help & tips
3D printing is great! Just not everything is possible or you have to think about some details to make your print perfect! Here you will have some tips to improve your 3D model for 3D printing.
qUALITYTIME
There are different qualitys, if we say good quality its a very low layer hight. if we say we can see the layers very well its kinda meh. Good quality is nice but takes lot of time.
This example you can see the difference of a block of 3x3x3cm.
layerhight 0.12mm
Time 2h 30
layerhight 0.2mm
Time 2h 00
layerhight0.24mm
Time 1:22
Material/colors
Materials that we print are PLA/PETG/TPU. (NO ABS OR SMELLY PLASTICS)
Printing mainly ''more'' eco-friendly materials.
In the future if possible focussing more and more on bio/eco/recycle friendly materials
PLA Good for simple models and designs/easier to break/lot of colours
PETG Bit flexible and can handle warmth better/breaks less fast
TPU Flexible material/rubbers/
EXPERIMENTAL Experimenting with other material is possible contact for more info
Support
You can't print in the sky with FDM printer, So it needs support to print it.
After the print the support can be taking of the print and thrown away or recycled.
With support print time will increase a lot, maybe its possible to design the product in a way it need less support.
Parts that needed support not always looks that great,
you might need to sand or hot sculpt.
Round/overhang
Printing round corners can be tricky, in a certain angle the layers could drop and make a ugly corner. Dont make the corner more then 60°. Or it needs support but that even can look not that great.
60°
60°
infill
The infill of a print can be adjusted to the use of the object or shape.
If its for a maquette or a object that is machanicly used. increasing the infill make your print stronger but takes more time.
Also there are different structures and designs.
If the model got a large surface to finish the object it needs more infill so the top layer will look better. And again takes more time
Wall minimum 0.4mm
max size/letters/text
FDM printing is great but not for very fine detail. if you print smaller then 0.4mm thickness the 0.4 nozzle will not print your print.
Text/letters I recommend to print not smaller then 5mm.
Or need some more experimentation.
Holes
If you need parts who fit in each other. Take care that the material expands.
So the hole have to be 0.25-0.5mm bigger. Depends of the use.
It could be good to experiment a bit with the hole before printing.
empty/vase
It is possible to design something that suppose to be hollow to be adjusted in the slicer software that is used to 3D print. So you can close for example a vase and open it.
semi-transparent
If you want to print with a semi-transparent for example lighting or like a vase.
Think about the thickness of the material for amount of light that goes through.
cleaning
Some parts have residue left because maybe it needed support.
With a 0.8 nozzle its possble to see more strings then usual
To keep your model sticking to the print bed. Its sometimes necessary for extra platform called brim.
SIZEchange
If you print with FDM printers and you want to make it size perfect. There is always a risk that its not perfect size. The printers are most made accurate. But there is always a tiny size difference.
