Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted · Settings for crisp alphanumeric and small hole cutouts please

Hi,

I'm using an Ender 3 V2. I need to 3d print flat objects with cutout alphanumerics and the occasional 1mm hole. Once or twice, the print was excellent, but then the printer ignored ALL of the cutouts and printed flat discs. I uninstalled the CURA that came with Ender, and installed from the Ultimaker site. I am getting some cutouts, but they are smudgy. The raised features look OK, but the indentations do not. The cutouts are in the 2x2mm to 3x3mm range, and holes 1x1mm. My single decent print was in the wrong colour, and when I have tried black, which seems fine for everything else, the results are useless. Picture attached.

Using 0.4 nozzle, 0.12 layers. I have 0.2 nozzles available. Thanks for reading, regards, Mike

56296162_Enderprint.thumb.jpg.5264777c03e37e7a06180db3954791a1.jpg

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Settings for crisp alphanumeric and small hole cutouts please

    If you can share the model then post it here.  I've done a lot of printing with both raised letters and relieved letters on my Ender 3Pro.

    If the 1mm features are round they will be tough because the filament always wants to pull towards the center and that will make them smaller or disappear all together.  Minimum letter width is about nozzle diameter for raised letters.

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Settings for crisp alphanumeric and small hole cutouts please

    For tiny holes, design them bigger (1.5mm to 2mm) and then go through them with a *manual* drill.

     

    For text: you can't easily do tiny, clean cut-out letters: for example in the letter "M" or "W", the nozzle has to come into the letter to fill the white-space. But that infill can only have the width and roundness of the nozzle, even less, and thus tends to spread and destroy the vacuum of the character-legs. It is like printing inverse text (white on black background) with poor quality black ink on poor quality recycled paper: much of the text is lost due to the ink spreading into the white areas.

     

    Thus cut-out text looks worst of all. If possible, try raised text: then the nozzle just has to follow the lines of the text-legs. It still looks clumsy, but way better than recessed text. A solution in-between is to lower a rectangular area, and in that recessed rectangle, place your raised text. This is often done in injection moulding.

     

    I made test-text models a few years ago, for all sorts of texts: recessed, raised, hollowed-out (watermark), etc. Feel free to try them and play around with them. See here (and then scroll down a bit):

    https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/personeel/geert-keteleer/manuals/

     

    Anyway, for best results printing fine details, print slow, cool, and in thin layers. For comparison, also print it fast, hot, and in thicker layers once, to see the difference. Printing it in a material that flow well like PLA also gives better results than more elastic materials when hot like PET.

     

    Raised text (all characters in these photos are 3.5mm caps height, text legs are 0.5mm width):

    image.thumb.png.78c8f2262d3b2d5beaf962fdad1883c7.png

     

    Hollow watermark, thus sitting totally inside the model (idem: 3.5mm caps, 0.5mm legs). Works only with transparent or well translucent materials obviously:

    microscope2.thumb.png.644b518f5f407e623cb8cfa46e8512c7.png

     

    Hollow watermark text, this time vertical, top one chemically smoothed, bottom one as-printed:

    pet17.thumb.png.011e4577338966d526332f59527c63a1.png

     

    Use this to go through tiny holes manually to clean them out. This method gives good feeling, enough torque, and does not melt the plastic:

    DSCN5622.thumb.JPG.bcd33809236414534d665e6ac120651f.JPG

     

  • 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

      • Help Us Improve Cura – Join the Ultimaker Research Program
        🚀 Help Shape the Future of Cura and Digital Factory – Join Our Power User Research Program!
        We’re looking for active users of Cura and Digital Factory — across professional and educational use cases — to help us improve the next generation of our tools.
        Our Power User Research Program kicks off with a quick 15-minute interview to learn about your setup and workflows. If selected, you’ll be invited into a small group of users who get early access to features and help us shape the future of 3D printing software.

        🧪 What to Expect:
        A short 15-minute kickoff interview to help us get to know you If selected, bi-monthly research sessions (15–30 minutes) where we’ll test features, review workflows, or gather feedback Occasional invites to try out early prototypes or vote on upcoming improvements
        🎁 What You’ll Get:
         
        Selected participants receive a free 1-year Studio or Classroom license Early access to new features and tools A direct voice in what we build next
        👉 Interested? Please fill out this quick form
        Your feedback helps us make Cura Cloud more powerful, more intuitive, and more aligned with how you actually print and manage your workflow.
        Thanks for being part of the community,

        — The Ultimaker Software Team
        • 0 replies
      • Cura 5.10 stable released!
        The full stable release of Cura 5.10 has arrived, and it brings support for the new Ultimaker S8, as well as new materials and profiles for previously supported UltiMaker printers. Additionally, you can now control your models in Cura using a 3D SpaceMouse and more!
          • Thanks
          • Like
        • 18 replies
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...