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How to determine the smallest possible bubble?

Posted by ederg 
How to determine the smallest possible bubble?
May 02, 2020 08:38AM
Hi,

I'm doing an electromagnetics experiment and ,for that reason, I need to construct a polystyrene cylinder with lots os tiny bubles (spherical voids) inside. Before making the final design, I need to know how small the bubbles can be using this 3D printer I have (customized Mendel RepRap).
I suppose I will have to do some tests to know that. Since I'm a newbie in 3D printing, I will greatly appreciate any tips, warnings and recommendations from the community before doing these tests.

Best,
Eder
Re: How to determine the smallest possible bubble?
May 02, 2020 11:50AM
Whats a bubble?
Looking from the side:-
1 layer with a gap is a cylinder.
2 layers could be cylinder or truncated cone.
3 layers starts to look like a truncated cone and an inverted truncated cone.
4 layers exhibits some curvature.
Don't know what nozzle you are using but if we said the min layer height was 0.12mm then vertically you could get 4 x 0.12 = 0.48mm. But only if you positioned it for exact layer slicing.
However if you think how hard it is to print small items. These are small diameter perimeters and could easily be bridged especially if you have stringy filament. Also circles tend to come out undersize.
So my guess is about 1.5mm diam as a practical minimum. But they would probably print at about 1.2mm diam
Re: How to determine the smallest possible bubble?
May 03, 2020 07:08AM
thank you very much for your help and attention
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