Macross/Robotech VF-1J statue - SnapMaker U1 testing by a scrub
Hey guys,
New to FDM printing and using my FDM, after about 600 hours of printing the standard fair with the stock 0.4mm nozzle, I wanted to print some miniatures.
This is more of a journal post than anything useful but I thought it would be good to share. Its worth noting the 0.06mm layer height profile was removed by SnapMaker as they kept having issues in testing. That said I really wanted 0.06mm layer heights as I want to try making some pre-coloured ready to battle miniatures with the U1s tool changer for family battles.
For my first 0.06mm layer height print with a 0.2mm nozzle, I wanted to do a big statue. Why? Because I can print something fun that will give me tuning opportunity with parts I am less likely to throw away. I am more than happy to sand off a few parts, modeling and finishing is all part of the fun.
I would like to print a benchy equivalent if someone can suggest something like a particular space marine or orc or something. That said I definitely learned a lot about the process with 0.2mm nozzles
The model is meant for a resin printer but I thought it would make a good stress test. It is far superior to any of the 1/72 Bandai kits of the same subject matter I have made, even with my poor starter printing skills, for reference:
I upsized to 150% to increase the panel gaps to make FDM less obvious. GW Culexus Assassin for reference.
Photos show it stuck together with putty prior to sanding, and priming for painting. Think of it as just off the spru.
First up I tried printing the base with PETG supports, a 1 GB G-Code file with 3 day print duration.
On the first day the PETG and PLA come off the base and it warped, as this is a print to failure process, I let the printer continue to see what other things I would run into.
On the 2nd day it rained and I do not have a AMS dryer for my printer. PETG became stringy, and incorporated into the stand but was still functional. I let it finish as nothing looked like I couldn't clean it up. I will come back to this
Troubleshooting steps:
- Reduce infill to 5%. While it could be 0%, I plan to mount this high on a wall facing down, so some more structure is desirable.
- Obvious AMS drying.
I printed the legs of the model next with the dryer and initially things went very well, but the model shifted when the legs were connected in PLA and the legs became uselessly deformed.
Wanting some quick wins, I shifted gears to smaller part prints. Initially I threw down the head, some bits and bobs, and the backpack on 1 plate to let it run for 8 hours while I was at work.
This was a big mistake as I missed one of the most important rules everyone else already knew. Print by object! All of my 0.4mm prints had no issues with this setup, having printed off a number of gear cog wind up cars for my wifes students, it was a standard practice I had been following.
These prints were unusable and photos above show some of these compared to the finals. The far right backpack in the picture of 3 is one such example.
Along with printing by object, I also switched to PLA supports and while this made it harder to remove, the quality was not that different, and print times improved by around 25%. These 2 changes made a big difference but all was not perfect. This is hte middle backpack i nthe lineup of 3. My problem now was some less than amazing under sides.
Some advice I often saw was to print on a 45 degree angle, so I did that. I also saw a lot of random over extrusion on layers that had substantial object changes. I added 2 layers, 6 up from the SnapMaker 4. The layer lines in the base are a good example of something I can sand on a statue that on a thin Skitarii would have ruined the whole print.
The result is the left backback in the lineup of 3, which has a more regular extrusion and looks substantially better on all sides.
I then reprinted the base and everything just looks so much better!
Printer: SnapMaker U1
Filiments:
SnapMaker PLA
SnapMaker PETG - supports,
Filament profiles are all provided by snapmaker with some extrusion tuning.
Starting off:
used the original SnapMaker 0.08 profile
Final settings adjsuted from defaults:
Firmware 2.0 with 0.08 layer height profile with the following adjustments:
0.06 layer height
6 walls
5% infill
20 degree supports
resolution 0.008
slice gap 0.03
outer wall speed 60 mm/s
Reduce infill retraction set to false