Getting Better 3D Prints

http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/30-getting-better-prints

 

Getting better prints

This page is meant to give a few tips that may help you improve your prints or just be helpful in general. Before reading this page it might be a good idea to check out our Visual troubleshooting guide. That page goes through some of the most common problems you might encounter. There will be a fair bit of overlap between this page and the troubleshooting guide as some of these tips are shared on that page to deal with actual problems. Think of these guides as problem fixing versus fine tuning.

If you've been printing for a while you'll likely already know most of the things mentioned in this document. But if you're new to 3D printing the tips here could be of great help.

It should also be noted that this page is skewed towards the Ultimaker2 using PLA filament, and cura as the slicer. A lot of the information here applies in other situations as well however.

Here's a list of links to the different sections in this document. We would recommend that you read through it all though as 3D printing is a complex process where a combination of settings and "tricks" is often needed for the best result.

 

Printer - Adjustments made to the hardware, or settings on the printer

·                     Basic machine maintenance

·                     Feed your printer with good quality filament

·                     Adjust temperature

·                     Limit heated bed temperature to a minimum

·                     Measure filament diameter

·                     Reduce acceleration

·                     Bed levelling

Cura - Tweaks relating to the slicer

·                     Use expert settings

·                     Learn to love the "Layer view"

·                     Choose layer thickness to match your model

·                     While boring, printing slower is often the key

·                     Increase shell thickness

·                     Print more than one model at once to increase cooling

·                     Use "Print one at a time"

·                     Enable "Cool head lift" for more cooling time

·                     Change how early your fans come on

·                     Optimize orientation to make it easier to print

·                     Retraction and combing

·                     Tricks to make a layer fill completely solid

·                     Print hollow to save plastic and time

·                     Z-scar

·                     Try different slicers

·                     Line support and bed leveling

·                     Support and object rotation

Design - A few thoughts on how to best design for printability

·                     Wall thickness

·                     The 45 degree rule

·                     Design custom supports instead of relying on auto generated to lessen surface

·                     Create a span instead of a steep overhang if possible

·                     Slopes and stair stepping

·                     Plastic shrinks

·                     Use chamfers to produce cleaner bottom edges

·                     A trick to create better looking top surfaces