Material melds
I have been printing using 4 different PLAs and Slic3r. I have noticed that the melds of the different colors are very weak. By this I mean the points where the different colors meet. Printing the lizard worked fine, but the various pieces break off with little effort.
Any idea what setting I should change in Slic3r that wont cause over extrusion in the entire print?
Re: Material melds
I am assuming you mean where the color changes are in the finished print. It may be a temp thing. Consider color changes as layer changes and the "layer adhesion" you need for a good print.
Neal
Re: Material melds
I think there are also going to be some lessons learned on how to model for multicolor. I noticed that my gecko toes were quite fragile at the color seam.
If a model is divided into multiple colors in the easiest way (straight lines), you'll end up with a weak seam. However, if the external surface looked exactly the same, but there was an internal dovetail, or an internal 'peg' on one side that fit into a hole in the other side, you'd have the same look but a much stronger joint.
Re: Material melds
If a model is divided into multiple colors in the easiest way (straight lines), you'll end up with a weak seam. However, if the external surface looked exactly the same, but there was an internal dovetail, or an internal 'peg' on one side that fit into a hole in the other side, you'd have the same look but a much stronger joint.
Vertical seams between materials are extremely weak, since the two materials aren't bonded in any way, just printed next to each other.
Horizontal seams between materials can be just fine as long as the materials fuse well. So two colors of PLA with a horizontal seam is probably just fine, but bonding PLA to TPU on a horizontal seam will probably not work.
The strongest seam will have an internal interlock that keeps the pieces together even if the two materials don't bond to each other.
Re: Material melds
If a model is divided into multiple colors in the easiest way (straight lines), you'll end up with a weak seam. However, if the external surface looked exactly the same, but there was an internal dovetail, or an internal 'peg' on one side that fit into a hole in the other side, you'd have the same look but a much stronger joint.
Vertical seams between materials are extremely weak, since the two materials aren't bonded in any way, just printed next to each other.
Yeah that is the problem. In my view they should be fused together almost as strong as a single material. Any way to over extrude just the seams to get a better print quality? Setting my flow from 95 to 100 seems to have helped a little but that might cause issues later on in the print.
Re: Material melds
If a model is divided into multiple colors in the easiest way (straight lines), you'll end up with a weak seam. However, if the external surface looked exactly the same, but there was an internal dovetail, or an internal 'peg' on one side that fit into a hole in the other side, you'd have the same look but a much stronger joint.
Vertical seams between materials are extremely weak, since the two materials aren't bonded in any way, just printed next to each other.
Yeah that is the problem. In my view they should be fused together almost as strong as a single material. Any way to over extrude just the seams to get a better print quality? Setting my flow from 95 to 100 seems to have helped a little but that might cause issues later on in the print.
This is pretty much inherent to multimaterial FDM. Over extrusion might get you a little better strength but it's still going to be weak.
Really the only way to get strong joints on vertical seams is to design them into your model. The only alternative would be to have the slicer modify the model to put in interlocks, but I don't think I want my slicer doing that for me: too much opportunity for the slicer to outsmart me and do something I didn't want.