I’m trying to print a planter design for my daughter in translucent petg.
I’ve followed the steps in the wiki here and it’s failing with spaghetti fairly high on the print. I dried it to 15% for about 4 hours.
I’ve matched the filament and printer settings to the wiki.
If anyone has ideas I’m all ears.
Tried twice now to similar results.
What does this mean?
translucent PETG prints just like normal PETG…
But it is trickier if you not just want a good looking surface but also a good translucency.
Might sound like total overkill but that’s how I do it >
Create a trans profile for the filament and the print settings - just copy a standard profile for this.
Properly calibrate the filament, don’t trust the defaults and don’t be shy to use a magnifying glass and black permanent marker to judge those 9 patches!
Use the pen to go over the top layer at a 90º angle to the infill lines - this helps you see whether or not there is still gaps between the lines.
Select the number of the patch that has ALL these lines closed.
The second calibration round will only reduce the flow so the ‘perfect’ patch should be close to 0 but look for where the surface and the area around the wall look the smoothest.
The k-factor should be done as pattern.
Go for the sharpest looking corner that has no gaps between the lines.
If inconclusive repeat in the range where the first round was looking good.
With that sorted it is time to check at which temp you get the most desired look.
You might have to increase or in rare cases decrease the nozzle temp to get a really clear look.
If you had to change the temp then double check on the calibration as a temp change affects how the filament flows and behaves!
That was the hard part, now for the fun part of the print profile…
Translucent means you have to know your model and your filament.
Take something like tower with a pointy top.
Below the top you have more less even layer times but the top reduces those layer times with every layer until there is just the top dot left.
This means the previous layers might require extra cooling.
Not just to prevent them from being too soft to support the next layer but also because this changes how translucent the print will be in those areas.
Quite often you can see like a shading effect that relates to the layer times…
In Vase mode things are relatively easy as there is just one wall and we only have to worry about keeping the ‘layer’ or loop time as even as possible.
For a complex model things can turn into a nightmare if you try to print as fast as possible.
Do some quick and small test prints to see whether or not the filament prints as expected.
If pointy things go mushy or crystal clear while other bits look foggy you can use the slicer preview to check for the speeds and flow rates to get a reference.
I usually create three print profiles> Vase mode (including a different filament calibration), fine detail prints, fast/simple prints.
As you probably guessed by now the last is reserved for models that allow for higher speeds because there are few to no wall openings or isolated print areas in the layers.
Here I try to optimise for a higher speed and higher nozzle temp to keep the translucent effect.
For the detailed profile I optimise to get the most consistent print speeds.
Meaning I lower the speeds until they match what the printer would use for the more detailed areas or sharp corners.
You can do all this with just one profile and by adjusting what you need on the go.
But if you print a lot and change filaments often it is hard to remember all the vital values…
I dried it until the hygrometer in the bin with the filament read 15%
I used a polymaker dryer and case, until moving it to the ams for printing.
My only observation would be that the instructions you are following are specifically for making a “glass” object, they aren’t general instructions for a type of filament.
So I’d just try printing it with the default Translucent PETG profile and see if that works.
Did you dry it and then stop it as soon as it reached 15%? You should dry it for 8-12 hours after it reaches 15%.
ok, will give that a shot, thanks.
Realized I had time lapse on, it captured the base of the structure sliding on the plate…so it was caused by lack of adhesion.
Not sure if I should be using a glue stick or doing something differently.
I’m going to start by drying overnight and seeing how that goes.
and it goes wild when the base moves!
I would start with a brim. I would also dry it better. This is 12 hours after the drying was finished on 4 rolls of TPU
I have printed parts very small and tall with clear petg on other printers.
Tips:
Bed 75c
Brims are used or mouse ears
Turn off wipe (If I need the part to be very stable)
Turn off z hop (If I need the part to be very stable
H2D aux side fan off if you have it on ?
Just some other option you can use 
Do you mean off or on here?
(post deleted by author)
Ok updated it and deleted post error to my self lol
I was just trying to understand your reasoning.
Z-hop off means that your nozzle slightly scrapes the top surface of your print.
With a tall narrow print I would probably enable Z-hop to prevent this from happening.
The slightest over-extrusion or certain infill patterns could cause your layer to end up slightly higher than the level you are operating on.
A fast move over that might topple your part.
If I have a very small part that doesn’t sit stable on the print bed and I can’t use support structures, and if infill is necessary, I choose a non-overlapping pattern to avoid destabilizing the print. Additionally, Z-hop where the print bed moves up and down can introduce extra motion that affects part stability and may even increase stringing, especially with certain filaments.
I’ve printed PETG tubes with a 4mm outer diameter that expand to 15mm and taper back down to 4mm, reaching up to 80mm in height. Because of the unusual shape, printing these parts often requires additional techniques or tricks to get good results.
Yeah. I would say increase z hop if anything. Less chance of an impact during travel
Thanks for elaborating.
I hadn’t considered the motion of the bed because my current printer is a Voron 2.4, where the bed is fully stationary. But that is definitely another factor to consider.
I am still waiting for my H2D to arrive (hopefully next week).
For me, slowing down the outer wall speed and bumping up the nozzle temp a bit helped a lot.
I print a ton of this material. The only change I usually make is to set the temp for all the layers to 260, it’s way too low by default. Otherwise standard everything else for the filament and the profile. Higher temp will help it adhere to the bed, too.
I see a lot of stringing in there, filament might be on the wet side still.
I just had these same problems with PETG Translucent yesterday! I slowed the first layer way down, and use the smooth plate, the textured one will never give you full adhesion.
