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Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 8:51 pm
by Quark
Hi, just wanted to share my radiator I designed and printed. Took me a little while to get the dimensions to print correctly. These are .4mm vertical fins, .6mm horizontal fins, and .3mm depth difference between each. Standard .35mm nozzle at .2mm layer height on petg black. I can probably get better detail going with a smaller nozzle, but I'm really happy the way this turned out. Let me know what you think.

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 9:31 pm
by garyl
That looks good.

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 9:38 pm
by Jules
Wow! Stunning detail work! :D

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 10:02 pm
by jferguson
Best of all, it looks like a radiator.

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 4:08 pm
by ednisley
Quark wrote:better detail going with a smaller nozzle
If you build it standing on one side, rather than the bottom, you may see better results with the 0.35 mm nozzle.

The 0.4 mm vertical fins are about one thread wide, but you really need two threads to get a good peninsula in the XY plane: one thread out, one thread back.

Flipping it 90° puts the thinner fins parallel to the horizontal (XY) plane: they become exactly two layers thick (in Z) with crisp overhangs. The 0.6 mm lines become vertical and wide enough (in the XY plane) for good detail: set the slicer for two perimeter threads and they'll be solid.

Building it "sideways" may require a brim or, perhaps, mouse ears on each end to get enough footprint for good adhesion.

Nice work!

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:12 pm
by Quark
ednisley wrote:
Quark wrote:better detail going with a smaller nozzle
If you build it standing on one side, rather than the bottom, you may see better results with the 0.35 mm nozzle.

The 0.4 mm vertical fins are about one thread wide, but you really need two threads to get a good peninsula in the XY plane: one thread out, one thread back.

Flipping it 90° puts the thinner fins parallel to the horizontal (XY) plane: they become exactly two layers thick (in Z) with crisp overhangs. The 0.6 mm lines become vertical and wide enough (in the XY plane) for good detail: set the slicer for two perimeter threads and they'll be solid.

Building it "sideways" may require a brim or, perhaps, mouse ears on each end to get enough footprint for good adhesion.

Nice work!
Thanks Ed. Never really thought about printing it on its side. I think the extra crisps will help as it gets lost a little after I applied a coat of aluminum paint. As it is, it needs a brim or it'll just pop about half way up. I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

It was interesting seeing it print those .4mm vertical fins when the head was going across.

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:42 pm
by ednisley
Quark wrote:print those .4mm vertical fins when the head was going across.
Yeah, you hear this weird sound, look over, and watch the printer sidling toward the edge of the table …

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 7:00 am
by Quark
So I printed it standing up and the results were unexpected. In theory, it made sense and looking at the gcode rendering in Octoprint, it looked alright too. The print however, didn't seem to improve.

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 11:48 am
by ednisley
Quark wrote:didn't seem to improve
Hard to tell from the pix, but the whole affair looks smoother: those thin fins (vertical in the normal orientation) aren't as ragged and seem to have nicer joints with the thicker bars. Might be wishful thinking on my part, of course.

That model sits right at the limit of FDM resolution, with features about the same size as the nozzle, so you can't get vast improvements by changing orientations: hot plastic goo just can't produce sharp corners.

Building smaller details along the Z axis gives you about twice the resolution, although a factor of two seems not to make much difference. Reducing the nozzle diameter by 25% (0.35 mm → 0.25 mm) would probably have about the same (lack of) visible effect in either orientation.

Perhaps it boils down to "what looks better" for a given solid model, material, and printer.

You gotta show us the whole car!

Re: Radiator for toy car.

Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 6:31 am
by Quark
I looked at the path it takes when the radiator is printed upright, and what seems to be happening is the small .4mm vertical fins get a single pass starting on the inside and ending on the outside, kinda like an L shape. I wonder if that is causing the filament to get more pointy, rather than making a turn for another layer thickness. Anyhow, this is probably chasing that last few percent of print quality, but I'm very satisfied with how it is.

Here is a couple shots of my toy car. lol. sorry, its a little beat up and I don't have really good detailed shot of the radiator in the truck, but its there in the second shot after a bit of silver paint. Still a work in progress. :D
17554102_401945413511301_7730291593805687825_n.jpg
18056994_416374115401764_5971187189931247871_n.jpg