Printing small objects problem

Hi all,

I have problem printing small objects. when I print something small objects with 0.12mm layer height, the object looks melted on its corner, I reduced temperature and i doesn't help much. Using Kim's Big Blue 360 improved quite a lot but still not up to my expectation.
I downloaded the maker faire robot (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:40212) to try out . so far printed 6 of them, none of them looks as nice as the one shown in their page. I can't take picture right now , my iPad camera can't do close up photo. I will bring back DSLR from my office for clear pictures later.

Anyone here who expert in printing small objects , please help.


Ew

If there is only a single small area being printed over several layers, the layer printed does not get a chance to cool before the next layer is deposited, and the nozzle is staying close to one spot all the time keeping it hot, so the shape tends to lose its form and in extreme cases will melt down into a horrible blob. What you need to do is to arrange things so that the printer has to move the nozzle away from that small area between layers and do something else for a while to allow it time to cool. Unfortunately there is no slicing software that caters directly for that requirement - it would be great if the "minimum layer time" that you can set up would print the small perimeter at normal speed, then move the nozzle 20mm or so to the side and wait for whatever time was set before moving back and printing the next layer. Unfortunately both Slic3r and Cura simply slow down the printing speed so that it takes longer to print the small area - which makes the problem worse!

There are a few ways to solve the problem. In your case, you want to print several parts anyway, so just load lots of them into Slic3r at the same time, and if necessary move them further apart (or slow down non-printing moves). That way the nozzle will move from part to part on each layer which should give each part time to cool between layers. In other cases you can set the skirt height to be the same height as the part being printed - and possibly set it to print 15mm or so away from the part. Then the printer will have to move off the part after each layer to print the skirt. The third way is to make an STL of a thin column (say 1mm or even 0.5mm diameter) that is the same height as the part you want to print, and after loading your part into Slic3r, load that column as well and move it some distance from the print. Again it forces the printer to move to-and-fro between your part and the column on each layer. A very thin column won't print well, but you are not interested in keeping it anyway. It will waste less filament than printing a full-height skirt. Put a thin base on the column though, otherwise it will fall over and result in blobs over the part you want.

Dave
(#106)

Multiple small parts is working for me ;-) (on parts i could not print as singles)