Post your latest print!

[aaronalai 2]

@takei, that's a really cool idea! I get emails from this thread but they don't contain pictures; when I saw your post I thought to myself how I would make something like that, and I didn't come up with an idea as direct as yours, I like the solution.

@Nicolinux not a bad idea, I don't know if I could keep it as thin though. I'll be thinking about that in my next print of the light. I want to print them out of transparent XT to see what it even looks like.

 

[leoddc 74]

@ Aaron: Cool flashlight.

So I've been doing a bit more testing with the colorfabb filament and this time I'm using the bluegrey that I purchased.

I've done some comparison prints between colorfabb and ultimaker blue filament.

Colorfabb on the left, Ultimaker blue on the right.

Colorfabb print was at 195C and Ultimaker blue was at 210C. Both had a bed temp of 60C and were printed at 20mm/sec with a layer height of 0.06mm. I went for a lower temperature with the colorfabb because I found that it produced better results and a smoother finish as can be seen in the image below.

 

[leoddc 74]

Colorfabb print was at 195C and Ultimaker blue was at 210C. Both had a bed temp of 60C and were printed at 20mm/sec with a layer height of 0.06mm. I went for a lower temperature with the colorfabb because I found that it produced better results and a smoother finish as can be seen in the image below.

Left 195C, Right 210C

Its clear from the first comparison images that the colorfabb material is a lot rougher on the over hangs and noisy areas but it does seem to have a very slightly smoother surface in areas of low noise. Over all though it appears that I'm getting far superior results with the Ultimaker material. I'm currently printing the small alien head above in Ultimaker blue and I can already see that It is far better in quality than the colorfabb prints. I will post the results later tonight when I get home from work.

I also printed the alien creature again from the same Gcode as before, this time in colorfabb. I wanted to see how the quality improved on larger prints. The results weren't bad but there was a problem when printing the supports as can be seen below. Unfortunately I wasn't in the room when it happened so I cant be sure as to what caused it.

I think that the colorfabb did a good job of capturing a lot of the detail but as you can see in the images below it also has a much rougher surface than what I got previously from Ultimaker blue.

In summery I think I'm going to stick with Ultimaker filiments as I feel that I'm getting an over all better quality print with it. I will continue to do some testing with it in the future but for now I want to concentrate on making more stuff to print.

 

[ulbie 0]

Hey Leo DDC,

thanks for the comparison! Very interesting to see those results. I also printed with the ultimaker blue and didn't like it very much. It seems very soft and smeary for me, not really rigid.

I don't want to hurt you but I have to say that I would be very very disappointed with the quality of the prints. Even at small overhangs the surface ist pretty bad. Do you print with a Ultimaker 1 or 2? I think I have to print the models too to get a feeling for it. Are they already shared on thingiverse or youmagine? Hope so. Did not have the time to search for it yet.

Can't believe that the quality is this bad!

[leoddc 74]

Hey Leo DDC,

thanks for the comparison! Very interesting to see those results. I also printed with the ultimaker blue and didn't like it very much. It seems very soft and smeary for me, not really rigid.

I don't want to hurt you but I have to say that I would be very very disappointed with the quality of the prints. Even at small overhangs the surface ist pretty bad. Do you print with a Ultimaker 1 or 2? I think I have to print the models too to get a feeling for it. Are they already shared on thingiverse or youmagine? Hope so. Did not have the time to search for it yet.

Can't believe that the quality is this bad!

 

Hey ulbie thanks for the reply, I really appreciate honest feedback. I havn't uploaded these guys to thingiverse or youmagine. I'm using an Ultimaker 2. My first prints that I did of these guys where with Ultimaker blue and were much better quality. The grinner I originaly printed was 150mm and had supports on the overhangs which helped a bit I think. The smaller version only had one support on the nose and didnt print well.

original prints: bit of sanding on the last image

 

[leoddc 74]

Although having said all of this I know I have seen awesome prints from various people using colorfabb and I'm confused as to why I cant get as good quality as I've seen other people get?

 

[somewhereinla 2]

Although having said all of this I know I have seen awesome prints from various people using colorfabb and I'm confused as to why I cant get as good quality as I've seen other people get?

 

I feel that the quality of the filament dictating the quality of the print is well over-exagerated. Sure you want to avoid old filaments, I am sure some company manufacturing standard are questionable, but ultimaker filament is very good and so is colorfab.

The quality of the print has much more to do with the setting you put into your machine, the printing plate calibration, lubrication of the machine (usually under-estimated ), the amount of space you decided on between nozzle and plate. while using a piece of paper is good start, it is very un-scientific, and I feel that that having it right amount of space between nozzle and plate is crucial for a high quality print, maybe the most important...

Of course temperature. flow, etc... all are important as well. A lot of people here use 195 with colorfab, I personally use 210 with great results so far, with 60-65 for the temp. plate. For higher quality I lower the speed to at least 50%.

 

[wallan 0]

A small update to the pinup WIP.

I have now sculpted lingerie onto the body using Aves Epoxy.

I had not planed to do that from the beginning so the model/sculpture is not as god as it could have been.

Normally cloth affects the shape of the body and the body affects the shape of the clothes.

It only goes one direction this time.

Model is primed with matte white car paint.

I'm planning to paint with brush and water based oil colors.

(I could have spray painted it but I no longer have the right place for that activity and I also find masking to be so darn BORING. Maybe someother time).

In order for that to work there must be god grip for the oils so that I can work them out and get them really even without getting spots of lighter and darker.

The car paint I use is not quite matte enough to give me that grip so I have also sprayed a layer of Liquitex Matte Varnish. It creates a really matte finish that ensures god grip.

Next is to paint it.

Now, don't expect anything to appear for a while (unless you want to see progress images from the painting process) as it can take a month and even more for some colors to dry.

 

[takei-naodar 0]

Thanks all for the kudos.

@dim3ntioneer - I think I would be ejected from being a jedi for neglecting my lightsaber to that level of rustyness. :oops:

@Aaron - that's a clever solve! Love seeing stuff that's well designed for function... Just makes you appreciate all the little things.

@takei that's cool! does it rotate smoothly?

 

Sort off..... it is still a very simple gear

So if anybody wants it i have a download of all the needed parts here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90634021/Inbus-Holder.zip

But be aware that is not perfect yet.

 

[jonask 0]

Although having said all of this I know I have seen awesome prints from various people using colorfabb and I'm confused as to why I cant get as good quality as I've seen other people get?

 

I think only the last 5-10% of maximum quality are done with the Filament. The rest is tweaking the Settings.

My way of buying filament is to go to huge online portals like amazon or ebay and buy the cheapest 1kg i can find :smile:. You just have to hope its not bigger than 3mm (witch didn't happened to me yet). I'm very happy with the print quality of the filament. Last time i bought 1 Kg white PLA on amazon for 22€ incl sending costs. If i look at the 48€/Kg filaments, i really think that the quality difference is worth to double the price.

Tho, l would love to compare a print of the cheap PLA against the high class.

 

[Nicolinux 288]

Tho, l would love to compare a print of the cheap PLA against the high class.

 

Then just order a few metres of filament from Faberdashery. Chose the same color and then you can compare.

 

[jonask 0]

meh... its about 11,50€ for 5m just to compare. That would be 56m of my cheap Filament. But i will think about it. Thanks

 

[IRobertI 520]

I feel that that having it right amount of space between nozzle and plate is crucial for a high quality print, maybe the most important...

For higher quality I lower the speed to at least 50%.

Bed leveling only affects the first two, maybe three layers. After that it's no longer relevant.

50% of what? 50% means nothing unless we know what speed you print at normally.

 

[braddock 1]

Hey Leo, I don't think you really need support for either of those models. I only use support if a feature goes horizontal, or negative angle.

It's hard to say why your first images aren't so good, I've only been printing larger parts with the colorfabb. What's your shell thickness?

Some of my legs, see the overhangs are rough, but I just accept that.

 

 

 

[nick-foley 5]

Leo, my first guess would be that all of your prints are overextruding. You should try lowering flow settings until you see slight underextrusion, and back off from that just slightly. I get rough surface finishes like that when I'm overextruding slightly.

About filament quality - I was doing some tests today of cheapo Amazon filament (Reprapper and Prototype Supply) vs. expensive filament (Colorfabb and Printbl) and I've got to say: the Amazon stuff is probably on par, maybe better. I think that they add ABS to the filament to make it cheaper, which does good things for surface finish. It just doesn't smell as nice when printing...

 

[braddock 1]

Leo, you're actually printing too slowly perhaps, maybe kick one off at 35mm / s which is what I print at.

 

[valcrow 144]

Maybe check your nozzle too. I had similar artifacts and 'fuzzyness' on one side when my nozzle was damaged. I mitigated it by printing really slowly.

 

[DidierKlein 729]

Hi all,

I did a quick test yesterday because i'm completely convinced by the quality of colorfabb.

So i printed the UltiRobot with 0 infill, layer height of 0.08.

I applied the tweakAtZ plugin, first layers were at 210°c at 50mm/s. I reduced the speed to 40mm/s and temp to 200°c when arriving on the top of the legs where the tricky overhang is.

The clear one is in Ultimaker Natural PLA (it's kind of transparent i love that colour). The pink one is Colorfabb Fluo Pink.

Both were printed with the same settings except that i messed up the transparent one (forgot to put a solid top, so an antenna is missing, used cool head lift too). Pink one, with solid top and no cool head lift resulting in bad antennas as usual.

 

Results are pretty similar in terms of quality, only thing i notice is that the ultimaker filament is a little better in overhangs. I will try to re-print this with the same settings in Ultimaker Blue PLA and why not the Brown Chocolate from Colorfabb.

 

Other project, the celtic skull i posted a couple of days ago, it has finally been tested for it's purpose:

 

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

You might even improve the antennae quality by applying another TweakAtZ at the height the antennae begin and set the temperature down to 195°C or even 190°C while keeping the minimum speed at 10mm/s.

Great idea with the celtic skull! The cars behind yours will keep some distance...

 

[DidierKlein 729]

I will try that thanks for the tip it's the remaining issue i have with the robot, the ears are now pretty good.

The car is not mine but my cousin's he will maybe add some red leds in the eyeballs :geek: :mrgreen: it's looks awesome on the car it's a bit of a mad max look :cool:

 

[ulbie 0]

@Valcrow...already seen, very nice!

http://www.3ders.org//articles/20140505-3d-print-your-own-obi-wan-lightsaber.html

@LeoDDC No problem, I just think these beautiful models need a good quality in the real world;)

I don't know exactly your problem, there can be lots of issues which cause the noise in the surface.

First of all it is no secret that every filament is different. As already mentioned therfore you need to check your parameters especially your acceleration and yerk settings (slow down) more than the actual speed. Acceleration is the key, not only the speed! I think the Ulti 2 is not made for fast printing, imho the Original therefore is better.

I have not much experience with the ulti 2 but in my university I tried a bit playing around with it and was surprised about the menu. No doubt, everything looks good and clean, it is a nice printer, but for me as a Ulti original user I would never change my system with the new one because I could not play with particular parameters while printing...big disadvantage for me. Anyhow, definitely try to print with different speed and acceleration parameters.

On the other hand try to print with a lower temperature with full fans on. Also check your shell thickness, i suggest minimum 0,8 mm. As IRoberI already said, the first layers are important especially to prevent warping and get a good stick to the bed, but that's not the point in your case.

One thing that I realized when printing freeforms with nice curves is the number of polygones of the model. If you want to achieve a high quality print every model must be optimized for 3d printing.

I realized a while ago that to much polygones in a model kill the quality. Either you get a slicing fail or the printer starts to stutter while printing the outlines instead of driving smoothly. I once read that the Ulti can not handle a certain amount of data. For example if a radius consists of too much segments, the printer is not able to execute fast enough all segments and so starts to stutter.

Check the pictures, the surface reminds me of your problem. That's no real overextrusion, the overextrusion just happens because the printer waits while processing.

You can simply test your quality requirements with a round model like this ring (I did so).

Generate different stl qualities of it. With my CAD software I can set the size of the polygones and know the minimum I can go. Try to load the model in cura and compare the different qualities. Even if it looks like that the resolution/artifacts are to big, give it a try and print it. You soon will see which way to go.

Nevertheless, your models are awesome and the bigger prints look very good. But I still think you can do better!

 

[leoddc 74]

Hey guys thanks for all your feedback its been really helpful. I tried printing the small alien head again at 185C and got better results. I then tried printing with some cheap no name white PLA that I bought with my printer and was pleasantly surprised. Here are some comparisons.

As you can see all three filaments capture the detail quite well. The cheap white PLA actually seems to handle the overhangs better than the UM blue and the colorfabb but has slightly more wispy strings than the UM blue(really not a problem though). The colorfabb has a slight edge in the quality of layer adhesion giving it a slightly smoother finish in some areas but it doesn't hold up nearly as well as the other 2 when it comes to overhangs. Over all I think that at £20 per kg the white PLA comes out on top.

@ulbie: I think you could be right about the polygons of the mesh. All of the artifacts and roughness in the small grinner prints occur in the same areas as it does in the larger one and I think that its due to the unnecessary skin detail from the original zbrush sculpt. I'm feeling a lot better about the colorfabb material after testing it on different models.

@braddok: I'll give the faster speed setting a go and see what happens. Also I think I'm going to give your Ieyo bust a go in colorfabb and the cheap white stuff to see how they compare.

Once again thanks to everyone in these forums for all the help and advice

 

[SandervG 1,521]

At what resolution have you printed these models?

The pictures you uploaded on the previous page (87) show (in my opinion) some over extrusion I saw before when printing at 20 micron. The settings were fine, but the resolution in E was not accurate enough. (I must add, this was over a year ago). But it had the same squiggly upwards lines.

Have you tried decreasing the flowrate by just a few %?

Or just as someone else said, print at 40 or 60 micron.

The difference between 20 and 40/60 micron is difficult to say on the naked eye while the overal printing-time is severely longer.

 

[SandervG 1,521]

but the quality on your latest prints look fine!

 

[leoddc 74]

At what resolution have you printed these models?

The pictures you uploaded on the previous page (87) show (in my opinion) some over extrusion I saw before when printing at 20 micron. The settings were fine, but the resolution in E was not accurate enough. (I must add, this was over a year ago). But it had the same squiggly upwards lines.

Have you tried decreasing the flowrate by just a few %?

Or just as someone else said, print at 40 or 60 micron.

The difference between 20 and 40/60 micron is difficult to say on the naked eye while the overal printing-time is severely longer.

 

 

but the quality on your latest prints look fine!

 

Thanks man. Thoses last prints were done at 0.06mm, 20mm/sec and are about 4cm in height. I tried reduing the flow by 2&1% but the results were very ugly. I'll post a photo when I get home from work later.