So I’ve been trying to tweak my printer some more and trying see what kind of detail I could get out of it. So if you wouldn’t mind, could you give me a score of 1-10 on how you think it looks compared to what you can do and also a score on how good it looks based on the fact that I used a $154 cheap knock off printer to make it. I would really appreciate it. Also, if you have any suggestions to make it better. I hear all these terms like jerk and stuff that I’m not exactly sure what it does or how to change it. Any info is appreciated.
That looks pretty good. Which printer did you use?
I’d give it an 8 for great work! Our printers can do .05mm layers… where the horizontal lines sort of disappear (at least to my old eyes)… if detail is what you seek, I think in that range is the gold standard. Any well maintained printer should be able to pull this off. Best of luck!
Brook
Printrbot
@Dushyant_Ahuja I have a CTC Prusa i3 knock off. I think that’s what it’s called. Lol. The picture was right after I built it. At that point I didn’t even know if it worked. Lol.
@Brook_Drumm my layer height is at .2mm so that would explain what you are talking about I could try lowering it on small detailed prints. Maybe it would help to smooth things out.
@Kevin_Danger_Powers Yeah, .2mm is pretty thick. I’ve never gone higher than 0.1mm. What nozzle size are you running?
My MP Mini does .04375 (multiple of z-axis threads) just fine, if slowly, and gets really great detail there.
I’d want to see what your printer can do with finer settings, as at .2mm you’re going to have very obvious layering.
@Derrick_Whittet_Wint it’s got a .04mm nozzel on it. Maybe I’ll try printing the same thing and change the layer thickness to .05mm. Quick question though, at .05mm won’t it take 4x longer to print?
Yes it will, you will also get lots more issues with bed leveling etc. As you go to smaller layers things get harder. I would recommend you go to .15 if you are currently using .2 and step down in .05 steps getting the issues sorted at each stage.
By the way your nozzle will be 0.4mm. one upgrade would be to switch to a hot end with interchangable nozzles such as an E3D then you can try a 0.3 and even a 0.25
@Daniel_Bull I can actually put different nozzles on there. I have thought about smaller ones but I’m still new to all this so baby steps. lol
@Kevin_Danger_Powers Good start! You can use a 0.2mm first layer to help with bed adhesion and then 0.1mm layers after that on your next test. The stair stepping will get cut in half smoothing out the slopes but your print time will go up. When you get to trying a 0.05mm start with a 0.1mm layer or 1.5mm if you are having trouble getting it to adhere. I can confirm What Brook says about the lines almost disappearing at 0.05mm layers. A 0.4mm nozzle will do a good job but if you are using a 0.3 or 0.2mm nozzle (need to re-calibrate for a higher extrusion temp and underextruding) you will see your XY detail pop.
Prints using a 0.2mm nozzle (0.1mm first layer) and 0.05mm layers have amazing detail but do take a long time.
I like 0.125mm layer heights - they are 20% faster to print, and nearly indistinguishable from 0.1mm for most prints
For utilitarian prints, like brackets or arduino cases, etc, I use a .2 layer height on my Wanhao Di3 to get the prints done faster. For detailed work, I use my Printrbot Simple Pro at a 0.05 layer height. But to answer your original question, I would give you an 8/10 like @Brook_Drumm said. Especially since you are using a kit built sub $200 dollar printer.
@Kevin_Danger_Powers yes, but it’ll look way more than 4x better. Individual layers aren’t particularly noticeable there, for example, allowing nice smooth curves.
As others have noted, this is why print settings tend to differ from print to print. When you want a quality looking part, you use thin layers and lower speeds. When you just want a http://simple.part fast, thick layers. Most slicers let you build profiles so switching between sets of settings is quick and easy.
@funinthefalls alright, that’s good to hear. I’m currently printing a different model at a little slower speed and changed the layer height to .1mm. When it finishes I’ll post some pics of that and see what happens. So far it’s looking pretty good. I’m only 23% of the way through the print but it’s already looking way better in terms of layer height. I would really like to get faster prints but I’ve just kinda accepted that if I want decent prints, it’s just going to take a while on a cheap machine. Honestly though I’m just stoked I’m even getting usable prints out of it. Lol.
You can always try, after you get nice settings getting good prints at a low layer height, THEN gradually raising the printer speed to see how fast you can print at with that quality. It’ll differ from printer to printer, so your mileage will vary.
@Derrick_Whittet_Wint I’ll have to look into the profiles thing as that would be nice to just pop back and forth.
So after changing from .2mm to .1mm I can really see a difference! The print is much smoother. Only real downside to this print is that something got screwed up and it never printed the tops of the ears. Oh well I guess. I was just printing this off for my daughter anyway.
@Lukas_Mathis actually the printer just stopped. Idk what happened there. I’ve seen it do this once before. I think it’s a problem in the gcode file. I had a Xbox controller stand and it did the same thing. Just stopped part of the way through.