Printing horizontally, or vertically, or diagonally?
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 12:25 am
First post, but I've been trying to do a lot of reading first. I've built a filament 3d printer and cnc machine, but I've only seen videos of SLA.
If I wanted to print a 5mm cylinder that was 150mm long, would I want to do it vertically, horizontally, or diagonally to get the best chances of success and with the best print quality?
I would guess that the vertical print would take quite a bit longer, but if I only ever wanted to do narrow parts theoretically I could have a longer z-axis and a smaller vat. If horizontal, I'd need less support structure and there would be more force needed to lift each layer, but 5mm x 150mm layers don't seem that bad (a standard screw driven nema17 would work). If vertically diagonal, I'd be using a lot more resin to build support. I'm unsure if it would matter if it was top down or bottom up.
The reason I ask is that some of the kits or pre-built units don't seem to be able to do 150mm very well unless you do them diagonally, so I'm leaning towards building my own. From a cost perspective, it seems much better to build a larger vat and print everything as low as possible, assuming the z-axis could produce the force to separate. Is there a good rule of thumb for a max in regards to surface area for each layer (nema17 vs nema23)?
Thanks for any clarifications or corrections in my thinking.
If I wanted to print a 5mm cylinder that was 150mm long, would I want to do it vertically, horizontally, or diagonally to get the best chances of success and with the best print quality?
I would guess that the vertical print would take quite a bit longer, but if I only ever wanted to do narrow parts theoretically I could have a longer z-axis and a smaller vat. If horizontal, I'd need less support structure and there would be more force needed to lift each layer, but 5mm x 150mm layers don't seem that bad (a standard screw driven nema17 would work). If vertically diagonal, I'd be using a lot more resin to build support. I'm unsure if it would matter if it was top down or bottom up.
The reason I ask is that some of the kits or pre-built units don't seem to be able to do 150mm very well unless you do them diagonally, so I'm leaning towards building my own. From a cost perspective, it seems much better to build a larger vat and print everything as low as possible, assuming the z-axis could produce the force to separate. Is there a good rule of thumb for a max in regards to surface area for each layer (nema17 vs nema23)?
Thanks for any clarifications or corrections in my thinking.