Printing a very thin object

Hi everyone

I have had a Zortrax printer for about two weeks now and it has been loads of fun, I am very impressed with what it is able to achieve.

I am hoping to print puppets with dragonfly-like wings. The relevant page from my blog explains what I am trying to achieve:

http://www.raphroberts.com/3d-printing-heads-for-stop-motion-puppets-part-2/

The head has printed really well, but my initial print of the wing was not quite right, and the support material attached to the face of the wing. I think this is because am trying to print an object that is too thin.

So my question is.. what is the thinnest object I could be expected to print successfully? How thin can I make the wing of the puppet shown in my blog?

Thank you!

I'm fighting with small tickness from a while, in theory you could print about 0.5mm walls but the software doesn't work as it should.
Less then 0.5mm and Zsuite will not correctly process it, more than 0.5mm and less than 1.2mm and you will get a nice slicing on the screen but an unpredictable result on the printer. 
The problem is that too much material is extruded so the walls will be much ticker than expected and with a crappy finishing. 
I notice that changing the layer thickness you will get much different results. 
The printer is capable to print thin walls, just look at the supports.
It would be nice to have it fixed (or maybe a button to activate a "thin thickness function" that extrude less material).

Are you trying to print it face down or on edge? If you’re trying on edge you’ll have issues like artengine described. If you print it face down then it should be separable by using the putty knife. I couldn’t see from the pic is the back is textured, but if it isn’t I’d recommend printing on that face.

I printed this little glider, which has pretty thin wings, a while back and had no problems with it.  I don't have the print any longer to check the actual thickness, but AIR, it was about 0.5 mm thick or so.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:304851

Mike

Attached is a photo of the result I got. I think it is really close. Will try adding another .5mm. Thanks for the responses :slight_smile:

Attached is a photo of the result I got. I think it is really close. Will try adding another .5mm. Thanks for the responses :)

Just so you know, you should be able to easily check how it’s going to print in z-suite before wasting your time actually printing it.

Just so you know, you should be able to easily check how it's going to print in z-suite before wasting your time actually printing it.

Thanks LabRat,

I could see that the print was a little odd. It would be great if you could make the support display in z-suite either 50% transparent or turn it off entirely so you can see just the print lines from all directions. I have often found myself "zooming through" models trying to see what is going on inside :)

In answer to your earlier post, I was indeed printing face down. At first I thought the support material was not able to be removed but after posting my first message I managed to pry it off. Strangely enough I have found "perfection in imperfection" with this wing print and actually like the fact that it has printed strangely, it helps the wing look more dragon-fly like.