Sunday, July 22, 2012

Turk's Head print...

The Turk's Head print came out so nicely I thought I'd give it a little space of it's own. It might even make a novel Scout woggle, but you might want to use the version without a base and take on the challenge of a supported print!

I printed it in PLA at .3mm layer height with a .45mm width and 20% infill. It was set to a perimeter speed of 30mm/sec and left to chug away while I walked the dog.

What I have observed when printing in black PLA is that the final finish can change from gloss to matt depending on whether you have a cooling fan on it or not, but also depending on the print temperature. This item has more of a matt finish. I dropped the print temperature down from 185Deg C to 183Deg C as I observed the initial few layers looking a bit 'soft' and shiny. On my current config there is a bit of downward air flow from the x-carriage mounted fan and this seems to serve well as a work cooling fan as the print head moves about.

While the print resolution could be considered quite coarse by current standards, there is forgiveness of the surface finish as you eye seems to be tricked into thinking it is a woven cord or rope type material. It's a nice object to print. I'll probably reprint it once I get some white PLA. Would probably look better in white.