Print small chars

[cips 1]

Hello.

I have a question for you experts:

I'm trying to print out with my Ultimaker a tag like this one:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:175150

When I print it (PLA), with a dimension of 5x3 centimeters, the characters does not look clean as in the photo of thingverse, but they have some strings, and they look not very clear.

I tried a lot of the suggestion red to avoid stringing: I tried lowering temp (190) and increase retraction level, but without great improvement in the result.

May be I'm just asking too much to my printer? Any suggestion from your side?

Thanks a lot!

cips

 

[illuminarti 18]

The lettering is small, so you need to make sure the printer retracts everywhere it crosses the open space of the letters.

In cura's expert settings, you need to turn off 'enable combing'; set the minimum retraction distance to something small like 1mm, and set the minimal extrusion to zero. You might get quite a lot of retractions, but it should reduce stringing across the gaps.

Also set the travel speed high, like 150 or more. And the slower you print, the lower the nozzle pressure will be, so the less likely to ooze and close up small gaps at the corners - probably try 30mm/s?

 

[nick-foley 5]

Make sure you aren't overextruding, even slightly. That will kill any fine internal detail in a print.

 

[illuminarti 18]

A photo would be helpful for us to diagnose the issue.

 

[cips 1]

Thank you Illuminarti!

I just tried, but unfortunately I forgot to reduce printing speed....so I need to make one more try.

In the meantime, I'd like to ask you a couple of things:

- is the minimum retraction distance set to 0.5 too small? Should i set to 1?

- in the current print (done with high speed), there are some holes on the flat surface. Could be due to the high speed?

Thanks a lot for your help. Tomorrow I'll try again and I'll let you know the result.

Thanks

 

[cips 1]

I attach two picture. The first was my attempt:

http://imagebin.org/287566

The second was done with the suggestion of Illuminarti, but I forgot to reduce printing speed....so just for the records:

http://imagebin.org/287567

I put the picture on imagebin since it looks I'm not able to attach them here.

thanks for your help!

 

[gr5 2,172]

is the minimum retraction distance set to 0.5 too small? Should i set to 1?

 

.5 is probably too big for this print.

There are 5 settings for retraction. What are all of them set to?

retraction on/off

min travel (set to 0 for this but normally 1mm is okay)

min extrusion before retracting (set to 0 - very important to stop stringing)

enable combing

retraction distance (should be about 5mm depending on how much the bowden moves up and down during retraction)

retraction speed

You will get higher resolution if you print the tag vertically on it's longer thin edge. If you print on the thin edge then you should enable brim to help it from falling over. Brim is in on the basic settings page under "platform adhesion type".

Personally I would print this on glass. I would print with 2 colors - first print the letters only with one filament. Then cancel the print, remove the filament, put in a different color and print a flat tag with no letters on top. Like this print I did on the UM Original:

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/galaxy-s4-ballistic-case

 

[cips 1]

Hi.

Here are the retraction settings I used:

retraction on/off: ON

min travel : 0.5

min extrusion before retracting : 0

enable combing: disabled

retraction distance: 6.5

retraction speed: 40

Now, I'll try to print this vertically.

 

[cips 1]

By printing this vertically, I had a better result.

It is interesting what you said about printing with two color: if I well understood I should print a thin layer with the letters, then change the filament and print the tag (without holes for the letters). Is this correct?

Thanks,

cips

 

[gr5 2,172]

should print a thin layer with the letters, then change the filament and print the tag (without holes for the letters). Is this correct?

 

Yes, correct. Read all the explanation in youmagine of how I printed the first layer using a special utility to generate the STL. You don't need to restrict yourself to letters. You can do an icon, image, or symbol also. Anything you can create in a 2 color image can be printed.

Make sure the send object to be printed has a much thicker first layer so the plastic flows between, over and around the first color.

Printing on glass or kapton tape will look much better than printing on blue tape.

 

[gr5 2,172]

By printing this vertically, I had a better result.

 

I would love to see a photo.

 

[cips 1]

Hi.

Yes, here it is

http://imagebin.org/290503

It is much more readable, even if not perfect.

Thanks,