Print something really tiny competition 28thJan > Feb15th.

Hi Everyone, time for a 3D printing Diet? This one should not use too much material.

Does anyone fancy a really tiny competition? - Basically it's a chance to show off your ability to print things on a really, really small scale.

You can use any machine you like, and please say how you did it / special settings, GCODE hacks, fans, and magical spells are all welcome.

I have not yet printed a great deal of small things, but after a Christmas of printing massive objects on a Rostock, I fancy having a go at the tiny.

Show a photo of any model you like along with something so we can be in awe and gasp at the scale (money / fingernail / M3 bolt etc.)
Say if you have done any clean-up or if it's straight off the printer.

Only One rule for this one - it needs to be done on FFF/FDM so no resin or powder printers.

Don't be put off if you have a 'big nozzle' you will get bonus points for trying to print small things with a ~0.5mm nozzle - and you can always under-extrude a little and lie to Slic3r (other Gcode generators may vary) to help it along

Good Luck, you have until Feb 15th. Will you be master of the microscopic print?

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

I like this contest, small object are fast to print so we can push the vertical resolution at it's maximum without spending several hours.

I was impressed by Dirty Steve's hand on the "Small Detail Extruder" topic : [forums.reprap.org]
He gave the .stl so I tried myself and here is the result :


Printed in white PLA with 0.05mm layers and W/T of 8 (single wall = 0.4mm). I used support as the bottom is not flat.
I think my nozzle is about 0.3mm

It looks bigger than Dirty Steve's one, I will try again with half the size.

It appears that this contest is more about photography, I had a tough time getting this little frog in focus.
Using Kisslicer on my prusa with 0.35 nozzle and translucent green PLA.
; layer_thickness_mm = 0.15
; extrusion_width_mm = 0.38

Not sure if it's the smallest but I though I should enter this little print.

Great start Petrus and Gulf, they are wonderful prints! thanks for kicking this competition off with style.

I had a go at some models, using a 0.35mm J-head Mk V-BV nozzle and layer heights of 0.15mm (I'm going to try lower next time)


This is Nophead's great Heart shaped box, but printed at 25% of the original size - yes, the lid fits perfectly.
These above are printed in natural Taulman3D 618 Nylon material, but is just as happy to be printed in PLA.


This was the smallest frog I could manage without it breaking apart getting it off the tape.
It's just 29% of the 'normal' size.
He is sat on a UK £1 coin for scale and measures - 8.94mm wide and 4.43mm high



More prints and details about my tiny printing experiments on my blog here

And for anyone else that wants to use coins as a scale here are the sizes -
The UK £1 coin is 22.5mm in diameter.
A EU 1 Euro coin is 23.25mm in diameter
A USA Quarter Dollar coin is 24.26mm diameter.
And a US 1 cent coin is 19.05mm diameter.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Here (Attached) are the scaled models used above if you want to have a go at printing at this size or even smaller!

Other Tiny challenges for the small obsessed -


How about the worlds smallest owl model? - Cushwa owl model is here


Or for a massive challenge try to print the pre-assembled secret heart box by Emmett at anything smaller than full size.

I tried one at 50% size, it printed well, but is slightly fused together, with only a clearance of 0.2mm for moving parts, if you can print a 50% size version you have a very well calibrated machine and stunning slicer settings - you automatically get a gold star medal

Good luck.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Some small vases printed allready.
Nozzle 0.5mm, Cura "Joris:ed" perimeters, Layer height 0.2mm.

I had to give Emmets heartbox a go at 50% after the challenge was presented by Richrap.

The original box had too thin of walls to print at that scale correctly with a 0.5mm nozzle so I modified the model to have 1.5mm walls, the other dimensions stayed the same (like 0.4mm gap). I then scaled it down to 50% in Kisslicer so the attached model is full size.

Model with 1.5mm walls: SecretHeart-1.5.stl
Gcode for Tantillus with 0.5mm nozzle and 3mm filament: SecretHeart-1.5.gcode.tar.7z

You could probably use the gcode with 1.75 by changing the steps per mm on E to account for the difference.

The box turns, opens and closes but the little locking nubs are far to small to hold the lid closed after turning it. The inside of the box has the little E still that marks it as a design by Emmet. The top of the box could be better as Kisslicer does not have any ability to detect bridges (although this has not stopped me form printing things like the Eiffel tower with it.)





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2013 03:46AM by Sublime.

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As I promised, I printed the hand at half the size :

A tiny owl ? Chalenge accepted !
1/10 of the original size :

And what about a tiny octopus :
model : [www.thingiverse.com]

All printed in white PLA at 0.05mm layers and W/T of 6 (single wall = 0.3mm)
Sliced with skeinforge.

Seeing these tiny prints make me wonder how well bismuth would cast at that size

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

Wow! this is getting Awesome, very nice prints everyone.

@Petrus - Very nice hand, your 0.05mm layers are doing a great job - what printer and setup are you using?

The Owl is also great, I did a similar print today, but it's not a good as yours - (only 0.15mm layers, I'll have to retry lower)


And I'll have to try the Octopus he looks really fantastic.

@Sublime - Very nice indeed! - that is such a great print, I managed to destroy my 50% one trying to get it open, I will attempt it again with your slightly thicker walls. - You win a Gold medal for that, and a bonus award just for being able to open it with one Hand!

@tertzoid - wonderful vases, and almost crystal clear. I will have to try some tiny vase things.

If anyone feels the need for another tiny challenge, have a go at the Tiny Dump truck by Madscifi, I did a warm-up print at 75% size and it looks like you could go a lot smaller (it must still be able to work!)





And how could we have a challenge without a Yoda being printed

Finally how about the worlds smallest gears? - Here was one I did today - on a choice of coinage to get the scale across




Happy small printing everyone.

Rich.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Ok here is my attempt. modified Printrbot+ with ABS. i think i can do better. lots of fine tuning!











Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2013 08:11PM by plexus.

Think small

My tiny Thinker on a British 5 pence coin (18 mm dia.) printed on the eMaker Huxley in PLA through a 0.5 mm nozzle.



richgain

Richgain - sheesh!
This is very good indeed when considering that you used a 0.5mm nozzle.(As are all the other entries). What slicer did you use and what settings for layer height and width/thickness ratio?
One thing's for sure with this competition - fruitless prints create less waste!
Alan

Thanks, Alan.
It's not great because, in spite of two fans blowing across the platform, the model was still very soft and prone to moving around as it printed.
I am using the latest version of Slic3r for pretty much everything at the moment (I love the Z lift option) and printed this at 0.15 mm layer height and 0.3 mm width @ 20 mm/s. I might try again with ABS on the Mendel90 for comparison.
richgain

If you have a spare camera lens lying around, try holding it backwards over your sensor/lens to use it as a macro lens. There are also inexpensive macro lens kits/cases for phones .. could be handy for mounting an old phone near your printer. (side note .. would love to see a project that uses image analysis to adjust calibration during a print)

@Plexus - Very nice setup and print, what temperature are you running the ABS? have you tried a little lower, it may help get rid of the wisps.

@richgain - Great print, is it doing much retraction on that model? I would be interested in what setting you are using for 'Minimum travel after retraction' - Slic3r Extruder settings. - I'm using Z list on all my printers for every print now, I have yet to find a situation where it produces a lower quality print.

I do mess about with that minimum travel after retraction setting quite a lot.


I printed the tiny dump truck solid at 50% of the original size, wheels and tipper still operating - it looks like it should still print and function down to about 30% below that it may need a slight design tweak.





This blue material is great for seeing print path moves and every fleck & defect in the prints.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

@Richrap I am printing at 230C. is PLA better for small prints? if so, why? I should load in some PLA and try that.

hi
a thing from switzerland
pla with 190°c
0.5mm nozzle and 0.3mm layer
this is the 6th print from my mendel90
greetings
niggi

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2013 04:16PM by hutzlibatz.

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Früher waren es Modell-Helis aber bei meinen Flugkünsten waren die Ersatzteile zu teuer...
Vielleicht werden mit meinem Mendel90 Ersatzteile billiger und besser ;-)

plexus Wrote:
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> @Richrap I am printing at 230C. is PLA better for
> small prints? if so, why? I should load in some
> PLA and try that.

Only really that you can run PLA down to 160 degrees and then blast cool it with fans so you tend to get less ooze and more shape/detail to the model, but then I don't use ABS all that much so people using ABS all the time may have good ways to get good results when tiny printing.

Nylon seems to behave more like PLA than ABS so I like that too.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Here is something a little different. going in the opposite direction of "quality".

If you've used LAYWOO-D3 then you know that its a challenge to work with because its so sticky and there are particles of wood in the filament. this makes printing small very very challenging. i thought i'd give it a shot. this is the owl printed at 0.5mm layers with a 0.5mm hot end. i kind of like the abstract look of it. kind of an impressionistic print.

I also used a perl script to give a little gradation in the wood colour. didn't quite work at this scale.

I am sure you are looking for the best quality but i think this is a valliant attempt in LAYWOO-D3.







Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2013 06:19PM by plexus.

How is this for small.

Printed on Tantillus with the Default Tantillus Kisslicer 0.5mm hotend profile. The only change was the temperature since they are so small. The Kittens were printed at 165c and the Squirrels were printed at 155c. They were printed on the second oldest Tantillus with its original gears, cables and printed bushings. It also has printed bushings on the Z axis. This machine has two 50mm 10cfm fans which were not quite enough to stop the cats jaw from curling. I believe the 14cfm fans I recommend and supply with Tantillus would have helped a little more.

Kitten and Squirrel by MbCook

Kitten at 35% of the stl I had which may have been scaled already. It now measures 11.25mm tall
Squirrel at 20% of the stl I had which may have been scaled already. It now measures 7.65mm tall (turns out to be 14% of the original size)


Under a microscope sitting on the keys of my laptop.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2013 04:21AM by Sublime.

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
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20% squirrel. 0.17mm layers. 0.65 thread width. 0.5ish nozzle. 190C (I forgot to lower the temps doh) 30mm/s. No fans. 4 at a time.


I had no idea that the zoom buttons on my phone were actually useful. I figured they were just a lame digital zoom post-process, but they actually do zoom. Nice.

Tiny twisted gear vase in Taulman 618 nylon. .2mm layers from a .35mm nozzle. I burned out some interior strings.

Hello all,

I can't claim to be a reprap person, having a Replicator. But I couldn't resist joining in the fun.
One thing for sure, my picture-taking skills aren't up with you guys. I used my iphone with an old toy magnifying glass.

Printed using 0.05mm layers, PLA, 160C, with an external fan. The owl height is about 2.1 cm and the woman is just over 1 cm.

Darrell

This is so much fun I had to give it another try. But even smaller.

It turns out the squirrel stl I had was already scaled and the one I posted above is only 14% of the original ones size (also printed one at a time).

These ones are only 10% of the original size.
Printed at 50micron layers and six at a time with the same machine as above with a 0.5mm J-head (really 0.47mm).
40mm/s perimeters, 40mm/s infill (default profile speeds)



Shown with the 14% one from above, a kernel of popcorn and some wild rice for size comparison.



The entire squirrel only measures 4.83mm tall.


Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2013 03:34AM by Sublime.

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org	Mini Printable Lathe	How NOT to install a Pololu driver

20mm tall. 0.083mm layers. 0.65mm thread width. 180C. No fan. Two at a time.


I really need to make a smaller nozzle.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2013 03:50AM by billyzelsnack.

> I can't claim to be a reprap person, having a
> Replicator. But I couldn't resist joining in the
> fun.

Please do join in. Showing what's possible now is what raises the future quality bar for everyone.

If find the Venus of Willendorf very alluring. 3D printing one of the oldest known man made statuettes put some perspective into where we have gone in just a bit more than 20.000 year. Printed at 20% scale with Faberdashery Bing Bing Gold at 0.05mm layers, light cleanup of a few bubbles.

@Darrell - that's a very fine print of the pink panther woman, and the owl is sharp too, nice job.

@BenitoSanduchi - Nice vase, I have just been printing your fine plus vase model, really like it and quite a challenging print when done small and Hollow.

Plus Vase model by BenitoSanduchi - Nice vase, quite a challenging print. - Showing 50% size of the left, then 25% then 12.5% and finally 8% - All hollow printed in PLA


12.5% - on a UK £1 coin.


8% - on a UK £1 coin (it's just 8.05mm high) - printed on it's own - that was a bit of a mistake,many more fans needed to keep this little one cool.

@Sauce71 - Good job with the venus, she has quite a lot of 'surface area' to deal with.

Enjoying Sublime and Billy's squirrel-off showdown - and the kitten print blows me away, my kids want them as ear-rings.

@Plexus - great owl attempt with Laywood, just shows how tricky that print material is! I must get some to play around with.

My quote of the competition so far - Sublime - "The entire squirrel only measures 4.83mm tall"


I was going to suggest people have a go at the Gear ring model by Paulbelcher, but it's a bit of a nightmare to print, seriously don't spend your time on it yet, the real challenge is to design a gear ring that we can actually print.
I got the parts printed, and also remodelled the gears, but it's still some way off actually working.

Fantastic Job everyone, keep on going tiny, really enjoying this competition!

We also made it onto 3Dprintingindustry.com

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

Richrap gave me an idea which might be usefull : making the smallest working gear that can be pluged on a small motor axle :

The gear has a diameter of 4.5mm teeth to teeth, the axle has a diameter of 1.5mm
Printed whith white PLA at 0.1mm layers and W/T of 3

PS : I made a video of the octopus print : [youtu.be]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2013 02:26PM by Petrus.