MakerGear Forum

My airplane had two broken switch covers, so I drew them in SolidWorks and printed them. I am now trying to make them look better, and I am hoping for some suggestions.
I am using gray PETG with a 0.35mm nozzle, printing them on their left sides. The two on the outside have black fingernail polish applied liberally to fill the lettering, then quickly wiped off. The acetone changes the surface finish slightly and leaves a little color behind on the top surface. The left two use an 8-point font, while the right two use a 10-point font.
I have been trying a 0.25mm nozzle, but with less success than I thought I should. What all should I change in S3D to accommodate the smaller nozzle? (I probably missed something.)

I am also, (finally), setting up my dual extruder, so I need to learn how to fill the lettering voids with a different color. I presume that has to be initiated in the CAD program?

Can you tell which were printed using a 0.35mm nozzle and which used a 0.25mm nozzle?

Interesting idea, I cant tell which is which but I have an untrained eye. Have you tried using black hobby paint? I used that on some miniatures once and it worked awesome

2 on the left are the .25mm nozzle...lol...idk

3dPrintingMD wrote:2 on the left are the .25mm nozzle...lol...idk

Nah, two on the right are 0.25. It's hard to tell since things are a bit out of focus, but the corners are sharper on the right hand ones. Or, at least, a 0.25mm nozzle should result in sharper corners.

The advantage of a smaller nozzle is you can print narrower extrusion widths. If you have the default extrusion width set to automatic, then changing the nozzle size should automatically change your default width. Otherwise, you'll have to pick a value yourself. I think the automatic value should be 0.3mm. With a 0.2mm layer height, you're getting pretty close to a round filament with a 0.3mm width, so you'll probably want to knock that down to 0.15mm or 0.1mm.