Hello all. I am very new to this but it is all very cool to me. I ran into a problem and I am not sure how to troubleshoot it. I downloaded a simple pull string helicopter off thingiverse. After running through the slicer software, the estimated build time is 131 hours. Relative to it’s size this seems insane. If I “run the simulated build”, there are long holds on one of the interior walls. I am hesitant to just “try it” and see if the pauses are a software thing that does not translate to the hardware. I am not sure how to break it down from here. Any advice?
Link to the plans included
I suspect what’s getting you is minimum layer time. In a nutshell, extruding very hot plastic onto a layer that was very recently extruded can result in a runny mess. Minimum layer time is intended to address this.
That said 131 hours seems a bit intense.
What’s your layer height? How good is your cooling? If you crank your fan, you might be able to decrease minimum layer time.
Layer height is 0.1mm. it’s odd, because it happens on specific curved areas. There are no pauses on other areas that were recently printed.
A good rule of thumb is to just always use 0.2mm layers unless you have a very good reason not to.
That being said, this doesn’t explain your truly nonsensical time prediction. It would just be double, since you have twice the layers to print. Like someone said, a few hours would be reasonable, certainly less than a day even with very fine detail.
You mean travel speed is slower in those curved areas? Perhaps it’s due to an overhang.
Are you slicing the parts flat or are they standing up?
Just to add on to this, if OP is printing this standing then it really should be laid on iits side, so that the hole in the handle is facing up & down, not sideways. Looking at this print that’s definitely how it should be printed. Vertical not only runs into layer time issues, but it’s a tall, thin object with loads of layer seams in the middle. It will be extremely weak. Lying down the layers run along the length of it, making it stronger. If the hole is sideways, then one side of the handle makes a giant bridge, which could fail the print entirely or need lots of supports.
I imagine the designer very intentionally made it to print on its side.
Oh and put the embossed arrow facing up, assuming the other side is flat.
