Sunday, November 30, 2025
Very Experimental Micromug "Build"
This looks terrible, but there was no anticipation of a great success so that's OK. Many variables were changed. The print of a 500μm diameter Micromug was attempted using the new - much faster - segmented plotting algorithm, breaking into 15μm segments with 200 segments per dip. That was ample to complete one perimeter. A little Vivid marker was accidentally added which improved contrast a lot. A simpler slide was used with no folded foil edge, and it just relied on the resin curing in UV as it overflowed.
Disaster struck at around 100μm when the probe lost contact with the workpiece. Looks like I need thinner layers. PrusaSlicer parameters were:
- 35μm extrusion width
- 3.5μm layer height
- 1 perimeter
- 15μm nozzle diameter
- 1 solid bottom layer
- Random seams
One improvement was taking screenshots from the side view camera during layer curing. This allowed me to compare the speckled reflection of the UV LED from one layer to the next. No change in image means no new material added.
The probe was cleaned off with IPA and a tissue afterwards. I'll deliberately paint the probe with a Vivid next time, as Probe 9 is robust enough to survive this.
If at first you don't succeed, try again at greater speed.
