Are you able to do 1 degree temp towers? Last I tried on Orca slicer, I was limited to 5 degree increments.
Well, you can, sort of…
You can the sections of some temp towers as singles to build up your own model.
Then simply give each part of the stack a different slicing profile or temp setting.
So instead of slicing a single tower you slice several parts.
Considering the unavoidable temp fluctuations during extrusion a single degree might be overkill, but doable.
If need be I would do a standard 5 degree tower to find the best range and then do a fest simple and quick models to find the best temp within this range if the middle isn’t sufficient.
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Any resin really…
Usually leftovers from my resin printer.
Curing either in the Australian sun during summer for a few minutes or using some UV panel lights with I think 80 LED’s each.
Those cheap tubes for nail curing stuff just fail too quickly.
You can also use 2k resin (50-50) ratio or resin that requires a hardener to set.
I use the UV kind because I have it around anyway together with is needed to clean and cure it.
Don’t be fooled to think you get a perfect finish just because I did not include all the steps!
At .2mm layers you still need at least two coats and that is if the model does not make the first coat run so you would have to go really thin or even airbrush it on.
A sponge applicator works quite well, better than a brush for sure.
Unlike the filler and spray paint method you want to keep a full coat over the model!
So you only sand back the first coat to smooth it out and try to avoid sanding back on the plastic where possible.
It is always a bit tricky to get the same finish on the final last layer if the base is a mix of cured resin and plastic.
If in doubt add a layer to cover it.
But like the spray paint approach it does help to have some different colors for the resin, be it liquid or pigments for the final coat if you want a pearl or metallic effect.
The stuff for nail art works great here and is reasonably priced.
You won’t have to do the whole mess fo going from 180 grit to 200 grit for the part sanding, 200 is fine and only for a spray on gloss finish you need to resort to water sanding.
UV resin takes a bit of getting used to for coatings.
If you have no resin printer check the arts supplies for casting resins with a low shrinkage.
As you are adding powder, at least for the filler coats, the resin can be quite runny.
If you want to save money and just buy one type of resin opt for one that you can ‘dilute’ to make it more runny if required.
It sounds more cost effective than this stuff:
https://a.co/d/atwWQSH
Nonetheless, if you want that kind of look, wouldn’t it be easier to just print in ABS and do either a vapor melt or a quick acetone dip, like what @JonRaymond does? Acetone is cheap, and Jon’s dip method sounds very fast, yet apparently gives quite good results.
Sure ABS and Acetone works great.
Same for MEK and such on PLA and other plastics.
But ABS can very tricky to print if the model is complicated.
And if you need something for cosplay or such than of course you need to paint most things anyway.
Let’s just say that it is not really that easy to get Acetone out of the model if it got between the layers and inside…
In return it can mess badly with your paint job.
Especially if you are in a rush and used the primer and sealing coat early.
They still allow some vapor to get out but the rest affects the paint coating and stays sealed inside.
For decorative big items try the PLA aero stuff.
VERY easy to sand, very easy to paint.
ABS is great for a lot of things and Acetone treatment works great.
That is if the filament color and features are enough as than painting it would be IMHO a waste of time.
I mentioned the resin way for PETG not because it is tricky to make it bond or to paint on the stuff without a good primer.
I did because PETG is a pain to sand and finish and many people struggle with it.
No good for very fine surface details of course…
But things like a helmet you could print with a big nozzle and save a ton of time…
If the resin in question then won’t cure too hard or brittle it is very hard to ruin the creation.
Just saying 
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I did some minimal calibration, and the the black rapid PETG runs fast: 25mm^3/sec at a nozzle temp of 230C, and 30mm^3/sec at a nozzle temp of 250C. It might actually go higher than 30mm^c/sec, as I didn’t try to test for higher than that (yet).
I have used Elegoo PLA clear with no issues. I have a black spool and this will absolutely not print. First layer goes down great but there seems zero layer adhesion, just blobs up. Never seen a PLA fail like this. I will not purchase Elegoo in the future. Seems they lack quality control.
Is it Elegoo’s black “rapid” PLA the one you had trouble with? If so, I just recently purchased a spool of that as well, and I’ll be testing it soon.
Not too long ago I posted a thread inquiring whether high speed filament is really a thing or not. Elegoo’s rapid (high speed) PETG has convinced me that it certainly can be a thing. 2x the maximal flow of regular PETG! It’s just unheard of. Who wouldn’t want that? And it’s even fairly cheap. Something that good must have some kind of trade-offs that come with it–not sure what those are yet.
Elegoo’s website recommends 230C for printing their rapid PETG:
Before knowing that, when I ran the temperature tower on their black rapid PETG, it was a toss-up between 230C and 240C.
Also, the temperature range given on the website is slightly different from what’s on the spool label.
Anyway, even at 230C I’m finding it to be extremely stringy, so I’m putting it in a filament dryer to see whether stringiness is from moisture. I tested it straight out of the vacuum sealed wrapper, but who knows.
Meanwhile, I’ll try calibrating elegoo’s black rapid PLA+ and see whether it’s as bad as what wyhsbj experienced.
Reporting back: I completed calibration of the Elegoo Rapid PLA+. Not noticing any problems with it. Maximum of ~24mm^3/second flow rate. I’m using 22mm^3/second in the profile tp provide some fudge factor. Seems like unremarkable, garden variety black PLA. Rather boring compared to its juiced-up Rapid PETG Elegoo sibling.
I have been trying out the ELEGOO Rapid PETG as well (in white).
While it printed really fast (for PETG) I found the resulting prints to be extremely brittle (very much unlike PETG).
However I put it in the dryer and it lost over 5g of water weight (which I think is quite a bit?). I just did a test print after drying and it seems to be much less brittle and behave more like PETG.
I opened up a second roll of this Rapid PETG (in gray). I weighed it, put it in the dryer for ~8 hours, and weighed it again. It lost close to 8g. Which means that the filament was pretty darn wet straight out of the vacuum packaging. Not great.
You’ll definitely want to dry it before use.
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Did you keep the filament on its cardboard spindle, or did you remove that? I ask because I’ve heard that the cardboard spindle can hold a lot of water weight even just by itself.
I left it on the card board spool.
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In case anyone here who is tracking the topic missed it, it was very recently reported on a parallel thread that the Elegoo Rapid PETG clogged another BBL user’s hotend (twice), and through measurement he determined the cause to be wildly out-of-spec filament diameter:
Prior to that I was gung-ho on using the high speed nature of the Elegoo Rapid PETG, but I’m now going to wait on that until I can put countermeasures into place as a guard against succumbing to the same fate.
Honestly at the Price Voxel has Rapid PETG now too and its priced the same and better quality control
Using orca max flowrate calibration, I measured grey voxel PETG at 16mm^3/sec. Using the same method, I measured Elegoo black PETG at ~30mm^/sec if the hotend is heated to 250C. At least two others on this thread have reported similarly high max flowrate for the Elegoo PETG. I think that makes the Elegoo PETG pretty compelling all by itself. We don’t yet know, but the dimensioning problem that clogged the BBL user’s nozzle may have been a fluke. Elegoo is sending him two free boxes of the same filament, and he’ll measure it to see if it has gotten any better.
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is that the new Rapid PETG that Voxel had or their standard PETG? As the Voxel is on Preorder and hasn’t shipped their Rapid yet to my knowledge.
(Edit)
I see they have started shipping but at 500mm/s speeds I would expect better flow rates
I only see one type of PETG on voxel’s website, but maybe you know more than what I can see. This is what I ordered on February 21, 2024 and subsequently tested:
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I bought a couple of spools of the EleGoo PETG Rapid a while back as well as their PLA+R and both have performed well. I’ve been printing the PETG rapid @ 18 mm3/sec 255/70 without major issues. The PLA+R prints almost the same as the discontinued Bambu PLA Tough (20 mm3/sec as opposed to 21 for the Bambu).
The PLA+R has become my default black and white PLA’s.
No, you’re probably right remember one of their email marketing things calling it the fastest printing PETG in the world and all the marketing BSing that companies do. I wish we could hold them to some accountability to their marketing BS.