Different Brand PLA Different Tolerance?
So I decided to try a new PLA which is significantly cheaper than what I've been using.
The print quality overall has been excellent - you could never tell the difference...so far so good.
A few of my models need pretty tight specifications (I need to create a tongue and groove binding system).
The groove is 1mm and the piece to fit inside is .85 mm thick. With the expensive filament, no problem. With the cheapo filament - no way. The groove is too tight and the piece is too large - resulting in a failed fit.
The "sharpness" of the print looks fine - no obvious print problems, its just the tolerance of the pieces seem to be off.
I can easily adjust the model (and probably will given the much lower cost of this filament) but I wanted to ask for opinions around this.
FYI I am using Simplify3d - perhaps there is some setting in there I can use for one filament over another? In both cases, I am printing on "high" quality with .1 Primary layer Height.
-Dave
Re: Different Brand PLA Different Tolerance?
If the filament diameter is a bit large, you will overextrude and gaps will be smaller. Better filament has tighter dimensional tolerances. You can try lowering the extrusion rate to see if that helps, or measure the filament diameter with accurate calipers and adjust the dimension in your slicer as appropriate.