Let's make something clear...
I've been wanting to try this for awhile, and just haven't taken the leap yet. We'll, the other day, I realized I had a gift card balance on my Amazon account, so I figured why not, and I bought some Overture Clear PETG. Let's try to make something clear!!
Now, I know it would be better to just spring for a resin printer and print in clear resin, but I'm just not set up to handle post processing the resin prints. So I'm just using what I've got. The good old Anycubic i3 Mega.
I started with a guide I found online, which gave a few recommended settings. These settings are mostly focused on increasing Temps, and mooshing your print lines together as much as possible so that you have absolutely no gaps. So basically: High temp, low speed, high extrusion multiplier, high line overlap, etc. The other key factor is print line orientation. You want to have a much of your print lines laid in the same orientation as possible, so I set my top and bottom layers to zero, and set my infill to print only in one orientation instead of alternating. https://www.printables.com/model/153...to-print-glass
Here are the main settings I STARTED with:
- Extrusion multiplier: 1.01
- Extrusion width: 0.5mm
- Layer height: 0.1mm
- Top solid layers: 0
- Bottom solid layers: 0
- Perimeters: 2
- Infill: 100%
- Infill overlap: 15%
- Infill extrusion width: 103%
- Infill angle: 45°, not alternating
- Temps: 265C nozzle, 70C bed
- Cooling: None!!
- Print speed: 20mm/s
I sliced up a calibration cube and hit PRINT!
Aaaaannd.... it was cloudy. Well, I kinda expected that on the first try, so let's tweak something.
2nd try:
Settings changed:
- Infill overlap: 35%
- All other settings unchanged
Result: still cloudy, not much change
Next I tried just throwing the filament in the dehydrator for about 4 hours. I wasn't noticing any popping or bubbling in the print, but even a little moisture can have a big effect on print quality, so better to rule that out.
3rd try:
Settings changed:
- Filament dehydrated for 4 hrs
- All other settings unchanged
Result: significantly less cloudy, but gaps between print lines are much more apparent
Now, I know it would be better to just spring for a resin printer and print in clear resin, but I'm just not set up to handle post processing the resin prints. So I'm just using what I've got. The good old Anycubic i3 Mega.
I started with a guide I found online, which gave a few recommended settings. These settings are mostly focused on increasing Temps, and mooshing your print lines together as much as possible so that you have absolutely no gaps. So basically: High temp, low speed, high extrusion multiplier, high line overlap, etc. The other key factor is print line orientation. You want to have a much of your print lines laid in the same orientation as possible, so I set my top and bottom layers to zero, and set my infill to print only in one orientation instead of alternating. https://www.printables.com/model/153...to-print-glass
Here are the main settings I STARTED with:
- Extrusion multiplier: 1.01
- Extrusion width: 0.5mm
- Layer height: 0.1mm
- Top solid layers: 0
- Bottom solid layers: 0
- Perimeters: 2
- Infill: 100%
- Infill overlap: 15%
- Infill extrusion width: 103%
- Infill angle: 45°, not alternating
- Temps: 265C nozzle, 70C bed
- Cooling: None!!
- Print speed: 20mm/s
I sliced up a calibration cube and hit PRINT!
Aaaaannd.... it was cloudy. Well, I kinda expected that on the first try, so let's tweak something.
2nd try:
Settings changed:
- Infill overlap: 35%
- All other settings unchanged
Result: still cloudy, not much change
Next I tried just throwing the filament in the dehydrator for about 4 hours. I wasn't noticing any popping or bubbling in the print, but even a little moisture can have a big effect on print quality, so better to rule that out.
3rd try:
Settings changed:
- Filament dehydrated for 4 hrs
- All other settings unchanged
Result: significantly less cloudy, but gaps between print lines are much more apparent
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