n2ri wrote:

use plenty infil on the Lawsy parts too

I used 20% and they feel pretty solid, though I think I could snap them if I used all my finger strength to bend them. Should I have used 100%?

For anything functional that will be used to do work or support anything, you should use 80% infill minimum.

use plenty infil on the Lawsy parts too

I used 20% and they feel pretty solid, though I think I could snap them if I used all my finger strength to bend them. Should I have used 100%?

Sounds like you're in control, good work! Congratulations on that 0.1mm first layer, the glass is probably key.

Still curious about the cube though - so when you say "I'm overextruding by 83%", do you mean you printed a single-wall cube, measured the wall thickness and instead of being the targeted 0.48mm it was (1.83 * 0.48 0.88mm? That's a bit wild, and doesn't seem to be corroborated by your observations of holes in the print or improved results with an increased multiplier... I think the settings you have settled on are likely good, but there's just something funny in the cal cube print settings / calculations there!

Re replacement hairspray, look for "extra hold" or similar on the front of the can, and then on the back amongst the ingredients:
* Vinyl Acetate/Crotonates Acid/Vinyl Neodecanoate Copolymer (sometimes VA=Vinyl Acetate, sometimes "Acid" missing)
* Acrylates Copolymer

I did 2 things:
First I printed a cube at 0.1mm layer height and told it that the extruded line width had to be 0.35. When it was over I measured the wall I got a reading of .42

Second I printed a cube at 0.3mm layer height and told it to give me a 0.42 width. I measured it and got 0.48.

I made a test print of a little dragon fish figure and there were gaps in my lines instead of _____ it was more like ____ ____ every now and then. thats why I supsect humidity in my filament.

Ive adjusted the flow to 1.03 and have been printing the lawsy mk5 Jig replacement because I cracked my acrylic when I was taking it apart. So far I dont notice any major problems.
-

Still curious about the cube though - so when you say "I'm overextruding by 83%", do you mean you printed a single-wall cube, measured the wall thickness and instead of being the targeted 0.48mm it was (1.83 * 0.48 0.88mm? That's a bit wild, and doesn't seem to be corroborated by your observations of holes in the print or improved results with an increased multiplier... I think the settings you have settled on are likely good, but there's just something funny in the cal cube print settings / calculations there!

Re replacement hairspray, look for "extra hold" or similar on the front of the can, and then on the back amongst the ingredients:
* Vinyl Acetate/Crotonates Acid/Vinyl Neodecanoate Copolymer (sometimes VA=Vinyl Acetate, sometimes "Acid" missing)
* Acrylates Copolymer

It looks to me like you're trying to print the first layer too thin (even for 0.1mm!) - I'd highly recommend setting your first layer to 0.2mm for the moment, get that dialed in, and then attempt 0.1mm (it's quite tricky to get right out of the blue).

When levelling the bed, the feeler gauge is great - but to get the first layer height right, the only way I've succeeded is to then print a skirt / single wall on the bed, peel it off, and measure with calipers - adjusting the z-stop to bring the whole (level) bed up and down until it's right. And for adhesion, I often aim for my first layer to be a bit under theoretical height too (e.g. 0.20-0.22mm for 0.25mm first layer).

Note that Z=0 is theoretically nozzle-touching-bed (zero gap), the printer will move to Z=first_layer_height to print the first layer...

So you've done the 100mm extruder calibration? I'd follow this up next with:
* Measure actual filament diameter, enter this into slic3r filament settings
* Print a single-wall calibration cube, and use the slic3r extrusion multiplier (filament settings again) to achieve the correct wall thickness (as IronMan described).

Then you can proceed to ensuring that first layer is correct!

I've completed my calibrations:
I did the 100mm pull, I took 5 readings and input the average as my filament diameter, I re-calibrated my nozzle to bed distance with the next step up on my feeler  gauges at .13mm, and I printed my single wall cube.

All of the calibrations are now perfect except for the cube. According to my readings I'm over extruding by 83% but my surface layers had some holes in them and my walls were really thin so I upped the extrusion multiplier instead. Its currently set to 1.03. I think this might be due to a combination of cheap $5 dollar harbor freight calipers and improperly stored filament. I had it sitting out in the open for a year before I found out that was a really bad way of storing it. I'm in the process of making a container with silica for it.

After all of this work Ive come to what I think is a relatively good 95% calibration, and I'm printing far more accurately than I ever have before. I was able to get 0.1mm first layer height without messing up every time so far, granted I've only done 4 prints since.

I'm not sure what use a single layer print would have but I agree its not going to be very strong its a little bit thinner than paper and much weaker against tears.

My bed is currently set up to be a glass plate on top of my original aluminum bed with the kapton still on. Its held on with binder clips which are a horrible pain in the ass and I'm currently working on a clip less adapter for securing the glass. I'm currently using a light mist of Thermasilk heat activated hairspray, but when you mentioned it I realized Im going to run out soon and I discovered they no longer make it. I have to search for a replacement since the heat activation was excellent for the heated bed.

ultra thin 1 layer prints are near impossible to get even with a glass bed and not very usable either

+1
Figure most people will want to use the third dimension of their 3d printer a bit though, so never really thought of it as an issue hehe.
Get an l-cheapo laser module and cut paper instead haha!

Still, you should be able to achieve a consistent first layer thickness at 0.2mm.

Just thinking again Dingo - if that photo is the aluminium bed with kapton, you may find trying out a sheet of glass with hairspray straight on top will be better for very thin layers. Let's see how the 0.2mm goes first though.

also what type caliper are you using and to measure what? extruded plastic or a depth gauge mounted to extruder?

When levelling the bed, the feeler gauge is great - but to get the first layer height right, the only way I've succeeded is to then print a skirt / single wall on the bed, peel it off, and measure with calipers - adjusting the z-stop to bring the whole (level) bed up and down until it's right. And for adhesion, I often aim for my first layer to be a bit under theoretical height too (e.g. 0.20-0.22mm for 0.25mm first layer).

Note that Z=0 is theoretically nozzle-touching-bed (zero gap), the printer will move to Z=first_layer_height to print the first layer...

So you've done the 100mm extruder calibration? I'd follow this up next with:
* Measure actual filament diameter, enter this into slic3r filament settings
* Print a single-wall calibration cube, and use the slic3r extrusion multiplier (filament settings again) to achieve the correct wall thickness (as IronMan described).

Then you can proceed to ensuring that first layer is correct!

Extrusion width has more to do with Nozzle diameter than layer height.

0.3 layer height is a good standard to calibrate with.  The extrusion width should be set as a factor of x1.2 of the nozzle; so for a 0.35 dia. nozzle, the extrusion width settings should be 0.42...a 0.4 dis nozzle would have a setting of 0.48...

After calibration for the flow rate is completed, then changing the layer heights in Slic3r generally will compensate to keep the extrusion width close to what you need.

Perhaps you can help me out. Is this a flow rate problem?

I was printing the nickel calibration disk that I found on thingiverse. I have already calibrated my extruder to pull 100mm give or take .5mm. I also bought a feeler gauge and leveled my bed to the nozzle with a distance of .1mm from bed to nozzle.
The layer height and first layer height were set to .1mm. I was going to calibrate the flowrate after I confirmed my x and y steps per mm were accurate.

0.3 layer height is a good standard to calibrate with.  The extrusion width should be set as a factor of x1.2 of the nozzle; so for a 0.35 dia. nozzle, the extrusion width settings should be 0.42...a 0.4 dia nozzle would have a setting of 0.48...

After calibration for the flow rate is completed, then changing the layer heights in Slic3r generally will compensate to keep the extrusion width close to what you need.

Try this:
https://solidoodletips.wordpress.com/20 … flow-rate/

This link says .42 is ideal for .3mm layer height. If we are keeping with 1.4:1 ratio does that mean the ideal for .1mm printing is .14?