Hi,
Printed of this penguin model at 0.1 mm layer height, 205 degrees for the nozzle and 45 degrees for the bed in PLA. Came out pretty decent though the hair spikes on his head didn’t come out too great, just wondering how I can get it to print small details like this better?
I assume it’s because the nozzle is too hot or does it need better part cooling?
Since those details are tight together and that’s the only thing being printed at the end, it is likely that each layer doesn’t have time to cool (also heat from the nearby nozzle is slowing the cooling even more). If you just print two penguins at the same time some distance apart that should go away.
@Mark_Walker Ye is what I thought was the problem. Would just printing a tower next to it be enough do you reckon? Printing too penguins would take a long time especially at 0.1 mm layer height.
A tower is going to be the same amount of time, basically. Also; what driver/motor combo are you using? There’s a lot of moire in that perimeter that I think could be fixed, upping the quality of this print even further.
@Michael_Whitney as @Mark_Walker says, the usual solution to this sort of problem is to print more than one copy of the model. If time is a concern, you could consider making a “throwaway” model to print at the same time so that the time between layers matches (in reverse, if you see what I mean) the time spent on the penguin itself. Something like a golf tee shape might work, so there’s more time spent printing the top of the tee than the base, allowing more time for the hair tufts on the penguin to cool.
@ThantiK Not sure on exact motors used but is a gt2560 board with the A4988 drivers. Printer is a Geeetech I3 pro B acrylic if that’s any help. The moire isn’t as noticeable in person as it is in the photo though if you look for it you can see it. Also why would a tower take the same amount of time as printing two of the same model? Just has to be say a 2 cm x 2 cm tower printing next to it surely?
@Michael_Whitney 2cm^3 of material is going to take roughly the same time as any other 2cm^3 of material. It doesn’t matter the shape, largely. So might as well make it a shape. 
@ThantiK The model of the penguin is larger than 2 cm in width and length though. Surely if one model of say a 5x5 cm penguin takes say 1 hour 30 mins then printing two of the same model is going to take twice as long? Where as if I print a 5x5 cm penguin model with a 2 cm x 2cm tower next to it then it will reduce print times?
How do I fix the moire? Seems like its less visible when printing at higher layer heights.
@Michael_Whitney Dependant on what drivers you had paired with your motors, I was going to suggest a motor driver swap; but what you’re running now doesn’t have a problem that I had suspected you might be dealing with.
@ThantiK Probs a stupid question as this is my first 3D printer and don’t know a great deal about electronics, but why would the motor/driver combo cause moire? Would have thought moire would be caused by flex in the frame or vibrations from a fast moving extruder or something like that anyway.
@Michael_Whitney
http://hackaday.com/2016/08/29/how-accurate-is-microstepping-really/ – the DRV8825 when paired with low inductance motors have positional errors.
https://hackaday.com/2016/08/29/how-accurate-is-microstepping-really/
Check the options in your slicer program and see if you can add a minimum timer per layer, that can allow the previous layer to cool before the next is applied. a few seconds should be enough i’d imagine.
@Domm434 this can also cause problems, as the nozzle radiates heat down onto the part. Often times the minimum time per layer settings causes more problems than it solves. 
true, i haven’t messed with it myself. I would imagine a z-step or jog away would’ve been part of it rather than sitting against the part.
