Printed a ‘nothing part’ last night. By that I mean it was a test for a few concepts, but it’s final destination after proof of concept will be direct to the recycle bin.
Sliced in Kisslicer, I can see where the retraction is causing starvation…which is weird, because it’s close to parameters that are usually pretty good at handling retraction (4mm Prime and Suck, 40 mm/sec) I’ve had pretty good luck with Cura’s defaults of 4.5mm and 40 mm/sec…
The bridging didn’t completely suck, but it wasn’t gorgeous, either. the filament ended up being laid down at a 45 degree angle to the drop, so a triangular part at each end of the square opening had pretty much no support for the first three or four layers, leaving my 20mmx20mm hole more like 20mm x 22.4mm
I’m happy with the lack of warp (blue tape and rubbing alcohol) and the holes at the top are nice and round with little stringing. There’s a ‘bead’ on the corners where the nozzle changes direction that I’d like to make go away. XY and Z Jerk are set in firmware at 5.0 mm/sec
Estimated time in Octoprint was 1:41:00 and it took 3:45:00 to print.
I can’t help but feel natural PLA could be made to do some INTERESTING optical things, if I just had a little more control of what’s being laid down. In certain directions, it’s nearly transparent, and in others it creates an interesting layered shimmery effect. The kind of thing that you could find a specific print for and it would look awesome (like the top of a printed lighthouse)
