Printing on top of objects
Hi all,
I have a 5 tool XL. I would like to explore printing on plastics that already exist. For example, an acrylic sheet. Imagine a clock face with the acrylic sheet as the base plate and I just want to print numerals on top of it in the proper locations. I would do this for several different clock numeral patterns, but all on the same dimensions of round acrylic sheet, specifically 2mm thick and 350mm diameter. I'm wondering if it's possible and how I could make this work with prusaslicer and/or manual edits.
My first concern is damaging my printer. If I properly centered the acrylic disc and mounted it to the print bed so it was secure, then maybe changed the gcode to start 2mm up, would the printer startup sequence crash my print heads into the acrylic surface, or hang up on the sides of it? How can I make the printer aware of this unexpected object?
My second concern is adhesion. The first layer always has the benefit of bed heating. I would think if I scuffed up the cold surface of the acrylic, it may grip the hot filament better? Or maybe change the first layer print temperature? I could basically disable bed heating since no prints would be on the print bed.
Third is selecting the appropriate filament. I would start experimenting with PLA and PETG, but I'm sure there are probably better filaments available for this kind of application, especially on acrylic, or other plastics.
If I could get this to work, I could make a jig (probably a 2mm thick surrounding acrylic sheet with the proper 350mm hole in the middle to slide the discs into) to always grip and center the disc and just print different gcode files and swap out the discs between prints. I want to try and make this process as efficient as possible.
I wasn't able to find anything appropriate with searching the forums, so apologies if this has already been covered somewhere.
Thanks for any ideas you might have!
This is a variation on printing on fabric/mesh that cosplayers often use.
Easiest might be to print on the uncut sheet and cut the disc out afterwards.
The pressure sensor bed levelling should work as usual, no need to start in mid air.
Cheerio,
RE: Printing on top of objects
Awesome! I thought about that too where I basically create an elevated print bed and see if the sensors automatically adjust to that as the actual bed height. I wouldn't have to tell the gcode to start at a different point, but just let the printer figure it out. If I cut a mounting jig plate out of equally thick acrylic with the right hole size to hold and secure the blank, this may just "work" using automatic printer configs.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to try it.