Printing multiple copies of a small item

[funutation]

When I print 1 copy of a small robot or linkling, it always comes out great.

To save time I'll make 4 or 5 copies of the item in Slic3r, make the Gcode, run
thru Pronterface, but halfway thru the prints something goes wrong (I think one
of the copies loses bonding even tho I'm using hairspray and a glue stick), and I
end up with "crazy string"

So any advice on how I can print multiple copies? Should I move them further
away from each other? Or am I stuck printing one at a time?

I have the bed temp at 70. Maybe set that to 0? (PLA on M2 btw) PLA at 230

[Jules]

PLA at 205-210°, (230 is too high.) Plate temp 55-60.

While the PLA is cooling it warps, and it can warp up and strike the nozzle, knocking a print loose and causing the bird's nest. The lower the temp that you print PLA at, the less time it has to spend cooling, so it has less potential for warping.

In addition, there should be a setting somewhere in Slic3r that lets you enable a small vertical lift on retraction. Use about 0.6 mm.

[Tim]

Bear in mind that there will always be some loss of quality when printing multiple items compared to printing only one, because the head has to travel away from each object at least once per layer to move to another copy, and move back once. This can increase stringing or defects if everything isn't dialed in perfectly. Because it greatly increases the number of times the nozzle passes over a boundary, it increases the chance of a number of different kinds of failure, such as the one in which the corner of an object warps up slightly, and the nozzle rams into it and knocks the piece off the base. In one case, where the object gets really small, printing multiple copies can improve the print quality, because the nozzle isn't spending all the time sitting over a small area, but moves away to the next copy and gives the first one a chance to cool down. But in pretty much every other case I can think of, printing multiple copies will degrade the quality, or at least show you very clearly where the slicer values aren't dialed in right.