Dark belts on lithophanes
What might be causing those dark “belts” on my lithophanes? It seems to be only occurring when I am using the filament brand “das filament”. On Prusaments vanilla white this never happened. Didn’t test lithophanes with more brands though … I used Prusa Slicer with 0.15 layer height.
RE: Dark belts on lithophanes
I would put my bet on an uneven composition of the filament with more/less of pigment in it.
RE: Dark belts on lithophanes
Another possibility, if it was printed vertically, is that the litho is wobbling during print and causing uneven extrusion. It's critical they are well supported when printed vertically; A brim is often not sufficient and braces you cut off later are required.
RE: Dark belts on lithophanes
Vojtech is right. I had this exact same issue with PETG filament from "Das Filament" on different printers. I contacted them and they told me it is due to a high concentration of pigment which ends up being unevenly distributed. They are aware that it is not really suitable for lithophanes.
The best results I have had so far were with noname white PLA. Colorfabb's PETG Economy was pretty decent too.
I also tried Prusament Vanilla White but it was a little too much on the yellow side and not quite opaque enough. It also produced stripes despite their advertised color intensity measurement.
If someone can recommend affordable PETG that is suitable for lithophanes from somewhere in Europe, I'd be very interested.
RE: Dark belts on lithophanes
I am going to try a few from amazon and some of the Colorfabb whites.
RE: Dark belts on lithophanes
The original image has gone, but this sounds like the issue I have. Could someone confirm that the banding / colour variation below is probably caused by unevenly distributed pigment in the filament?
And can anyone recommend a white PLA available in Europe that might be better? I saw on another thread that Sunlu White is particularly good, as it gives a grey/white effect rather than the sepia colours.
This print is with Devil Design White PLA.
RE:
Solved, I think, and with the same filament.
The previous print used 20 perimeters (i.e. entirely perimeters). There was variation in volumetric flow, print speed and width, noticeable in the preview around the affected layers.
This print uses 1 perimeter and 100% rectilinear infill, which seems to give much more consistency.
