this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025

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Printing minis on an FDM printer (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've begun printing more minis for TTRPG, and since i only have a cheap bedslinger that's what I'm using.

Normally I've just stuck with minis designed specifically for supportless FDM printing, but I wanted to try my hand at something else and went with this Minotaur

fresh from the printer, supports all over

supports removed front

supports removed back

There's still a bit of post-processing before priming and painting, but I'm actually pretty happy with the quality, considering it was done on a $200 entry-level printer.

Printed in eSun PLA+ with a 0.2mm nozzle and 0.08mm layer height, it took just short of 9h to print it.

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[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I'm surprised by the quality of the print, I'd love to see other pieces you're proud of (and some you weren't so happy with, too)!

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

goblin with sword and shield

skeleton with halberd

orc with bow

I'm pretty happy with the goblin and skeleton, the orc's bow is a little wonky at the top because my layer time was too short for my printers cooling. None of these has had any post processing done yet, printed without any supports also 0.2mm nozzle and 0.08mm layer height.

I think I'll try printing a sort of "buffer tower" next time to increase layer time on prints with pointy tips and see if it helps.

[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Damn, dude. I've been thinking about getting a 3D printer and was leaning towards resin because I heard it was better for minis, and I see how it's different, but these look perfectly fine and there's no fumes or toxic sludge to deal with. Since I mainly want it for printing household fixits and ease-of-use is a factor, being able to get back into tabletop gaming (and painting) as well is a very nice bonus. I feel pretty good about going with an FDM printer now, thanks for sharing!

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I mean, they're definitely good enough for me but resin does give much better fine details. But I also mainly use my printer for functional prints, this is just a nice addition to its uses.

[–] paf@jlai.lu 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have 3 printers and first was the OG ender 3 pro with only couple of mods (mainboard and cooling duct/fan), while it is slower and needs more manual calibration, I get same print quality than bambulab A1. It is actually even better on overhang parts

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

I have switched out the fan duct and heat block (to use normal volcano) on mine as the only HW changes, and then I've flashed the main board with klipper. Using klipper has been a crazy step up in printing quality over the stock firmware because it gave me the control needed to do a proper tuning of my printer.

[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Looks great! You probably can get even better results with manually created supports.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah i probably could, there's definitely some supports that were not needed that I could have avoided...but for fully auto-generated supports I think it did a pretty good job.

[–] jodawznev@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

That looks incredible for FDM! I've tried a few times but my Ender can only do .2mm layer height at best.

But I've been following this YouTuber's efforts and he gets really good results on FDM and has pointers, settings, tools, and supports that might help you get even better results (if you haven't seen these already):

https://youtu.be/zZp-CLhH1Ao