D&D General Need help with 3D Printing

[Jaiken]

Hello everyone, I own a Longer 3D Printer and was wondering what would be the best settings for printing miniatures.

Here are my settings:
Layer height (mm): 0.2
Shell Thickness: 0.8
Enable Retraction: Checked

Bottom/Top Thickness (mm): 1.2
Fill Density: 20

Print Speed (mm/s): 65
Print Temperature: 200
Bed Temperature: 60

Support Type: Everywhere
Platform adhesion type: Brim

Filament

Diameter: 1.75
Flow (%): 100

 

[LordEntrails]

Not familiar with that printer and only a little bit with additive manufacturing in general, but what problems are you getting? Resolution? Bonding/delamination? Sag/Support issues? Also, what models are you using? What file type and resolution?

 

[Jaiken]

Not familiar with that printer and only a little bit with additive manufacturing in general, but what problems are you getting? Resolution? Bonding/delamination? Sag/Support issues? Also, what models are you using? What file type and resolution?

I am using .stl files and the miniature come out fine; however, I am trying to make the miniatures less brittle.

 

[LordEntrails]

I am using .stl files and the miniature come out fine; however, I am trying to make the miniatures less brittle.

So from a materials stand point I can think of a couple of things to try. First, how much room to play with is going to depend upon the material properties of your material. I don't know those so, these are just based on general plastics properties. If there is a community or forum for the printer itself, or one that focuses on printing mini's, they would probably be better resources.

Things I would try:

• Make sure the printer is in a warm location (this can prevent too rapid cooling and aid in layer bonding)
• up the print bed and the print temperature (this can make sure the layers are bonding to each other)
• cool the minis slower when the print is done (too much may lead to sag)
• try a different material

 

[Oofta]

I am using .stl files and the miniature come out fine; however, I am trying to make the miniatures less brittle.

I'm assuming a resin printer? Brittleness is more of an issue with the resin you use than settings. It's something many people have issues with. You can get flexible resin, even do a mix. It's something I'm personally looking into, I've just been busy lately and haven't had a chance to do any testing.

But I'm not sure this is the best forum, the best thing I can suggest is to google something like "resin 3d printer less brittle".

 

[Jaiken]

But I'm not sure this is the best forum, the best thing I can suggest is to google something like "resin 3d printer less brittle".

Will take that into account. Thanks for your help.

 

[Oofta]

Will take that into account. Thanks for your help.

Maybe I'll spend some more time looking into it myself. I had just tried a new anycubic resin, but it still has issues. Another video I found a while back mentioned flexible resins, where they were literally able to throw the mini onto cement multiple times and couldn't get it to break. Unfortunately the minis suffered for lack of detail. So they did a mix and liked the results. Biggest issue was tweaking settings which is why I haven't had time to test. I may need a zombie horde soon so maybe I'll do some testing then.

Good luck!

 

[Jaiken]

Maybe I'll spend some more time looking into it myself. I had just tried a new anycubic resin, but it still has issues. Another video I found a while back mentioned flexible resins, where they were literally able to throw the mini onto cement multiple times and couldn't get it to break. Unfortunately the minis suffered for lack of detail. So they did a mix and liked the results. Biggest issue was tweaking settings which is why I haven't had time to test. I may need a zombie horde soon so maybe I'll do some testing then.

Good luck!

I heard that using isopropyl alcohol helps with making the miniatures more durable, just cannot keep it in their too long.

 

[MoonSong]

@Jaiken I don't have a resin printer, but as far as I remember, after the mini is printed, it has to be cleaned in isopropyl alcohol to make it safe to handle -you should never handle an unwashed resin print with your bare hands-. Then, you need to cure it under UV light, be it a lamp or in the Sun. Without curing the resin won't fully solidify and the figure will be brittle.

Edit: And speaking of safe, are wearing PPE to handle the resin? (gloves and respirator) and do you have enough ventilation in the place where you keep the printer?

2nd Edit: After going back to the OP, you seem to have settings for something like a filament printer? In that case, shell thickness should be a multiple of your nozzle size (.4 is standard in most printers), what I do is set it to .4 and place 3 in the number of shells. That makes the figures less brittle. If you are printing with abs, the figures will be strong (but we are back to the thing about having good ventilation, abs is very toxic). If you are using pla, I suggest you shift to pla plus which is more elastic and more resistant than normal pla.

 

[Jaiken]

@Jaiken I don't have a resin printer, but as far as I remember, after the mini is printed, it has to be cleaned in isopropyl alcohol to make it safe to handle -you should never handle an unwashed resin print with your bare hands-. Then, you need to cure it under UV light, be it a lamp or in the Sun. Without curing the resin won't fully solidify and the figure will be brittle.

Edit: And speaking of safe, are wearing PPE to handle the resin? (gloves and respirator) and do you have enough ventilation in the place where you keep the printer?

2nd Edit: After going back to the OP, you seem to have settings for something like a filament printer? In that case, shell thickness should be a multiple of your nozzle size (.4 is standard in most printers), what I do is set it to .4 and place 3 in the number of shells. That makes the figures less brittle. If you are printing with abs, the figures will be strong (but we are back to the thing about having good ventilation, abs is very toxic). If you are using pla, I suggest you shift to pla plus which is more elastic and more resistant than normal pla.

I should wear PPE before I do any of the stuff yes.