My buddy has a cold plunge and this filter started cracking. After looking at it you can tell it’s definitely 3d printed (and well)
On the left you can see my first attempt. I just cut rectangular holes in CAD and it’s pretty close but not pretty. Printed in PETG on a K1 Max
Is there a way to do this in the slicer instead? I played around with 0 walls and different infill types but that didn’t work out
Try a smaller nozzle and dry that filament till it grows a mouth and asks you for a glass of water.
Print with larger holes, but then use multiple layers. Like Russian nesting dolls, but each “doll” would be rotated very slightly.
Also, try slots in opposite directions. Horizontal slots nested inside vertical slots would effectively create a mesh.
Flat panel inserts could be printed easily and then slid into a circular holder.Ditching the PETG would probably go a long way. Try it in ABS or even PLA and you’ll have better shape definition and a whole lot less stringing.
Rather than reproducing the pattern in the original wholesale, you could also consider stealing the idea from e.g. this, which has a “mesh” outer wall that’s a continuous loop and thus doesn’t require a zillion retractions every time there’s a gap.
Exactly, print it in PLA and see if it’s a print or a design problem.
That’s a lot of retractions. What is this filtering? Maybe you could print a more open structure and line it in mesh?
Also, where is this part in relation to chlorine? I can’t imagine a printed part would hold up very well in high chlorine concentrations, but PETG is fairly inert…
I might be tempted to try turning on ‘fuzzy skin’ printing above a layer height, for Prusaslicer, if you have a fairly large gap and wide skin thickness it can create an almost-open-weave to it. I used that for some grow baskets for aeroponic racks as well as a lamp shade. The trick there is to print in spiral mode as well.
but I think given the bottom profile, it would have to be done in separate parts- a cylinder for the actual filter, and a cap on either end. ( you can also turn on a skirt for adhesion, which is also useful as a flange for securing it into a cap. basically, there’s a recess that it fits in, then a threaded ring screws into that recess.)
edit: here’s a screen grab of a quick mock up in prusa… using a calibration cube (20x20x50mm) using a layer height change to turn off perimeters, infill and turn on fuzzy skin with a point-distance of .6 and a tickness of 1mm. (default .4mm nozzle. yes, that makes a difference on the skin.) It creates a realtively ‘open’ structure where the layers intersect somewhat randomly while jogging back and forth (think of it as being like a wicker basket,)
it’s important to remember when replicating things that they don’t have to be necessarily exactly what your replacing. really it just needs to fit in the same space and do the same job.
I like this suggestion. 3d printing can help with the form factor but creating a mesh filter is a solved problem - why struggle to reproduce that part of it?
i would try printing the filter part as a flat surface (without retractions) directly on the printer bed (only 3 layers maybe) and bend it later to become a tube ( like a “C”) i am not sure about petg, i did this bending with pla. hot water comes in handy and maybe a glas bottle. also prepare something to tighten where the ends of the C connect, a border without the small filter holes but some larger holes for something like cable ties or even a printed part for connecting the C edges.
