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3D Printing Probably another question about printing materials

May 8, 2020

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    1. Hi everyone! I'm a complete newbie, still learning about 3D printing and such. (I know 3D though, 'cos it was my job. Hoorah, that's half the battle sorted!)

      I know the ideal material is resin, but the small print bed sizes really put me off the low end of resin printers. The printer I am considering getting as my first (in a few months) is just a regular filament printer.

      The dolls I want to make are mostly anthro dolls, so I'm planning on printing in white mostly. I am wondering if anyone has dolls printed in PETG? I know ABS and PLA are more common for filament, but the tests I saw online of PETG looked pretty smooth. Wondering if anyone else has used this material and how it turned out for you?
       
      #1 bentosmile, May 8, 2020
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    2. I don't know anything about PETG except for what the online articles say :(

      I've had my 3D printer for about a month now, and I've printed my current doll head project in both low resolution and high resolution (the highest my printer can handle, at least), and I'm working on finishing the high resolution one. Would it help at all to see a noob's attempts at PLA printing?
       
      #2 Zardi, May 12, 2020
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    3. Hmm, am mostly curious about PETG because of the slightly different properties it has from PLA... However I would love to see your doll too if you want to show it! :D (Please do!)

      Similarly, yeah I have just seen it in reviews. It looks kinda promising from some of the pieces printed in reviews though. (But I guess they have better printing tech than your regular person at home.)

      I'm thinking of getting one of the flashforge printers that can do PLA, and PETG :D eventually anyway. So I guess there are many material possibilities! I pondered a resin printer, but with a toddler and a very fluffy dog in the house, it seems like a recipe for disaster. Plus I'm curious to see what happens with resin and other types of printers over the next few years. Wow I have rambled on. I'm just excited by the tech possibilities!

      Edit: don't know where my brain got ABS from. I swear my memory is the worst lately.
       
      #3 bentosmile, May 17, 2020
      Last edited: May 18, 2020
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    4. My printer does PLA and ABS, so I would think the Flashforge ones do too.

      Here are the results I got. If the images don't load, click on them to go straight to Flickr. I've been having issues for a while.

      Low resolution (0.2mm layers) close-up:
      [​IMG]2020-05-03_11-36-41 by AndreaJEP, on Flickr

      High res (0.1mm layers) vs low res. The criss-cross lines are from the supports, which I moved for the high resolution print.
      [​IMG]IMG_20200506_220044 by AndreaJEP, on Flickr


      High resolution print after one round of light sanding and priming. Print lines are still visible in places but not as prominent.
      [​IMG]00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200514210513731_COVER by AndreaJEP, on Flickr


      After a bit more light sanding:
      [​IMG]00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200511224345463_COVER by AndreaJEP, on Flickr


      One more coat of primer, some buffing, and starting the face-up. Seam lines are visible in some places, but gone in others:
      [​IMG]00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200515001843820_COVER by AndreaJEP, on Flickr

      Seam lines are more visible on this piece, but they feel fairly flat:
      [​IMG]00100lrPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20200514210540171_COVER by AndreaJEP, on Flickr


      I feel like one more round of slightly more vigorous sanding and priming would have gotten rid of the print lines completely. This dude is made up of hard plating and not skin, so I decided to leave it at this stage. Hopefully this gives you some idea of how difficult (or not!) it would be to get the result you want with PLA.
       
      #4 Zardi, May 18, 2020
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    5. Ah, cool! It's super interesting to see something go from a fresh print to primed and sanded! :D I hope I have something to print soon... Instead of just dreaming about it XD
       
      #5 bentosmile, May 21, 2020
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