kirabullet slicing results
i tested out 3 different slicing configurations for the kirabullet and here are the results...
auto-oriented
i did not have high hopes for this and i was lowkey right. the supports would've been gnarly to take off and i got about halfway through before i realized that laying it flat meant one side of the bullet (the bottom layer) was just fucked up. the crests were not clear in any of these prints, possibly due to the limitations of the 0.4 nozzle, but the ones for this one were inconsistent and blurry.
0/10 for user experience and 3.5/10 for final results. didn't even bother taking the supports off i knew it was fucked.
vertically oriented
i actually tried printing it the other way, with the tip facing downwards, the small point meant the nozzle kept knocking the print out of the supports as it proceeded past the first dozen layers.
this print ended up okay. the supports weren't THAT bad to remove. the print quality is a lot better than the first config, but honestly not that great. the biggest drawback to this orientation is the ring is super delicate, and you have to be super careful to not break it when removing supports. as you can see, i learned that the hard way. the main advantage of this config is it all prints in one piece, but the possibility of snapping off the ring in post completely negates that pro.
5/10 for user experience. 7/10 for final results. post-processing is a pain and can potentially ruin your entire print.
printing in parts
i felt like a genius when i devised this change to the model design ngl... this printed beautifully, and i barely had to worry about removing supports. the most post processing i did was poking out the holes in each of the parts. the first ring post i printed did snap... but get this... since it's sliced in parts, i can just reprint that part or make duplicates.
print quality was more or less the same as the second config. the ring post was slightly longer than i wanted it to be (by literal millimeters). i have yet to glue this tbh, but once glued it should be pretty structurally sound.
8/10 for user experience. 8/10 for final results. easiest to print with better quality than other configs, and the ability to reprint specific parts makes fixing misprints quicker.
conclusion
not to glaze myself but printing in parts is the #obvious choice, if only for the ease of printing and processing. i WILL need to make some tweaks though, but they feel pretty minor compared to the time i'd have to post process the other configs.
these were all printed at 55% of the model size, so the final results were approximately 50 mm high (from ring to tip). i'm hoping that the 0.2 nozzle i got today will help improve print quality and clarity, but i expect that i'll have to tweak the design anyways.
i also need to do some research into casting metal, since i want to use the final results to help do that... i won't be doing the casting myself (someone on twt offered) but i do want to optimize for the process!