Printing times

Hello,

I've looked around and saw some estimated printing times for the printers, but have not see (sorry if it exists) a clear statement of the printing times.

So I'll pop the question:

How long to print a 1 cm cube (1 cm3) completely filled? (assuming a reasonable quality)



PS. Would be nice to have a table with the printing times for different layer thicknesses.

Thanks.

Regards

Pedro

There are many factors to print times and very machine will be different. I can print a 1cm3 cube in about 6 minutes, or 30 both of acceptable quality.

Printing speed is limited by many factors.

Simple shapes with long straight sides: Top speed limits

Complex curved shapes: acceleration and jerk limits speed (and bandwidth can in some cases)

Small objects: Time required for plastic to cool

So, if I print 1x1x1 cube it will take 8-10 minutes since I have set my slicer to a 10 second minimum layer time to stop small things becoming a gooey mess and acceleration means the head never gets to full speed. If If I printed a 2x2x0.25 shape, it has the same volume, but each layer could go down much quicker and it would probably end up taking 1/4 of the time, so 2 minutes or so.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2013 11:07AM by konwiddak.

If so, is it reasonable to say the the less the height the faster for the same volume, i.e., we can print much faster a 20x20x1 (x.y.z) then a 20x1x20 (x.y.z)?

Also, all the things to be printed should be positioned so that the z-axis length is always the smallest lengths measurement of the part?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2013 11:14AM by psilva.

psilva Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If so, is it reasonable to say the the less the
> height the faster for the same volume, i.e., we
> can print much faster a 20x20x1 (x.y.z) then a
> 20x1x20 (x.y.z)?
>
> Also, all the things to be printed should be
> positioned so that the z-axis length is always the
> smallest lengths measurement of the part?

Yes print speed wise, and for other reasons, where possible you generally want to minimise the number of layers.

But something as large as a 20x20x1 would probably have quite similar print times ultimately.

This is assuming you are printing without a raft (which is slow to put down) and your first layer doesn't have to be printed super slow for adhesion!

Of course there are other considerations such as what direction its most aesthetic to have your grain, loading direction of the part (parts are much stronger along the grain than perpendicular), and ease of printing in different orientations (avoiding steep overhangs, allowing a large flat base)

Tall thin objects also have the tenancy to get unstuck from the bed.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2013 11:52AM by konwiddak.

most of the print is empty space. you would want to look at the volume in mm cubed extruded.

Download Repetier-Host and slice up a few things from Thingiverse. You can see how speeds, layer heights, infill % , infill type all affect the print time. Repetier-Host will show you the estimated print time for the gcode file after it slices.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2013 08:29PM by Spk64.

Thank you all ... very good information and tips for a newbie to start learning the process.

Regards,

Pedro.