Sharing advice on how to print materials?

Question

I found this previous question about sharing settings and, while I agree that there are no 'best settings' because it depends on your printer, and sometimes the model being printed, I think we can still help people by posting some generic advice and indications for settings.

I mean that if, in order to print Material X on my printer, I need to print at 30mm/s with a temperature of 220°C and an enclosure, it is highly unlikely than another printer can do it without the enclosure, at 80mm/s with a temperature of 190°C. (Those are completely random numbers.)

Materials behave similarly no matter the printer, thus such advice might help people and draw some more people in as those Q&A would appear on Google searches.

I think what would also bring people would be to do this for non-standard materials, ie not PLA or ABS, but stuff like wood and glow and carbon-fibers and so on.

What do you think?

Answer 1

These settings should be known from the inscription on the box or found on the internet (where you ordered the filament, or from the vendor's website) for that specific brand and type, I do not see why this should be maintained here. I strongly agree with Tom van der Zanden's answer that if people have problems, while following the ranges described by the vendor are used, do not lead to acceptable prints.

To quote Tom,

I have X printer, using Y settings, printing Z model in material W and I have V problem - how do I improve my settings?

are valid questions,

and

What is the best profile for printing material X with printer Y?

or (without the printer type)

What is the best profile for printing material X?

are not, and should indeed be voted to close due to "Unclear what you're asking?".

You might wonder why the model makes such a difference. The difference is that instead of maintaining a database with settings for all material brands and or types, you now have a specific problem for a specific application that could be answered rather than having endless discussions over how people print a filament at which settings. It is the model that is sliced where the settings act upon, frequently this is where people make mistakes. Also, successfully extruding filament in the "air" does not guarantee success in printing, the difference is stressing or pressurising the filament path, hence a model should be included.