Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
Hello.
Have been trying to print lithophanes for a bit and I am having issues where, the nozzle makes it slightly wobble, increasing with height, if the lithophane is too high it may even break.
I print the lithophanes standing for better quality using the fast detail 0.1 profile, changing it to 100% infill rectilinear and adding a brim.
Any advice on what to do to prevent that wobble? have found that it may also happen with some miniatures on thin parts that are supported but not stuck to the bed as they have to join upper with the rest of the miniature.
MK4s prebuilt
Best Answer by Walter Layher:
For the more horizontally inclined fans of hex patterns I have added another variant of the supports. Hex patterns in this orientation I have used and printed successfully before in other projects.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
You could try to add support parts to the sides in the slicer that just barely touch the actual lithophane and can be removed easily afterwards.
Select the lithophane part and then right-click on it, select "Add part" and then add e.g. a box. Then you modify that box to be a thin part and move it so that it just touches the edge of the lithophane. Then, with the support part selected, Ctrl+C and Ctrl-V to create a copy and move that to the other edge of the lithophane.
If you plan to do this more often, you can use the cut function to create a thin triangular shape from a box shape and save that one in the Shape Gallery of PrusaSlicer for reuse.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
I have created some custom supports that could be used for this purpose, note the thin spikes along the vertical edge in the screenshot. These spikes should just touch the back face of the lithophane model. Check in the slicer preview that they actually touch the lithophane part. Like this the supports can be removed easily. I have attached the 3mf file with the parts and a fusion project if you want to adapt it.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
Oh wow, I was having some trouble "getting" the idea on your first post but now I understand what you mean. I am very grateful, thanks! Will try them tomorrow and report how it goes.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
Place the long edge of the lithophane, along the Y axis, (Front to back)
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility.Location Halifax UK
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
I did.
Also yesterday some things took longer than expected, currently trying out the supports and will report once the print finishes
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
Sadly the supports did not work, caught them early failing to print the honeycomb pattern but as I had also reduced the speed decided to keep printing and cancel the supports. the small bridges of one side failed while the other stayed as one with the litho, this with the speed decrease reduced the wobling significantly but it was still a problem, I am currently printing with a similar version of the ones you made but without holes to see how it goes.
I have created some custom supports that could be used for this purpose, note the thin spikes along the vertical edge in the screenshot. These spikes should just touch the back face of the lithophane model. Check in the slicer preview that they actually touch the lithophane part. Like this the supports can be removed easily. I have attached the 3mf file with the parts and a fusion project if you want to adapt it.
RE:
I had added the hex pattern to the supports to save on filament.
While I must say that I had not tried to print those supports before uploading them here, I have just started a test print on my MK4S here and the supports print just fine without failing, see screenshot below. PrusaSlicer gave me a warning about print stability and suggested adding a brim, but I did not do that. What could also be important is that I merged the supports with the lithophane part and checked that the layers go through the supports and link all the parts.
Which profile are you using to print your lithophane, e.g. speed or structural, and which nozzle size etc.?
I have attached the PrusaSlicer project for this test print so you can compare settings. The filament I used is eSun PLA+ cold white.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
I paused the print and took a photo, to better show the print, which is about 50 minutes in now.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
I will try you project tomorrow, I have the high flow 0.4 nozzle that came with the printer, filament is i3D Tested PLA, a new roll.
On a first fast attempt I used the 0.10 fast detail profile with the following changes: enable brim, infill 100% and rectilinear infill, this failed about 30 minutes in.
I then did a second attempt (the one in the pictures) with the same changes over the default 0.10 fast detail profile (enable brim, infill 100% and rectilinear infill) plus setting perimeters to 99 and decreasing speeds to 25mm, here is a picture of the comparison with the default.
I had added the hex pattern to the supports to save on filament.
While I must say that I had not tried to print those supports before uploading them here, I have just started a test print on my MK4S here and the supports print just fine without failing, see screenshot below. PrusaSlicer gave me a warning about print stability and suggested adding a brim, but I did not do that. What could also be important is that I merged the supports with the lithophane part and checked that the layers go through the supports and link all the parts.
Which profile are you using to print your lithophane, e.g. speed or structural, and which nozzle size etc.?
I have attached the PrusaSlicer project for this test print so you can compare settings. The filament I used is eSun PLA+ cold white.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
For the more horizontally inclined fans of hex patterns I have added another variant of the supports. Hex patterns in this orientation I have used and printed successfully before in other projects.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
I always set the number of perimeters high enough so that the slicer does not create infill, which I check in the preview. So the print consists only of perimeters, then the settings for infill become irrelevant. You say you set the perimeters to 99, then you can forget all settings for infill type etc. You do not want empty cavities in a lithophane, it should be solid through and through. I have always had success with this setting. I have used the 0.1mm fast detail profile for lithophanes sometimes, I also printed one or two with a 0.25mm nozzle on my MK3S, but I mostly use just 0.2mm structural and I use the default speed settings from the profiles and do not reduce the speed.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
The print of the supports finished successfully. Tomorrow I'll try again with the 0.10mm FAST DETAIL profile to see what happens then with the supports.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
I started printing your project without changing anything from your settings.
I did a first attempt and it lifted from the bed but did seem to print the hexagonal supports fine, currently printing a second attempt with a brim and seems to work fine but is only at 22% completion, will take pictures once it finishes.
I am wondering if the print is sticking to the nozzle or something, that would explain the wobbles in the first place and having smaller layers may give less separation and increase the problem?
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
I have started the print with the 0.1mm fast detail profile and substituted one of the supports for one with the horizontal orientation of the hex pattern to be able to compare. The horizontal version prints much cleaner and the vertical one has problems with the 0.1mm fast detail profile.
RE:
The print is finished. The horizontal pattern is definitely better suited for this. I have appended the PrusaSlicer project I used.
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
Printed the version of your project I mentioned (before the horizontal supports) and it seemed to work well overall tho one of the corners has a weird texture. Seeing your litho I think I should reduce the depth of the ones I am making as it may be affecting the quality and allowing bits of plastic to fall or stick to other pieces tho this effect is minimal and only in white to black areas (maybe some filter to grey things around black so it transitions smoothly?)
RE: Difficulty printing lithophanes (slight wobbles that increase with height runing quality)
The texture on the right corner is caused by something in the original image. I did not look at it closely, I just selected one of the images in this series to demonstrate how to use the supports. Also the underside is extremely thin. Normally I load the image into an editor and create a black border around it first before creating the lithophane, because this will create a frame around the lithophane where the black border is. I did not do that here.