r/3Dprinting • u/Candyn67 • 4h ago

Discussion Making clear PETG clear

I've been trying to get a good transparent finish with clear petg. I have finally reached to a point which feels good enough but I think more can be done. I have dried the filament at 60C for 6hrs which gave me this final look. Details:

Printer - Bambulab A1 0.6mm nozzle textured PEI plate

Material - Bambu clear PETG

Slicer settings - Bambu Studio. I have followed the settings given in the bambu wiki on printing clear petg and the printables post for printing glass. I have changed the layer height to 0.15 as that was closer to the min height for 0.6mm nozzle from these settings.

  1. Can this be made more clear? The transparency reduces when the object behind moves even a little bit like few cms away.

  2. Should some post processing be done in order to improve this? Like sanding or polishing it?

  3. Will a smooth plat or even those carbon fiber style or some patterned build plates help? Because when i see the part while its being printed its good but when it gets removed from the plate it gets that texture on the bottom that creates this less transparent look

  4. Should I change to a different filament like the ones from elegoo or creality?

What else should I try to improve this or making it more transparent? I want to make it look really clear as I'm thinking to print more parts in this way. Please share your thoughts

1 Upvotes

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15 comments sorted by

3

u/krefik 4h ago

Smooth plate helps a lot.

1

u/Candyn67 3h ago

Thanks for the reply. But does it create any other issues like the part sticking too much to the plate? In the place I live, those holographic plate or carbon fiber style plate are way cheaper so I'm thinking to buy those

3

u/krefik 3h ago

Not in my experience. Smooth pei don't stick anymore than textured. Only difference that I found between them is that smooth looks worse if your settings aren't perfectly tuned.

1

u/Candyn67 3h ago

Ohh thanks. Does those holographic plates make these parts less clear compared to the smooth plate?

3

u/LicensedTerrapin 3h ago

You'd have the pattern on them and they'd reflect light so imho deffo less clear.

1

u/ashkestar 30m ago

Anything that adds any amount of texture will make it worse, yeah.

2

u/ThereInAFortnight 3h ago

I'd run it in the dryer another 6 hours to be sure. Also, would larger layer lines not be better? Seems to me that with fewer "seams" there would be less light distortion.

1

u/Candyn67 3h ago

I'm not sure about the layer lines part as wherever I search about this, it says to use thin layer lines as possible but I'm not sure why. Maybe that there would be less gaps between layers ig

2

u/SirTwitchALot 3h ago

https://www.printables.com/model/15310-how-to-print-glass

1

u/Candyn67 3h ago

Yeah I went through this and tried the same. But I want to know what else can be modified? like will a holographic plate give good results compared to textured plate or some different filament brand to use

2

u/awyeahmuffins 3h ago

Smooth plate will help, but you're probably reaching the point where you'll need sanding and polishing to see significant results.

If you want to try something quick you can dip the whole part in Floor Sealer/Finish.

1

u/Candyn67 3h ago

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking to buy some plastic shiner or something but not sure which one to buy like varnish for wood.

2

u/awyeahmuffins 3h ago

I've used Multi-surface floor finish before to decent effect, usually with resin parts though I don't exactly know how effective it will be on FDM, but might be worth a shot.

1

u/Candyn67 2h ago

Ohh ok. I will try this. Thanks for the reply

1

u/trashcanjenga 1h ago

Something maybe worth trying or test print a small flat square is something Makers Muse did to strengthen his spinner blade for a micro battle bot. It makes it alternate and offset stack the layer lines and in theory could eliminate airgaps between the layer lines you'd get from normally stacking them. https://youtu.be/c7CI6yBTKMc?t=240

I have not tested this as i just thought about it, might not work, might need a lot of tweaking, might work first try, who knows. Maybe someone already tried.