Below is a list of my settings, printers, and best practices I've found for printing high quality designs.
Printer
- Bambu Lab A1 with AMS Lite - best printer I've used to date, I also own a few Prusa MK3S+ which served me well in the past
- smooth PEI build plate - I bought this one before Bambu Lab made their own, but I much prefer the finish over textured plates and also think that prints stick better
- isopropyl alcohol - always clean your build plate before printing to remove any finger oils
Filament
- Polyterra Matte PLA - been my go to for range of colors and consistency, also I believe they're currently rebranding it to Panchroma
Slicer Setting
- Orca Slicer - my go to slicer
- 0.4 standard nozzle
- 0.12mm High Quality @BBL A1 - I use this layer height system preset as a base for all my high quality prints, for quick prints I use the 0.20mm Standard.
- scarf seams - I use "scarf joint seam > contour" and "scarf around entire wall" to minimize seams
- 3 walls - add more strength when you can
- 15% gyroid infill
- 50 mm/s outer wall speed - for high quality prints and better overhangs
- Tree supports and Top Z distance of .1mm - I usually don't print with supports, but when I do I like them a little more snug to the prin
PLA Print Temperature
- 210 °C hotend - I edited this in the slicer. Printing cooler helps with overhangs and also makes the parts look more matte to hide layer lines.
- 60 °C build plate - this should come as default, but sometimes I turn it down to 50 °C if overhangs close to the bed are curling
Parts and Sizing
- parts should lay flat on the build plate - since often the files import in their assembled orientation they may need to be positioned propperly with the lay flat button. Blob eyes have a small and large flat areas, if you orient on the small side you can reduce layers lines, but may need to use brim.
- designs can be scaled at your own risk - I test most designs at 100%, 80%, and 60%. Some can go even smaller. Some mechanisms may become too stiff if printed larger. Some items like the Blobheads should stay at 100% for modularity.
Troubleshooting
- bad overhangs or small parts knocking loose - most of the time you are printing too hot and fast, slow down the outer wall to 50mms and print at 210 °C or even lower. If parts near the build plate are curling up turn down the heat to 50 °C. Lastly you can use brim, if the brim is too hard to remove try increasing the "Brim-object gap" to 0.15mm or more if needed.
- parts not fitting - Designing the perfect fit is a difficult task since every 3D printer and filament has slight variations. The first thing to try is to make sure you are printing dimensionally accurate parts. You can print a 10mm cube and measure it with some calipers to ensure it's 10mm on all sides. If not, try consulting your printer's forum/guide to dial in the accuracy. If your printer is already accurate you can try scaling parts up or down by 1% or even less to see if they fit better. You can also adjust the X-Y compensation which thickens or thins walls instead of scaling. Lastly for fixed parts, a simple drop of superglue is a quick and easy solution to attach parts.
