Adventures in rainbow silk PLA printing
2022-Jul-13, Wednesday 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebeI picked up some Rainbow silk PLA filament. How could I not? This was my first time printing with silk PLA, and first time using a rainbow filament. To try out the effect I picked some larger pieces to print; headphones stands. Perhaps a bit of a spoiler, but I think the promotional shots are misleading. The colours change very very slowly.
First I grabbed this wavy headphone stand. It prints flat, in two pieces. That wouldn't show off the filament changing colour best, so I rotated the model to print from bottom up. I figured the gentle curves would be okay, but was worried the two overhangs at the top (supporting the headphones band) would fail, so I edited them out with Windows 3D Builder, before importing into my slicer and printing (zero supports).
This is the raw print, with zero tidy-up. The silk really makes every imperfection stand out. The under-side of the arches are a little noodly, but can be cleaned up easily. You can just about make out a colour gradient, rather than colour change, through the height. But it does its headphones job nicely.
Okay, so didn't really manage to get a nice colour change effect there, let's try again, but with a model that uses even more filament! Enter the Stylish headphones stand. No modifications, just printed straight up (zero supports).
Again this is the raw print, with zero tidy-up. The circular/cylindrical stand really shows off the silk PLA to good effect. The underside of the arch is a tiny bit noodly, but again can be cleaned up easily. And finally, just at the very top, we do get to see the filament change colour! That was two headphones stands before we got to the first colour transition. Not the impression given in the promotional pictures. But it does do its headphones job nicely.
First I grabbed this wavy headphone stand. It prints flat, in two pieces. That wouldn't show off the filament changing colour best, so I rotated the model to print from bottom up. I figured the gentle curves would be okay, but was worried the two overhangs at the top (supporting the headphones band) would fail, so I edited them out with Windows 3D Builder, before importing into my slicer and printing (zero supports).
This is the raw print, with zero tidy-up. The silk really makes every imperfection stand out. The under-side of the arches are a little noodly, but can be cleaned up easily. You can just about make out a colour gradient, rather than colour change, through the height. But it does its headphones job nicely.
Tweaked wavy headphones stand printed in silk PLA
Photo by chebe
Tweaked wavy headphones stand printed in silk PLA, supporting pair of headphones
Photo by chebe
Okay, so didn't really manage to get a nice colour change effect there, let's try again, but with a model that uses even more filament! Enter the Stylish headphones stand. No modifications, just printed straight up (zero supports).
Again this is the raw print, with zero tidy-up. The circular/cylindrical stand really shows off the silk PLA to good effect. The underside of the arch is a tiny bit noodly, but again can be cleaned up easily. And finally, just at the very top, we do get to see the filament change colour! That was two headphones stands before we got to the first colour transition. Not the impression given in the promotional pictures. But it does do its headphones job nicely.
Stylish headphones stand printed in silk PLA
Photo by chebe
Stylish headphones stand printed in silk PLA, supporting pair of headphones
Photo by chebe
