I am new to 3D printing, and only got my X1C a week ago. I already printed several parts successfully with PLA and ASA, and I am very happy with the printer.
Now I am trying to print this:
The result looks like this:
I have printed this using PLA basic & pretty much all settings on default, without support structures. It took 6.5 hours, and I had the front door open during print.
I could see on the camera when it was half way through that the part itself was shaking, due to movements of the extruder while printing. This might be because the way the part was positioned on the plate, it had only a small surface it was standing on, and thus could easily shake. I think this lead to the bad quality in the middle of the part.
I think this could be reduced by either adding support, or flipping the part upside down before printing.
Why the base itself is of such bad quality - I donât know. Even when laying down the first layer, it seemed like it had trouble placing correct circles.
Now could anyone help me get this printed well? Should I add support structures? This would lead to a printing time of 40 hours instead of 6.5 hours.
I have a spool of PLA, a full spool of ASA and the PLA support which came with the printer. I have not yet used it, and I donât know if it was sufficient material for the structures to be printed. I guess I should use the PLA support as support material?
Any other settings I should change?
no way to print that without supports, that amount of âroundnessâ creates overhangs that wonât work, even at lower layer heights. enable tree supports on the slicer and see what it looks like
Should I put specific settings, other than PLA support as support material and tree supports?
Which orientation would be best? I guess that maybe its best to have the big hole on the plate, and the small one at the top?
I had a trial print with supports that I canceled after the first 10 layers or so, and I had the impression that for some reason the first layers wont have perfect circles on the outside, even on the layers which are still on the plate. Maybe I should have a different bed temperature, or adjusted flow rate?!
Again, I am a total newbie here.
i would do the small hole down, as that if i understand correctly is the base, so it disguises a bit the imperfections rather than putting it on the top
I would give it a go without using support pla, as that is what is making it a huge print duration with the mulitple filament changes needed to add that as interface layer
First of all make sure your filament is dry or these overhangs will not be fun.
Variable layer height reduces overhang percent by decreasing layer height (more layers in same area is less overhang).
I have done the moon globe this way (just once though) without issue.
Click the object then variable layer height (hamburger-ish icon), then set it to about 0.80 - 1.0 quality/speed and click the âadaptiveâ button, it will color the sphere accordingly with smaller layer heights at the top and bottom, then click smooth to smooth out the layer height changes:
Word of caution though: if you plan to use it with a lightbulb, or even LED, to illuminate a room, using PLA isnât the best or safest choice (heat emission, and PLA doesnât âenjoyâ much being exposed to heat). ASA or ABS would be better choices, but in the end itâs your call.
This is a similar conflict that has happened to me, I recommend setting it to tree supports auto, but enable critical supports. This will save filament and yield good results.
I can also see a difference opening the lampenschirm.STL file and the lampenschirm.3MF file.
and one hour ago before you downloaded, the file has changed by the maker.
I just made this similar model which should print OK in vase mode. I havenât printed it. Take a look and if it is close enough to what you want try it,
Gravity is the great equalizer, it sucks for everyone!!!
So, you say youâre new to 3D printing. Well, congratulations! Youâve just learned the very first lesson about online models. As my manufacturing engineers often say to my mechanical engineers when handed a CAD drawing: âJust because you can draw a pretty picture on the screen doesnât mean it can be built.â
Rule #1 of online models. Donât assume!!!
Unless the author has provided what I call âproof of lifeââactual photographic evidence of a printed modelâassume they are tricking the community into participating in their experiment to see who will take the bait and waste time and filament, as was likely the case in this example. This model cannot be replicated from the screen to the print bed for all the reasons stated above.
In all seriousness, unless youâre designing the model yourself with the objective of testing the limits of 3D printing design, relying on a third party will likely waste a lot of time and filament on something unprintable if the uploader did not print it themselves. Believe me, I learned that lesson the hard way, but you donât have to since you came to this forum early on. If we can save you the frustration of trying to print the unprintable, then we all will have done our good deed for today.
Refer to this link that was posted a few weeks ago where another forum member learned the same lesson. His experience was similar to your test-case. They had access to the CAD model and ended up modifying their design to be more 3D printer friendly.
As a rule of thumb, anything with an overhang angle greater than 60° will need supports (but exact angles may vary and be dependant on the material). So to avoid supports, try to consider this in your design. You can for example start off with a 45-60° overhang chamfer from the build plate before transitioning this to a spherical shape.
Otherwise, youâll need support. This will usually come with its own challenges but can be aided by dissimilar or soluble support interface material. That is something that may take a bit of practice though. To begin with, it is probably best to learn the ropes using identical material supports and play with the z-distance. This will work on many models but a lampshade may not be the right project to learn about supports as any imperfections are likely to show prominently when the light goes on.
If we can save you the frustration of trying to print the unprintable, then we all will have done our good deed for today. 
