Hey guys,
Just wanted to share this. Not sure if this is good quality or not. Still trying to dial this printer in any feedback would be wonderful.
Sliced and Printed with Cura
PLA
0.06mm Layer Height
35mm/s print speed
Thanks,
Sam
Hi Sam,
Layer thickness under 0,25 mm is reasonless low while using the included 0,50 mm nozzle.
Even worse, the extruder will press too hard on the previous printed layer and as a undesirable result:
[ul]- there is a risk that the printed piece breaks off from the heated bed
- the PLA or ABS will be smeared out as in your printed model
[/ul]
Assumption:
[ul]Layer height (H) 80% of < nozzle diameter > = extrusion width (W)
[/ul]
Examples:
[ul]0,50 mm nozzle : 0.50 * 0.8 = 0.40 mm (H) < 0.50 mm nozzle >= 0.5 mm (W)
0,35 mm nozzle : 0.35 * 0.8 = 0.28 mm (H) < 0.35 mm nozzle >= 0.4 mm (W)
0,20 mm nozzle : 0.20 * 0.8 = 0.16 mm (H) < 0.20 mm nozzle >= 0.3 mm (W)
[/ul]
Very great information. Thank you for posting that. I have encountered the better results on a 0.2mm layer height, but wasn’t sure why until you explained it here. Thank you again.
Cheers,
Sam
Hi fitchie,
nice theory. Funny it still works quite well in practice.
The value of 0.8 * nozzle diameter for the layer height is ok, but it’s a limit, not a setpoint. In other words: lower layer heights are possible.
Most problems with low layer heights arise from faulty extrusion width settings, so addressing that is also a good idea. However, there it’s even more complicated: while widhts larger than the nozzle diameter generally work well, they’re not a constraint. Values smaller than the nozzle can still give decent results in some situations - it all depends on what’s printed.
The “errors” visible in the photo are most likely related to temperature. For such small objects, special cooling is required, or printing with an additional object to give the layers more time to cool down.
Cheers,
kuraasu
Just printed this thing in ABS with the standard hotend (but active cooled) and 0.5 nozzle:
Right: 0.2 layer height, 0.5 width, smoothed with acetone vapor
The print came out nice and clean except the M on the chest. First try at applying aceton so I damage the leg a little bit.
Left: 0.15 layer height, 0.4 width
Looks good I think 
Hi motoritz,
how long did you smooth the print?
From my experience, multiple short times work better than a single long time.
Cheers,
kuraasu
I was surprised how fast it goes. Only a few seconds in the vapor and it suddenly got this wet look. I waited some more until the layers melted and merged. Maye next time I try multiple short passes. That sounds like a good idea. I could rotate the print each time so it gets smoothed evenly on all sides.