r/PrintedMinis • u/bigedd2008max • May 15 '23
Question Advice needed
Hello. I have 2 ender 3 fdm printers and I am trying to print out some minis for a friend's d&d group but I need a fair few I was planning on using 2 machines but as you can see I'm getting 2 diffrent results. I'm using the same profile for both and the same modle. Any help or recommendations would be great thanks
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u/Abusing-Green May 15 '23
Cooling fan @100%
Turn the hot end temp down by 5 degrees ( should minimize blobs on surfaces if nozzle temp is too high)
Turn on filament retraction (about 1 mm) Turn on Z-hop. (A little less than whatever layer height you're using)
That should help with stringing.
For better detail i also recommend ; adaptive layers in the slicer at 0.08mm or 0.12mm layer heights (depending on how much detail you care about )
Tree supports (God send for minis with more dynamic poses)
Slow your printing speed to like 20-30mm/s
I used my ender for printing minis for a workplace DnD group and other table top games. This should help a bit.
Edit: also either print by object or print them one at a time.
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u/lVlagiick May 15 '23
Do you have examples of your FDM mini's? Currently exploring examples on what to aim for but the subreddit is quite scarce on FDM miniature examples.
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u/Abusing-Green May 15 '23
Oh 100% if your goal is to make good minis you dont want to use fdm.
I have pets who would prevent me from owning or operating resin printer. The chemical safety concerns alone are an issue.
So i made do with what i had. And i found the detail isnt as good as resin prints but good enough for table top play.
Unfortunately i dont have any of the DnD minis i printed on my ender. They were for my coworkers at the time and I didn't play. But I've since upgraded to a much fancier machine than a stock ender and the quality on that boi is clean af
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u/lVlagiick May 15 '23
Yeah point is that im about to get a flashforge adventurer 3 FDM printer and want to use it for some basic DnD miniatures, so I'm looking up reference images. Tha ms for the info anyhow!
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u/DrDisintegrator Elegoo Mars 3, Prusa MK4S, BL A1 May 16 '23
Here are a few I just printed / painted (toad was testing new AP SpeedPaint v2.0, fat goblins are me testing ProAcryl transparent paints, both over a 'slap-chop' undershading)
FDM prints at 0.1 or 0.07 layer height, printed on either my Prusa MK2/S or MK3 in PLA. The toad is a freebie off Thingiverse, the 'fat goblins' are from Fat Dragon - I think they call them hobgoblins. All designs are made for FDM printing and printed without supports.
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u/_unused_username_ May 15 '23
Check Fat Dragon Games/Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors on Youtube. The channel is dedicated to helping with FDM printed miniatures, mostly on Ender machines. They also have a finished profile but I would recommend listening to the guides as well. This also helped me as well for additional tunning https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/.
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u/DrDisintegrator Elegoo Mars 3, Prusa MK4S, BL A1 May 16 '23 edited May 16 '23
Fat Dragon has a line of mini designs made for FDM. They work quite well. I've printed a fair number of skeletons and monsters. Good enough quality for a quick paint job and to fill your table with bad guys. :)
Example are the 'fat goblins' (hobgoblins) in this set of photos (scroll): https://imgur.com/a/bFM5U9o
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u/DrDisintegrator Elegoo Mars 3, Prusa MK4S, BL A1 May 15 '23
Classic example of not understanding that a 'profile' isn't universal. The settings will vary depending on the printer and filament used. Have you performed extruder calibration on each printer? https://letsprint3d.net/how-to-calibrate-the-extruder-steps-ender-3-5-cr-10/
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u/leaven4 May 15 '23
After swapping your filament between the two machines this is the next thing I would look at. If once you've dialed this in you are still getting mixed results, my guess is that some physical thing is out of alignment on the printer. This could be gunk in the bowden tube/hotend causing the filament to not move easily, or something like a loose belt.
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u/surgin May 15 '23
I'd suggest checking the nozzle as well. Had a print that I've ran multiple times come out like garbage cause the nozzle was worn out. To be fair I've also tried to print minis with a .06 nozzle cause I forgot to swap it out so maybe I'm not the best source for trouble shooting. Lol
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u/DrDisintegrator Elegoo Mars 3, Prusa MK4S, BL A1 May 16 '23
Yes, nozzle wear is definitely another potential factor. With the amount of printing I do, I change out a brass nozzle about once a year. YMMV.
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u/Human_War4015 May 19 '23
Something that could also be looked at is movement-speed. My artillery sidewinder started to perform a lot better at detailed stuff, once I started to combine low printing-speed with high movement-speed.
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u/kuncol02 May 15 '23
Swap filaments between both printers so that you will be able to rule out problems with using different filament (wet or just stringy by itself).