I’ve been working with the Snapmaker for a month or so. Out of the box it was great! All three starter projects worked great. I gave the vase to my mother-in-law who was in the hospital at the time and needed some flowers to brighten her day. She, and everyone who saw it loved it. …however it has started leaking. Actually it may have leaked from the beginning, but she only discovered it when she filled it fuller.
Any ideas on how to get this print to be less porous? I’ve printed 4 of them but I’m not really sure what I should be doing with the parameters.
I was hoping someone with more experience would chime in. I’ve never tried the Surface Contour mode, although you got me thinking about it.
Have you calibrated your E Steps? It seems like most of the V2 snapmakers are under extruding, and that could cause problems for a vase you want to be water tight.
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Using a ‘stickier’ filament helps, such as PETG. Upping the temp a little (5-10C), say 215 for PLA, will help it be a bit more melty and fill gaps better. Change the perimeter thickness to around 0.6mm to make them thicker and lay down more plastic. This also has the benefit of making it a bit sturdier. The only other option would be to coat the print with a resin or epoxy to help watertight it.
Actually, there is one other option: vapor-smoothe the print (easiest to do with PVB, or members of the ABS family). That usually fills in any microgaps.
And in vase mode it can can actually be relevant to deliberately over extrude. (and/or set the extrusion width higher, even with a .4mm nozzle)
I have been contemplating calibrating the E steps. I will move that up on the priority list. …and I haven’t done anything with surface contours either, so that’s a good line of inquiry. Thank you.
Skreelink: I’m still not ready to move off of PLA yet. But, I’ve bookmarked this idea. There are some cool things I want to get to once I branch out. The settings ideas are definitely worth experimenting with. I’m still mastering those. I thought about coating it, and I can always do that, but I’m trying to exhaust the variations within the base design material, before branching to other steps/techniques. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond this is every helpful.
ElloryJaye: Yes. I am thinking Ethyl Acetate on one of the prints I already made. I can try this without needing to run another one or acquire anything I don’t already have. Thank you for responding.
brvdboss: Yes. I’m going to vary the parameters and run a couple more tests. Happily, it is not a material intense model. Thank you for responding.
Thank you all for responding this is very helpful. I’ll let you know what I try/find.