I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on a problem I’m having? The part in question has right angled sides, but the prints are consistently coming out skewed by a few degrees. Here’s a pic showing the skew on the X axis, and also some warping on the right face:
I’m printing in black V01 at 0.025mm, and am letting PreForm choose print orientation, location and supports (default density and size). Here’s a link to the file, if anyone wants to see it (42mb).
Could anyone advise me as to why the prints are skewed, and perhaps what I could do to reduce it? The parts are quite tightly toleranced so I’d like to get them as square as possible.
First of all, parts like the one you’re printing shouldn’t be printed at 25microns. 100 microns is more than enough for such a “large” part. Only true miniatures should need to be printed at 25microns due to the excessive details.
Why: because it has to peel each layer, meaning 4x the stress to endure compared to printing at 100 microns. In your case it has to endure this ‘stress’ 2369 times, rather than 592 times. That’s 1777 times extra where problems can occur! Problems such as deformation or ripping. Not to mention the print time
Orientation of the part is fine as far as I can see. So I would recommend printing it again at 100 microns and see how that works.
Furthermore, check if the build platform is wobbly. (if you shake it (left/right) the whole ‘tower’ should shake, and not just the build platform). If the build platform moves by itself, it will distort the print during the peeling process. You can adjust the screw of the clamp on top to tighten the build platform:
Good luck!
P.S. just to make sure no problems occur, I would add another support to the top-left part (photo) as this side is unsupported for 120 layers. It might not be a problem, but it could become a little wavey if ‘straights’ are not supported frequently!
Furthermore, get rid of all the supports that touch the actual ‘water surface’ as they aren’t needed (NOTE: you need to keep the ones on the side which barely touch the water surface). This will help you keep the smooth finish. However, you do need to support the inside with some supports on the thinnest parts (scroll up-down with Page-up or Page-down (hold shift for 10 layers at a time). So basically you’re deleting supports on the water surface and adding them to the bottom again. But if it helps you with the finishing, always try!
Add supports to the bottom on layers (212, 277, 350 and 398). Just below one of theses layers can work as well. As long as they are supported! You’ll notice which parts I mean!
Thanks so much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. I’ve just ran a print using the changes you suggested and the results are much better. It’s still a little skewed but I think I can minimise this with a little more tweaking. I’ll post back if I get stuck again.
