Showcase: Printing the miniatures on an FDM printer (stock Ender 2)
Added 2020-09-12 18:04:37 +0000 UTCAt first glance, would you believe those are FDM prints?
If you don't have a resin printer, no need to worry! Eirik Ramsli Hauge shared those amazing FDM prints with us, to prove it's possible to get perfect miniatures with a filament printer too.
Below is a quick overview (or interview :D ) of Eirik's setup and some tips from an experienced FDM printer user.
Slicer settings (Cura)
- I use the standard settings and tweak it a bit from there. Since Cura 4.6 the standard settings for Enders are pretty good. The minor tweaks are lowering the infill, setting acceleration to 500 mm/s^2 and jerk to 8 mm/s (this is mainly to get more accurate time estimates) and lastly: I always print on a raft.
I also lower the speed to around 35 mm/s which seems to work well for me.
Layer height
- I use 0.1 mm layer height. For Ender 2, 0.08 and 1.2 mm are supposed to be the optimal layer height, but I find that 0.1 works better with Cura.
Filament
- I use Clas Ohlson PLA. Clas Ohlson is a company from Sweden with shops in Scandinavia and UK (possible more). [edit: just an average PLA, no magic properties involved]
Problems?
- No big ones. I have been printing minis for 3 years, so there has been a lot of trial and error previously. However, the figures are designed well and they print well. The biggest problem is weak ankles that snap easy when removing supports. But that is easily remedied by some patience and clever supports.
Any other tips?
- Supports! I love Meshmixers tree supports, but with Cura 4.7, they seem to have made some really good ones as well (haven't been able to try them out yet). Normal supports might work as well, but for me, tree supports has saved me a lot of trouble and greatly reduced clean up time.
You can find Eirik and other amazing community members on our Facebook group. If you need any 3d printing help, I'm sure they will provide some valuable input!
The 3d printed miniatures come from The Printing Goes Ever On Welcome Trove.
Comments
Added an edit ;) Thanks!
2020-09-13 15:41:32 +0000 UTCI should specifiy something about the PLA I use. Clas Ohlson is a chain that makes it's own filament. It is not known to be especially good nor bad. It's just an average PLA that works once you get to know it. Most PLAs should work just fine :)
2020-09-13 15:20:21 +0000 UTCDo you use tree supports? I would often use up to 30 minutes removing supports from FDM minis until I started using tree supports. Now, it takes around 5 minutes :)
2020-09-13 10:44:46 +0000 UTCThat was my experience with FDM minis as well :D But you know, where there's a will, there's a way. Few years ago, resin printers were not as accessible as today :)
2020-09-12 19:28:15 +0000 UTCI've done several prints with FDM even if I own 3 resin printers. Removing supports of an FDM mini is absolutley horrible. I can't recomend to print in FDM. It'S possible for sure, but the quality is far beyond a resin printer, even with 0,05mm Layer high.
Blackdeath's Realm
2020-09-12 19:12:33 +0000 UTC
