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1Print the stem.
Slicer settings are pretty important to make the best light pipe you can.
Basically, print hot, decently fast, 5-10% over-extruded, and try to keep the extrusion path linear in the direction of the light pipe. This boils down to:
- Quality
- 0.4mm Nozzle
- 0.2mm Layer Height
- 0.2mm Initial Layer Height
- Shell
- 2 Walls
- 1 Top Layer
- 1 Bottom Layer
- Top/Bottom Pattern: Lines
- Compensate Wall Overlaps: Checked
- Infill
- Infill Density: 100%
- Infill Pattern: Concentric
- Material
- 250C Printing Temperature (yes, this is really, really hot for PLA). I went as hot as I could without it turning yellow. Still, if you stop the print and don't shut off the hotend at this temp, you will yellow/start to cook it anyway.
- 50C Build Plate Temperature (yes, this is hot for PLA)
- Speed
- Print cooling on, but low until you hit the leaf area. Then high.
- Print decently fast. I used 45mm/sec.
- Travel
- Combing Mode: All
- Avoid Printed Parts when Traveling: Unchecked
- Combing Mode: All
- Build Plate Adhesion
- Build Plate Adhesion Type: Skirt (I have areas added into the model for adhesion)
- Quality
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2Print the stem top.
Use the same settings as you did for the stem, except change this.
- Shell
- Top/Bottom Pattern: Concentric
- Shell
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3Print the petals.
This one is a bit strange. I found using zero walls, top or bottom layers (just infill) worked the best.
- Quality
- 0.4mm Nozzle
- 0.1mm Layer Height
- 0.1mm Initial Layer Height
- Shell
- 0 Walls
- 0 Top Layers
- 0 Bottom Layers
- Top/Bottom Pattern: doesn't matter.
- Compensate Wall Overlaps: Checked
- Infill
- Infill Density: 100%
- Infill Pattern: Concentric
- Material
- 265C Printing Temperature (for nylon this is mid range)
- 80C Build Plate Temperature
- Speed
- 30mm/sec across the board
- Travel
- Combing Mode: All
- Avoid Printed Parts when Traveling: Unchecked
- Combing Mode: All
- Build Plate Adhesion
- Build Plate Adhesion Type: Skirt
- Quality
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4Form the petals.
Got a project log for this:
https://hackaday.io/project/163866/log/160606-forming-the-petals
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5Print the base/base container.
Normal settings for PLA apply here. I still recommend using:
- Travel
- Combing Mode: All
- Avoid Printed Parts when Traveling: Unchecked
- Combing Mode: All
- Travel
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6More to come..
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