Getting new printer dialled in

Here are some pics.




It's not my design. It's this [www.thingiverse.com]. I used Slic3r to scale it up overall by 200% then scaled the height about another 25%. Height is about 320mm, and it fits in a cylinder about 220mm diameter. Sliced at 0.3mm layer height, 0.5mm nozzle, 3 bottom layers, 4 perimeters, no infill or top layers. Translucent PLA, Red, Yellow and "Clear" (well "natural" anyway). Diamond hot end. Cold bed, blue tape. No print cooling. Perimeter speed 80mm/s, outside perimeters 75%. Total print time around 17 hrs.

Nice! I often print that vase when my printer is on public display- people really seem to like it. At the Milwaukee Maker Faire I was printing them using fluorescent green TPU filament. When the print finishes, I take if off the bed handling it very carefully as if it were very fragile, then I crumple it up and toss it to someone who is watching and it pops back into shape. I even have a single walled copy that I hand to people and tell them to try as hard as they can to break/tear it. No one has been able to do it yet. I've had 300 lb guys try until they are red in the face.

I figured out the z axis scaling trick shortly after my first print of that file. Stretching it in the Z axis reduces the overhang angle and the prints come out clean even where the overhangs get steepest. I usually stretch it 30%...

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Son of MegaMax 3D printer: [www.instructables.com]
Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

Wow, smooth like satin, would be nice if that colour grad was more like flames.

Quote
MechaBits
Wow, smooth like satin, would be nice if that colour grad was more like flames.

Yes, that was the effect I was aiming for but it didn't quite work out. May have to try a different approach.

Some turbulence some how coded in/ through the part or the normal map or 3d falloff? used for the colour mix, wonder if you meshmixed 2 vases with different colour distribution?

I have some ideas along those lines. It'll probably be easier to visualise the final result if I generate separate stl's then combine them into a single object in Slic3r although I quite like the idea of introducing some "randomness". Lots to play around with............