Efficacy Printing Detailed Miniatures

[tonybarbieri]

Hi!

I'm really interested in this project to see how well it would print small detailed miniatures out of PLA. The current challenges with printing wargaming miniatures using FDM is the number of supports required and how the layer lines are oriented.

Currently the best way to print FDM miniatures is to manually figure out how to split and orient individual pieces of a model, set up tree supports to minimize removal issues and print with very small layer lines to maximize surface smoothness.

Do you think this project could be effective at resolving some of the current challenges consumer printers have in this scenario? I could provide example models if it would help.

Thank you for all the hard work you've put into projects like this and for sharing it with everyone!

Tony

[jyjblrd]

Yeah possibly, but I assume SLA printers will still be better/cheaper/higher quality? Is there any reason for FDM over SLA for miniatures

[tonybarbieri]

SLA definitely results in a more detailed print. I avoid SLA due to the inconveniences and toxicity issues. FDM is much cleaner to print with and requires way less steps.

This project has me really interested to see if it could improve the quality and minimize the need for supports and extra setup steps to control layer line direction. If it does it would be a big win. There are already good techniques to get good quality miniature prints out of FDM but the required supports are a big hassle and waste of filament.

[jyjblrd]

Just from my intuition, I think that this printer (any many other non-planar printers) will struggle with miniatures because they have >90 degree overhangs (eg. arms hanging down off a torso) that would require the nozzle to rotate >90 degrees which isnt very easy as it would hit the bed.

[tonybarbieri]

Ah good point. Need a printer where the bed is on a gimbal of some sort.