Im trying to get a slightly frosted look from some translucent pla. I first did 210 temp and 65mms walls with a slight over extrusion and fans down to 40 . It came out very rough and patchy.
Bit of chatgpt advice and closest so far is a 0.16mm layer height, 220 nozzle, bed 60, 35mms walls, fans up to 100, normal extrusion. This gets me a lovely glossy shiny finish no roughness but, it’s full of layer lines and heading to transparent.
Any tips or is it just keep playing? I’m printing a model With a small led going inside. I don’t want to see the through it, just make it glow. So a slight frost almost.
Am I right that lower temp or speeding up a bit would help frost over a bit? Also thinking of trying 0.12mm layer height? I’m fixed with wall width of 1.24mm as the models been designed hollow and that way. So I use arachne and set 3 walls which just about fill the gap! The rest after the walls is just empty void. So can’t adjust infill etc
It was fine, From what I’ve seen, Translucent PLA isn’t really clear but more frosted I’d say. I used the BL Basic PLA profile and it printed fine with no issues. I’ve printed several things with it and it just works.
I only used some Anycubic translucent pla but i got good results from it with a 0.28 layer height, about 50 to 60mm/s and manual cooling at around 30%.
It didn’t came out as glass, but it looked very good. Also be in mind that the positioning of the printed part matters.
Next time i print with it i’ll post some pictures.
I tried it with a flat 1mm square and started from there until i found the best balance. Tried that square piece in vertical and horizontal orientation. Both were good but since it was a thin part, i went with the horizontal orientation and made the slicer print the lines always in the same direction. That was the secret, at least for me.
Let me see if during this week i can try it out again and i’ll post it here.
Try also this topic. It’s about PETG but there are good tips there that could also be applied to PLA.
I am still occasionally printing a roll of 6 year old Geetech PLA Transparent. While the results are OK, it now requires almost daily drying when in use to avoid in PTFE fracture.
I have not tried to give it a frosty appearance but it only needs a light brush with some fine sandpaper for that.
However, you can also get a “frosty” look by printing a single layer of white over (and/or under) it.
I have done a multi-layer approach recently (white, transparent, white, transparent, white) to get a strong yet reasonably transparent diffuser with PETG. (Much) more separation would have been good, but there just wasn’t sufficient room.
I also thought about experimenting with fuzzy skin, but have not tried it. For a flat surface, the bottom surface of the print will be taken up by the print. So a textured plate print will definitely not be transparent.
Do you have a picture of the effect you seek already achieved on a 3D printer.
Sometimes people expect more than is possible. You have noted it is translucent and not transparent, which is good.
But, a frosted look on glass is created by a sanded (or similar) technique to create a diffused pattern that bounced the light. This is at a much tighter grain than you will likely get with 3D printing.
I would like to see if your expectations are achievable.
Thank you for creating this thread, I am about to begin printing with this type of filament as well for a “Tron Legacy” style of box with glowing corners.
Are you new to this type of filament, or have you been using it for a while?
To be honest I’ve nearly got the result I wanted. It was interesting seeing how little changes made such differences! I wanted a slightly frosted look and not clear glass like a lot of people want!
I slowed down to 35mms with around 220 temp and got a great shiny exterior but slightly frosted. Enough to get my led glow through.
Thanks for the advice all, mines unusual in the fact I’m not chasing clear glass as such, just clean outside with a frosting almost, so to be honest I’m not really sure how translucent this is but, it’s the effect I wanted so am happy!
Slowed down lots and fans to 100 were my cure. I know fans make it more frosted but due to the shape of my print it kept failing till I upped the fans
That doesn’t look too bad. I had to do the same when I was printing shields for a Droidika. I knew I wasn’t going to get clear so I just ran with frosted.
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