What wall thickness and infill for 3DP body?

[TITANIUM94010]

For the guys who have 3d printed bodies, what wall thicknesses (and object perimeter) and infill percentage do you use?

Im going to be printing a MB sprinter body out of ASA filament, and it's a pretty big body with a 14.4 in wheelbase, and I need the structural support without using too much filament, which also can cause more warping.

The issue I'm most concerned is the perimeter wall thickness, I'll be doing a lot of sanding, and I'm afraid Ill sand through the perimeter wall and in to the infill if the wall thickness/perimeter thickness is not enough. Is this not really a concern?

Thanks!

 

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Minimum 3 perimeters (5 is better) if you're using 0.4mm nozzle. Smaller nozzle = more perimeters aim for 1mm wall thicknesses

also, at least 5 solid layers top & bottom.

60% infill but realistically most parts will probably end up being solid once they're sliced

To reduce the amount of sanding you need to do, use smaller layer heights. I found 0.1-0.15mm produces pretty nice prints.

I think ASA can be acetone vapour smoothed, have you considered that instead of sanding? Doing it isn't as scary as people often think..






*
regardless of settings, I wouldn't be concerned about sanding through to the infill, you'd have to be pretty aggressive to go that far..

 

[HumboldtEF]

I prefer 100% or enough perimeters that its essentially 100%

 

[MasteroFlego]

Basically what Queso said. Perimeters are more important for print strength than infill. I never use 100% infill, I just increase perimeters, I normally stick around 5 with a 0.4mm nozzle.

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[Deerhurst]

I run at least 1.6mm walls for everything I print. I prefer the gyroid infill pattern which is a good strength vs material usage pattern.

Smaller layers will take less post processing.

I'm currently working on a beast of a body. Some spots are 1/4" thick but it was also from before I thought about how to do it properly. It's longer than the max ascender wheelbase with the included links by almost 1/2". I used .2mm layers which mean posts of sanding and filling.

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[TITANIUM94010]

Ok,

I think ill go with a perimeter of 5 to be on the safe side, and somewhere around 50% infill. I probably won't vapor smooth because some details might be lost plus its a pretty big print and needs a large container. Its also mostly big flat van panels to easier to sand.
And despite the longer print time I think ill go with 0.15mm.

For wall thickness, is 1mm enough? I was thinking more towards 3 mm in wall thicknesses for the whole print. I have a solid 3d model of the body, but I haven't hollowed it out with meshmixer yet, but that should be easy.

 

[Deerhurst]

Best to make your walls a multiple of the nozzle diameter or it may not print. With a 1.6mm wall that I use that is 4 solid lines for the wall. 1mm would be 2.5 lines which the nozzle cannot do.

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[TITANIUM94010]

Best to make your walls a multiple of the nozzle diameter or it may not print. With a 1.6mm wall that I use that is 4 solid lines for the wall. 1mm would be 2.5 lines which the nozzle cannot do.

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Yeah that sounds about right,

Although what wall thickness would you guys recommend for a 4mm nozzle.

 

[Deerhurst]

Yeah that sounds about right,



Although what wall thickness would you guys recommend for a 4mm nozzle.

As I said before, I use a 1.6mm wall. It is 4 lines thick with a .4mm nozzle. I print all sorts of stuff with that setting all the way up to functional motor mounts for small industrial brushless DC motors. Ends up being pretty tough if the layers bond right.

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[TITANIUM94010]

As I said before, I use a 1.6mm wall. It is 4 lines thick with a .4mm nozzle. I print all sorts of stuff with that setting all the way up to functional motor mounts for small industrial brushless DC motors. Ends up being pretty tough if the layers bond right.

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Ah ok sorry, I must have misread your original post.

I think I'll try 1.8-2mm walls to be on the safer side, as it's a big print.

 

[KenB925]

What software are you guys using to design your parts? I have been using Fusion360, I'm sure I would like it more if I used it more.

 

[Deerhurst]

I use solidworks.

100% NOT ok with saving my designs online in autodesks hands nor do I always have or want internet access.

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[HumboldtEF]

I use solidworks.

100% NOT ok with saving my designs online in autodesks hands nor do I always have or want internet access.

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Yeah I wish there was an option for Fusion 360 to not use the cloud and use my own PC's horsepower, for me it would be faster.

You do have the option to save your files locally though they did recently limit the formats available.

 

[Deerhurst]

Yeah I wish there was an option for Fusion 360 to not use the cloud and use my own PC's horsepower, for me it would be faster.

You do have the option to save your files locally though they did recently limit the formats available.

For me anything cloud is a big hell no! My designs are mine and shall remain local to my machine unless I want them to get out.

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[KenB925]

I use solidworks.

100% NOT ok with saving my designs online in autodesks hands nor do I always have or want internet access.

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Yeah, I don't love that either, but it was free and I didn't know what I would want to use.

That, I don't think anyone would be interested in the nonsense I've drawn so far.

 

[QuesoDelDiablo]

I use Solidworks when it matters that my files stay private (that basically means anything I do for work) but 9/10 times if I'm drawing RC parts I just use OnShape. It's cloud/web based but doesn't require software to be installed on your machine and I strongly prefer it's UI over that of F360.

In order to "protect" my parts that are in OnShape I just give them part number style names so they can't be found by searching with descriptive words or anything.

IMO, OnShape is far superior parametric modelling software than F360.

 

[Deerhurst]

Makes sense to do it that way with the file names.

I'm paranoid that my free stuff for the community will be used for profit. I've had people want to license my non commercial models for RC and for gun stuff to try to make a profit off of them. Nope. I gave it to the community for free. You are not to make a profit off if it. A pet peeve of mine.

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[KenB925]

I use Solidworks when it matters that my files stay private (that basically means anything I do for work) but 9/10 times if I'm drawing RC parts I just use OnShape. It's cloud/web based but doesn't require software to be installed on your machine and I strongly prefer it's UI over that of F360.

In order to "protect" my parts that are in OnShape I just give them part number style names so they can't be found by searching with descriptive words or anything.

IMO, OnShape is far superior parametric modelling software than F360.

Thanks, I’ll check it out. I do not love F360

 

[nightcrawler48]

I use Solidworks when it matters that my files stay private (that basically means anything I do for work) but 9/10 times if I'm drawing RC parts I just use OnShape. It's cloud/web based but doesn't require software to be installed on your machine and I strongly prefer it's UI over that of F360.

In order to "protect" my parts that are in OnShape I just give them part number style names so they can't be found by searching with descriptive words or anything.

IMO, OnShape is far superior parametric modelling software than F360.

I use OnShape and I do the same. Having an engineering background and working for manufacturing companies my whole working life, number style names come naturally. I keep track of everything in an Excel spreadsheet.

If I don't want a particular thing out there, I'll try to get it designed in one sitting, export it as an STL and then delete the file from OnShape. A bit of a pain if I ever want to change something but I'm okay with that. Of all the things I've done with OnShape, I haven't seen 1 "Like" or "Copy".