Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Visible Light Micrograph Of Krapton Print
Managed to get a good raking light image of the print on Krapton. I must make a lighting rig that does the raking light properly.
Apparently getting hairs trapped under the Krapton only has a very marginal effect on the output, and does not seem to affect detachment. It appears that a perfect bed and flat surface is optional for UV fibre printing on Krapton at least.
So with 4μm layers we actually get good adhesion. There is one flyer - top right shows a curly filament. This is the perimeter of the circle bottom centre. I am running with 65% overlap at this point, but obviously the perimeters are not bonding bell enough. Now I have reduced the layer height to 4μm Prusaslicer will let me reduce the extrusion width to 7μm. If I reduce it further it crashes with a "Invalid spacing supplied to Flow::with_spacing()" error. The print is ~20μm thick.
I'll try to get this loose on the Krapton, but don't hold much hope. I'll probably try a reprint on glass and see if that is detachable. Once I can detach, I can test an actual flexure joint!
If that doesn't work I may cheer myself up by reprinting Benchies with the current settings, just for lols.
UPDATE: Did another print and nicer photo on the compound microscope:
