SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-05T22:18:38Z

Thanks again for the help folks, much appreciated.

I think the orbiting might be an option, the bronzefill is amazing to work with and bumps / threads will be easy to get rid of. I've been having trouble with Slicer recently, it fails to complete writing of the g-code. Have seen of others with similar issues but not looked into a fix yet.

Here are two pictures, 1st and second. the part sanded pic is the 1st try, which blobbed out (8mm/s min print speed) but it over-blobbed if you like, so I was able to file down. (not finished yet). The second, layer height down to .17 (from .21) and it under-blobbed, so I can't really complete it.

**I'm not allowed to post pics for some reason, off to check help pages...!

Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-05T16:11:30Z

If you don't have a gcode controlled fan on the nozzle, you can also include another object that is as tall as the peak, like a box or cylinder. Then the peak has time to cool while the dummy object gets printed. That might not be as good a solution with expensive filament like bronzefill. I think Slic3r or Repetier has the ability to insert some custom gcode in between layers. You could see if you can insert a pause or delay of some kind between layers, but you would need a way to do it only in the layers that include the peak, or else you will slow down the entire print. Skeinforge had the option of orbiting, where the extruder would fly around for awhile letting the layer cool, but that also tended to make it ooze over everything.

Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-05T13:18:35Z

I'm not sure how bronze fill compares to the PLA and ABS that I have printed but I just set my speeds to very low and I get good small peaks on the rare occasion that I have them. When setting your filament cooling, you want a larger number than 12 for minimum layer time. If you pick something more like 45 seconds, that will slow the hot end down more. Remember, you are telling it to spend AT LEAST that amount of time on each layer, so the larger the value, the slower your hot end will move. This is better than slowing down all your speeds because you probably don't need it to move slow at the base of your mountain. I have no nozzle cooling fan, I have never seen the need as I hate printing PLA.

Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-05T00:08:18Z

Run your normal print speed; on my SD2 I run about 60-70mm / sec

Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-04T23:45:08Z

so keep the fan on and don't allow the print speed to drop too low? 10-12 mm/s kinda speed?

thanks guys

Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-04T23:26:12Z

IronMan wrote:

Cooling fan...the hotend is spending too much time at "the Peaks"...

Bingo.

Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-04T23:25:02Z

Cooling fan...the hotend is spending too much time at "the Peaks"...

Re: Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-04T23:22:19Z

picture?

Printing sharp peaks - what's the secret

2014-09-04T23:19:12Z

I've searched up and down, can't find any help.

I've been printing mountain topography lately, and inevitably it finishes in a peak..... shock horror.

Tending to get a blob at the peak, using 12 secs min layer time, 4mm/s min print speed. This is with bronzefill but seems to be a problem with lots of filaments. What's the general advice? I'm happy to get pointed to a link, I couldn't think what other keyword to use than 'peak' but got no joy....

Thanks folks