(10/28/2016)
I used Meshmixer to add manual support. The Voronoi cat model took two hours and thirty minutes.
Slic3r 1.2.9 to generate a gcode file without support.
Filament: eSun PLA+ 1.75 mm
Temperaure: 185 C
Printing speed: 25 mm/s (Perimeters)
Printing time: 17 hours 31 minutes 15 seconds
(10/23/2016)
I pushed Steel Fisher to extreme how it would handle a long printing hours that has heavy retraction. The total printing hours was about 33 that kept me awake for two straight nights.
3D Model: LASER CAT – Voronoi Style
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:179266
Size: 103.09 x 112.91 x 167.12
The first attempt failed, which wasted 1h 38m 55s.
The second attempt failed again at 2h 30m mark.
The big troublesome question was “How to prevent the nozzle dislocation middle of printing?” And I had been fixated to default Lift Z height in slicer programs that set for Cartesian 3D Printers, which ranges from 0.025 mm to 0.4 mm.
Two days ago I thought ‘Hmm, what if the nozzle goes up and down so high that there is no chance to hit any plastic part? Then it would eliminate the nozzle dislocation, potential print failure.’
Two millimeter was little low, so I set three millimeter as Lift Z height in retraction. Slic3r 1.2.9 hang in the voronoi cat’s gcode generation with support. I used KISSlicer to generate a gcode file of the Voronoi cat with support.
PLA: eSun 1.75 mm (This one was shitty. I could’ve use another spool of filament)
Temperature: 200 C
Layer height: 0.2 mm
Printing speed: 15 mm/s (perimeter)
Retraction: 3.4 mm (length), 3.0 mm (Lift Z height), 15 mm/s (speed)
; destring_suck = 3.4 ; destring_prime = 3.4 ; destring_min_mm = 1 ; destring_trigger_mm = 100 ; destring_speed_mm_per_s = 15 ; destring_suck_speed_mm_per_s = 15 ; Z_lift_mm = 3 ; min_layer_time_s = 10 ; wipe_mm = 10 ; *** Actual Slicing Settings As Used *** ; ; layer_thickness_mm = 0.2 ; extrusion_width = 0.4 ; num_ISOs = 3 ; wall_thickness = 0.8 ; infill_style = 5 ; support_style = 2 ; solid_interface = 0 ; use_lower_interface = 1 ; support_angle = 44.9 ; destring_min_mm = 1 ; stacked_infill_layers = 1 ; Perimeter Speed = 10.00 ; Loops Speed = 42.50 ; Solid Speed = 37.50 ; Sparse Speed = 52.50
I started to take photo with one minute interval.
25h 48m 40s
It finished the printing at 32h 58m 43s.
The weight of voronoi cat was 55.3 g.
The weight of support material was 64 g.
Steel Fisher has outperformed my expectation.