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Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?


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Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

Hi there,

after the great help from this forum, i'll be able to print a couple of things.

I want to print small filligrane things. When i print them, the really filligrane parts are very blotted. It looks like the nozzle puts out to much material, or the filament couldn't cure. Some overhangs are also very blotted.

I try to set the fans on, and gave more time to the layers, with abstemious success. It is a little bit better, but not good.

I want to print in 0.1 or less. Has somebody experience with this, or has a good tutorial for printing in high res? Did anyone have experience with supports?

I know, "no supports" are better, but nevertheless, i need them for my models and also tried something with these preferences there, but even in res lesser than 0.1 the supoorts gets very blotted and librify more on the print than stabelize it.

Oh, i use the 2.75mm PLA Filament shipped with. It seems, that this is more elastic than the filament the other printer (1,75 mm PLA)

Tomorrow i'll set pictures from the prints, perhaps it can explain better, wher my problem is.

Regards

Midgard

 

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    When i print them, the really filligrane parts are very blotted

     

    Pictures please. And show scale. For some people "small" is the size of the robot. For some people small is the size of a grain of rice. For some people a grain of rice is large.

    Very likely your part isn't getting a chance to cool so try printing at least 2 of it so that while it is printing the "copy" the "main" print has time to cool. Here is an example of what I consider small but with a smaller nozzle you can go *much* smaller. I printed these white people all at once so each one could cool - taking turns.

    HO Scale people and cars

     

    edit: Actually I think the person on the far left was printed by himself. Is that what you mean by "blobby"?

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    To post an image click "gallery" on the top left of this page, then the blue "upload" button. Then create a new post and click "my media" next to the smile icon.

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    IMG_20120418_212319.small.jpg

    That's the smallest thing I printed with support material (euro coin for scale)

    This was quite a while ago, but I did a lot of small prints.

    What is important is reducing the printing speed and the temperature. You want the temperature as low as possible, 200C or even 190C. To print at these low temperatures you need to reduce the speed a bit (I would try 30mm/s, but you might have to tweak this a bit will printing to see what works)

    Some final tricks could be, printing "all at once" (tools menu) and add multiple small objects. This gives every object the time to cool down. And see if you can add more air-flow, for the UM Original there are some custom printable fan-ducts that do wonders for small prints (but don't work very well for large ones)

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    A mechwarrior!! :mrgreen: +like for Daid

    IMG_00001741-580x801.jpg

    I print lots of small parts and attach them together with small printed pins. Not quite as small as Daids, but I mirror his comments.

    Low temp + slow speed is the way to go. Also there's some PLA that's more viscous than others, I find the viscous ones work well for small parts as they don't ooze as much. I print small single parts like pins at 40mm/s @ 30%-50% on the controller.

    Orientation is most important for details for small parts I think.

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    So, after a couple of prints, i could solve one of my two big problems:

    I tried to print a tank from thingiverse, i want to print it upstanding, to minimize supports.

    Link: http://www.thingiverse.com/download:550198

    The first picture shows (red circle) what i ment with "blotted". after adding a 2nd "dummy print part", i could fix this (shown at the tank witout circle)

    gallery_35225_872_36766.png

    my next problem is, you can see it on the scond pic, that all surfaces, which has contact with the supports are VERY "unclean". Is there a way to make these parts as beatiful as the rest of the miniature?

    gallery_35225_872_543633.png

    I printed at 0.1 mm Layerthickness, with 40 mm Speed, 190 °C filament temperature; Supports: line, 0° and 30% fillness

    If the pics are too big, i can resize them, but i want to show you the details.

    Regards

    Midgard

    PS: Theres another problem: Even if i add 0 ° Supports, not all overhanging parts arte supported (Support everywhere is enabled) so that some parts of the miniature are unclean. is there a way to add even more supports?

    PS2: the printer is squeaking like hell, it is those plasic part on the back right side, which guide the filament to the feeder. Is that normal?

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    the printer is squeaking

     

    I don't have one of those (got an early UM2 without one) and also I always put my filament on the floor anyway which I recommend:

    spool On floor

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    I don't know if you can get it much better but I think you probably can.

    1) Fan is the most important thing. You want 100% fan by the time it gets to the difficult overhangs. I recommend 100% fan by 1mm layer height - there is a setting for this exact thing in Cura.

    2) Print even slower. Try 20mm/sec. It's a small part so it's worth it to print very slow.

    3) And cool - 190C to 210C. Try 190C to see if that comes out okay. I think it will work at 190C. Maybe.

    4) Print two at a time to keep the very last thing printed from looking bad.

    Now about supports. I would try it supporting only the gun. If you have access to good CAD software you can build a support at the tip of the gun barrel only.

    You might want to consider learning how to use meshmixer as it seems to do the best possible supports. But I think you can get better results with zero support other than the tip of the gun barrel.

    http://www.extrudable.me/2013/12/28/meshmixer-2-0-best-newcomer-in-a-supporting-role/

     

    I'm hoping Ultimaker comes out with a dual nozzle for he UM2 where the second nozzle prints dissolvable support material.

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    Hi there,

    i wanna post my experiences with high res printing of small objects in PLA here, perhaps it could be usefull:

    First, i change the printer filament settings:

    190° Temperature

    turn OFF the buildplate heating

    Then use blue tape for the buildplate and wipe it with Isoproyl-Alcohol (the prints stuck very well on this stuff). Don't forget to level the buildplate again!!!

    Then reduce the faces of your model, if neccessary (Meshlab -> Filter -< Simplification -> Quadric Simplification) maybe a couple of times. (Its a little bit of an intuitive process to find the best count of faces)

    Then build default supports with meshmixer, sometimes you have to add manual supports by leftklick if a support looks very long and/or unstable.

    Repair your model with netfabb, if necessary.

    Then import 2 of the models in cura. (If you don't want 2 models, you can also create a cylinder with ~7mm diameter and a height of model-height + 0.5 mm.) Important is, that the printerhead has to move to the 2nd model and the layers have the time to cool down.

    Cura settings:

    Thinkness 0.1mm

    infill 10%

    Speed 40mm

    Suppot: everywhere, lines, infill 60%

    Layer time: 15

    Fans: 100% as soon as possible

    With this setting i could get 2 very beautiful prints [35mm high] (till now at a layer of 0.1mm, less ist planned, but not executed now)

    The model ist pretty fine and the supports can be removed relative easily.

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    I have had issues trying to print with the .25mm from the Olson Block. Details are bad. You reccon slowing down and reducing temperature would help.

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    A mechwarrior!! :mrgreen:  +like for Daid

    IMG_00001741-580x801.jpg

    I print lots of small parts and attach them together with small printed pins. Not quite as small as Daids, but I mirror his comments.

    Low temp + slow speed is the way to go. Also there's some PLA that's more viscous than others, I find the viscous ones work well for small parts as they don't ooze as much. I print small single parts like pins at 40mm/s @ 30%-50% on the controller.

    Orientation is most important for details for small parts I think.

     

    How big is this part and what size nozzle did you use?

    Thanks

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    Low temp.

    What settings are you currently using?

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

     

    A mechwarrior!! :mrgreen:  +like for Daid

    IMG_00001741-580x801.jpg

    I print lots of small parts and attach them together with small printed pins. Not quite as small as Daids, but I mirror his comments.

    Low temp + slow speed is the way to go. Also there's some PLA that's more viscous than others, I find the viscous ones work well for small parts as they don't ooze as much. I print small single parts like pins at 40mm/s @ 30%-50% on the controller.

    Orientation is most important for details for small parts I think.

     

    How big is this part and what size nozzle did you use?

    Thanks

     

    Whoa, Blast from the past. It's about 2.5" tall, certainly larger than most mini figs. On a standard 0.4 nozzle on an UMO. (not even a plus.) Did we even have 0.25 nozzles back then?

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

     

    :D nope

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

     

    When i print them, the really filligrane parts are very blotted

     

    Pictures please.  And show scale.  For some people "small" is the size of the robot.  For some people small is the size of a grain of rice.  For some people a grain of rice is large.

    Very likely your part isn't getting a chance to cool so try printing at least 2 of it so that while it is printing the "copy" the "main" print has time to cool.  Here is an example of what I consider small but with a smaller nozzle you can go *much* smaller.  I printed these white people all at once so each one could cool - taking turns.

    HO Scale people and cars

     

    edit: Actually I think the person on the far left was printed by himself.  Is that what you mean by "blobby"?

     

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    Posted · Has somebody tipps for printing small models in high-res?

    gr5

    how did you print those people I for the life of me cannot find the right settings for my ultimaker 2+

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