From the course: Design for Additive Manufacturing: FDM

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Creating small details

Creating small details - Fusion 360 Tutorial

From the course: Design for Additive Manufacturing: FDM

Start my 1-month free trial

Creating small details

“

- [Instructor] You may wonder, what are the smallest features I can create with an FDM printer? Here's the answer, the minimum dimension of small details like text or a thin cylinder is dictated by line width. To create a cylinder the nozzle extrudes plastic in a circle, therefore, the theoretical minimum feature size is line width times two. For example, with a line width of .4 millimeters, the smallest diameter cylinder you can print is .8 millimeters, and in practice you typically need a slightly higher diameter. I recommend printing a test piece to understand the capabilities of your 3D printer, but one millimeter is a good place to start. Use larger diameters on taller features, or consider adding a taper or flange to the base. A lower print speed may help with very find features as the extruder can cause drag while printing. You can increase the minimum layer time giving each layer more time to cool before moving on. Slowing things down may help you achieve better results. A…

Contents