel speed) and with small layer high. Looks like you also fight with over extrusion, maybe reduce flow a bit too.

[geert_2 557]

Exactly: print as slow, cool, and thin layers as possible. And, depending on the model, print multiple items at once, so the hot nozzle is moved away and the parts have time too cool down and solidify. Otherwise they stay molten.

 

For more complex models, I also print a dummy tower (with inverted shape) next to the real model, for this cooling, and to make the printing time equal for each layer. Big changes in printing area do produce horizontal lines, due to differences in cooling time.

 

See these:

 

Left: printed without dummy tower, right: with dummy tower. This reduces the effect, but does not eliminate it.

 

Dummy tower with inverted shape, for increasing and equalizing printing-time per layer. Concept model.

 

Idem, real model.