Endless PLA #35 (February 2024) - Iceland Inspires!
Have you been to Iceland? If not, I highly recommend visiting! If so, go again!!! ;-)
Last August, I visited Iceland with my dad and saw puffins, the northern lights, waterfalls, fjords, glaciers, floating icebergs, volcanic rock, and splashing lava. In just over a week, we made an amazing trip around the country following the ring road. Special thanks to our Iceland reseller, 3D Verk, for their insight and hospitality.
I could go on and on about all I saw, but I realize this is not a travel blog. One location in particular inspired this month's contemporary colors. Diamond Beach is where icebergs get pushed back onto a black sand beach. This "new" ice is blue when freshly exposed and broken away from a glacier. Seeing this blue ice inspired Blue Ice HTPLA. In a similar style, I created Aqua Ice and Purple Ice for as this month's contemporary colors.
No I didn't see aqua and purple ice in Iceland, but they perfectly compliment blue. Being highly translucent HTPLA, I've got some printing tips later in the blog. First, I want to share the classic colors. I chose Fleck 'n Fire Red, Obsidian, and Iridescent Ice for classic colors to express the lava, lava rock, and ice of Iceland, the land of fire and ice.
Since we're talking about ice and translucent filaments, let's talk about how to print them shiny and clear. Their gloss and translucence depends on your hardware, print rate, and print temperature. I printed rings with volume rate 2-12 cubic mm/s at 220, 240, 260, and 280 C (left to right below) to see the difference.
What we see is that lower temperatures lose clarity when rate increases. In other words, high temperatures extend the clear range. Judging the photos above, below are the rates that are most glossy and translucent at each temperature when printing on our Bambu P1S with stock hotend and nozzle:
220 C : 2-4 cubic mm/s
240 C : 2-6 cubic mm/s
260 C : 2-10 cubic mm/s
280 C : 2-14 cubic mm/s
Gloss and transparency depend on how melted the material is. You can adjust how melted a material is with hardware, rate, and temperature. I recommend printing as hot as needed for your print rate because printing too hot and too slow can cause bubbles and strings. For more about this technique, see previous blogs like this one for reference.
Looking for something to print? Browse our latest designs with the links below.
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Happy holidays and enjoy the pasta,
Alex and the Protopasta Team