This is a variation on my Christmas Balls with Integrated Stems and diamond patterns.
Not for commercial use. Please see license agreement.
RESIZING These should scale up well, but I'm not sure how much smaller you could print them using a consumer FDM printer. Using a resin printer, you could probably print them much smaller.
PRINT TIME About 6.5 hours.
PRINT SETTINGS The trickiest parts to print is the top of the stems. Using FDM, if you don't temp, speed, flow, and cooling right, the thin parts of the stem will melt as you print. Thinner walls help. If that's not enough, try increasing the layer height or even adding infill. Infill is counter-intuitive, but it means the hot end moves to a different part of the layer, giving the outside a chance to cool.
Thickness
- Layer thickness: .15 mm
- Wall thickness: 0.4 mm
- Alternate Extra Layer: Yes
I had the best results using Cura setting the default width to 0.4 mm with an alternate extra wall.
Infill I would recommend adding 100% infill to the loop at the top of the ornament to make the loop stronger, but I wouldn't add infill anywhere else. It just adds weight.
To add infill (or extra walls, tops or bottoms) to just one area of an object in Cura:
- Add a support blocker
- Select the support blocker and scale and position it where you want the added infill
- Select “Per Model Settings” then select “Modify Settings for Overlaps”
- Select “Select Settings” and check “Infill Density” then select “Close”
- Enter the amount of infill you want
Speed
- Outer Wall: 20 mm/sec
- Inner Wall: 20 mm/sec
- Top/Bottom Speed: 20 mm/sec
- Travel Speed: 50 mm/sec
Build Plate Adhesion I relied on the supports for build plate adhesion.
Supports You will probably need supports for bed adhesion.
- Support Structure: Normal
- Support Placement: Touching Buildplate
- Support Overhang Angle: 60 Degrees
I also added a custom cylindrical support to either side where the bottom ledges intersect. This not only helps with printing the point of intersection, it help prevent the model from wobbling or coming loose from the print plate.
Transparent Settings I've succeeded in getting an excellent print in Matterhackers Translucent Blue. Getting a good print with transparent/translucent PLA is a challenge regardless of the brand because:
- It shows any infill, so you need to find a way to print without it
- You often need to print with the thinnest walls possible to get good translucency
- It's more brittle than opaque PLA while also sticking to itself better. This makes it difficult to remove supports without damaging the print.
To get the blue print showed in the photos, I slowed the outer wall settings to 18 mm/s, unchecked "alternate extra wall", and replaced all normal supports with custom supports. The custom supports were arranged so they would not get into the crevices of the print. It took some experimenting, but I was able to get a beautiful print using supports that came away easily.