I found quite a few vase collections on Thingiverse, and tried many of them with an assortment of filaments. The discovery of vase mode (spiral outer contour) cut print times considerably, and makes stunning timelapses. PETG makes beautiful transparent vases.
Julia Vases
I found some really unique vases created using a morphing Julia animation, that is stacked and turned into a vase form. I printed the #002 Flow design in gorgeous silk white PLA (0.2mm resolution, 10% cubic infill).
PLA Vases
I made a whole assortment of narrow vases with neat patterns (vase collection and low poly vases). I printed in vase mode (spiral outer contour with 0% infill) and 0.2mm resolution. Many of the vases included a top, so make sure the shell top thickness is 0mm. These vases are very light weight and not waterproof. I’m still working on finding settings with vase mode that will hold water (i.e. increase material flow to 105-110%, increase wall thickness, etc.). I’m using all these to put fake flowers so will have to solve this issue when I want to use them for real flowers.
First Color Changing Print
Here’s a really cool twisted heart vase made with purple-pink color changing PLA. These are my new work’s colors so I’m excited to make some pretty prints for my new coworkers. I printed with standard quality (0.2mm) and in vase mode (spiral outer contour) in only 1.75 hrs with 14g of filament.
First PETG Print
Most transparent filament is PETG so I ventured into the world of Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol-modified plastic. It combines the functionality of ABS (strong, temperature resistant, durable) and reliability of PLA (easy to print) into one material. It has a reputation for stringing and not sticking to the bed so I did a bit of research. With YOYI blue transparent PETG, my first vase print took ~2.5h and only 14g of filament. I utilized painters tape on the bed to improve adhesion and these print settings recommended on Thingiverse:
- layer height: 0.2
- nozzle temp: 240 °C
- bed (initial/others): 70/40 °C
- fan (initial/max): 0/100% @ layer
- retraction: 4 mm @ 40 mm/s
- speed (initial/walls/print/infill/travel): 25/30/60/90/150 mm/s
- acceleration (print/travel): 500/5000 mm/s2
- jerk (print/travel): 20/30 mm/s
- adhesion: 8mm brim
- shells (bottom/top/walls): 2/3/3
- special mode: spiral outer contour (=0% infill)
My first PETG print turned out perfectly and the timelapse is flippin’ sweet!
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