3D Printing: Stop Wasting Plastic on Infill Percentage

[@brandon9271]

I'm currently printing at 0% infill because I don't own a 3D printer.

[@adamh2077]

Relatable

[@mikelangsdale4576]

hahahaha

[@thebloxxer22]

Actually, it is null.

[@tootzy-the-roll]

Winning!

[@yourlastsuprise]

Or you just use vase mode

[@keylitho]

You should make some cubes with different infill amounts and see how much weight you can stack on it before it crushes.

[@scinorandex]

Keylitho cool idea

[@StopaskingformynameYouTube]

yes, that won't waste plastic at all. :)

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+StopaskingformynameKZbin ok THAT made me laugh :)

[@GRBtutorials]

StopaskingformynameKZbin It’s for science! And it would probably contribute to people stop wasting plastic, so...

[@pablofernandezsilva8537]

You can watch something similar in the youtube chanel : CNC Kitchen.

[@AngeEinstein]

Not everybody is happy... for example the manufacturer of the filament

[@seigeengine]

Not so. If printing individual things is cheaper, you'll be more inclined to print more things.

[@carssucksince1800s]

Exactly, I'll buy more different kinds of filament so I can experiment more than just keep re-buying the same one.

[@fhuber7507]

The increased speed of printing means you will happily print a LOT more stuff. They'll actually sell more filament.

[@JaredFarnum]

Plus with no fill and 2 minutes of modifications and it can be a coin bank.

[@memesredacted]

Jared Farnum i had that same thought

[@urjnlegend]

Jared Farnum how do you mod the files?

[@JaredFarnum]

I was thinking of just a bit thicker walls and add a coin slot.

[@ben-devries]

All you need is a little experience with 3D CAD. Just do an extrude-cut through the top with a slot or rectangle.

[@urjnlegend]

Ben DeVries thanks m8

[@kamo7293]

the only thing I could think of while looking at big hollow pikachu was "I wish I had a chocolate 3d printer, that'd be nice"

[@urjnlegend]

KamoGaming you could print a mold, if not make one yourself, and melt the chocolate and pour it in

[@kamo7293]

urjnlegend Awesome idea. there's just one tiny problem, I don't actually have a printer yet

[@urjnlegend]

KamoGaming tevo tarantula, join their facebook group, giveaway. enter it, otherwise they have a sale for basically $200 you can get their kit. I got it, built it, works great now. download the community settings for Cura, and bam, you are good to go! just got it working badass today, i am pleased and you will be too. Its all aluminium, sturdy, and has a great support group on facebook, id recommend it to anyone wanting to get started learning about 3d printing , and 3d printing. Once you find a reason to buy one, get this one

[@anselwithmac6373]

Easter Bunny chocolate hahah

[@elfpimp1]

Don't they make a chocolate printer now??? Pretty sure I saw one here in Seattle..

[@PossumMedic]

"Stop Wasting Plastic... I printed another... I PRINTED ANOTHER!" xD Thank for another vid! :)

[@ThePiGuy24]

Please note: Forcefully removing ears from your pokemon is not the correct way to treak your pokemon.

[@Soumein]

Eh, just give him a Super Potion and he'll be fine.

[@silencedknight]

Print out some rare candy he’ll be alright

[@ancis1327]

Full restore

[@A.Person.Who.Exists]

Treak

[@strokedriedrie]

It's not only saving plastic but also a load of time with less or no infill, at the 3D print-shop you pay by the printing hour!

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Precisely!

[@RK-je9nc]

"look how strong it is" taps it with 1 finger.

[@_Snuker_]

Ren K More like poke 3 times

[@lchi1234]

Hi, I'm the 100th like

[@9001greg]

He drinks energy drinks constantly, you really think he has muscle?

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Thanks for assuming everything, perhaps just ask. You're probably not even a real orange.

[@9001greg]

@@3DPrintingNerd I'm genetically modified orange, how else would I be over 9000? I still think you could have broke that pikachu if you gave it your all though

[@CarsSimplified]

When I designed an auto part for my 3D printed automotive parts video, I actually designed it in a way that forces the inside to be hollow, and it is stronger than both the part it was based on and the OEM part.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Dude, that's COOL. Way to go!

[@articat568]

On my way to watch

[@633r]

I use 10 % for models that are for fun. 25% for more serious. but wall thickness is always best

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+633r Exactly!

[@georgesaliz8727]

I made a spool holder as the one on my printer wasn't big enough, would 80% infill be to much for that? it holds 2 Kg spools

[@user-nd7rd8jo6h]

@_CrazyCrafter672 I think it's more about it being true than it is fair lol

[@paulcoulter6651]

@@3DPrintingNerd so are those % recommended? i am a new ender 3 printer guy and all this is research into what works. i do a lot of rpg miniature 28mm scall stuff. vehicles, people, terrain, 15% is what i have been targeting, but i noticed 50% for the people seemed to be what it was out the gate. i am interested in speed, and strentgh

[@scottwillis5434]

@@georgesaliz8727 depends on the loading. Is it solid? Spoked? Spokes flared out at the ends or straight? Try picturing the forces applied to it - e.g. its weight pushes down *here*, which twists that piece *there*... - and that's where you need strength.

[@timgruich1545]

These videos are dangerous... they just make me want to get a printer.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Tim Gruich GET A PRINTER RIGHT NOW

[@timgruich1545]

Print me one.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Tim Gruich :)

[@dicktsui1818]

you can choose hang printer( require a lot of space), cheap as f Anet A8 (require tons of troubleshooting) or Snappy?(most reprap reprap printer = quality vary)

[@Alucard0715]

And the ender3 is less than 200 and is great quality.

[@JackDaniels2535]

I already do this with any parts that aren't structural. Just a tip Resin is cheap and you can drill a hole in models and fill them with solid resin.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+JackDaniels2535 FANTASTIC idea!

[@JackDaniels2535]

3D Printing Nerd Thx I Used to work in the fiber glassing industry. So i just applied that to 3d printing. You can make super strong parts by 3d printing the framework of the part and paying fiberglass over that as well. You don't even need fiberglass matting either. You can use all manner of cloths. Old jeans for instance make fantastic Micarta like parts and when hard you can sand it like wood. If you uses light colors or white material you can stain it with wood stains and get great looking parts.

[@jaysprenkle1026]

or melt some of your failed prints. It might melt the piece though... something to try

[@float32]

@Niles Black because most people would just buy a resin printer.

[@Dioxim01]

I like that someone talked about this because I have been getting away with 0-1% with the occasional required 10% for a long time now to save both plastic and build time and it works pretty darned solidly like you said and everyone is so surprised at how lightweight everything ends up.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Wow, this video is seeing some HUGE numbers right now. First - thanks! Second - it was recorded and published more than a year ago. I'm trying to keep up with the new visits, but, it's a year old and I've done a lot of content since this :)

[@nykachuu]

How much infill do you suggest for drone frame (weight and strength)

[@Joey3674589]

I've noticed that most prints have a small ring in the shape of the object (except enlarged) on the build plate. Why is that?

[@Bruno-cb5gk]

Nykachuu That is a WHOLE different matter and depends on Soooooooo many factors you would need to give me a lot of details and possibly the drone frame file itself

[@20EsOfficial]

normally i use 20%

[@Chirimorin]

According to what I could find, the small ring is called a skirt and it's used to prime the extruder to ensure a smooth flow of filament. Simplify3d has an article on rafts, skirts and brims (top link if you google "3d print skirt").

[@tetsujin_144]

You sure that's Pikachu? Looks kind of like Porygon to me.

[@dragonfruitboss3508]

Savage.

[@shoopnooop2952]

Adam savage?

[@Sanchees3]

+shoopnooop *Derek Savage

[@jackmartin4657]

Sanchees3 Daddy Derek

[@Hydraks81]

Every game characters are about polygons, think about it.

[@BarafuAlbino]

One more advice: if you do want to print a solid model, do not set infill to 100%. Slicer just goes crazy. Instead, set bottom layers to 100500. It will be stronger and print faster.

[@Brandon_Makes_Stuff]

Agreed!!! It prints MUCH faster! It probably ends up stronger as well

[@otakukani518]

Ater all of the fighting and dick waving above, I'm happy to report that yours is the only advice that I found valuable out of this whole comment section.. THANK YOU!

[@Percival917]

What if I don't care about how long it takes?

[@surronzak8154]

Percival917 Do what you want ....

[@ElloGunva]

100500?

[@MakersMuse]

So that's what you were printing! Half of the files from that guy have inverted normals, S3D doesn't seem to care! Also less infill means less PRINT TIME!!! Pikachu Lamp?

[@fil290]

I don't know if s3d got better with that over time, but I remember having problems with the flipped surface last time I tried to print it. Since you're Maker muse, got any tips on how to fix that with basic softwares (like netfabb or any other free software)

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Maker's Muse Yeah, Simplify3D just didn't care at all about the inverted normals. For this video though, I ran the model through Netfabb so it would look better :)

[@MakersMuse]

+FTcuber Netfabb Basic doesn't do much these days so I use their cloud service for most things at cloud.netfabb.com or if it's a more manual fix I'll use meshmixer.

[@Presidentsmartass]

I'm two years late, but with blender you can hit the "Make Normals Consistent" button which does it nicely for you.

[@makerlinux]

Less infill means less warp too. That's very important to consider.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Maker Linux That's so true!

[@bzakie2]

Maker Linux And less time waiting to see if it turned out right!

[@CrackedTubeGamer]

And less Ewoks in episode 6... it's personal.

[@zirellryk]

I printed a huge hollow sword today - not on purpose - and the sun warped it in 10 mins.

[@grapsorz]

you print cute cuddly things. infill is only for suport. i print stuff that ceep your bumper on your car or hang your monitor on your wall.. i need a bit infill..

[@avananana]

Then you ain't wasting the infill if it is needed.... duh

[@surronzak8154]

Same here, but seriously sometime I see poeple making figurines with more infill as I use for functional parts , for strenght you better add walls than more infill, in a certain way.

[@johncochran8497]

Also, knowing a bit about the strength of structures will allow you to design objects that use minimal material while being as stiff and strong as possible. For instance, consider a simple beam. Several things to consider with a simple beam. 1. The highest stress on the beam occurs on the top and bottom surfaces. Top is under compression, while the bottom is under tension. 2. The stiffness of the beam varies with the cube of the thickness. The above 2 items is the reason that a steel I beam has the cross section it does. The top and bottom surfaces handle the load while the vertical portion is just to simply keep those 2 load bearing surfaces a fixed distance apart from each other. This allows for far less material to be used to handle a desired load. The exact same principle applies to plastic and infill percentage. In many cases, if you have a beam in your item and that beam is failing, you can get a better result by making the beam thicker so that the bottom and top surfaces are further apart from each other while adding minimal material between those 2 surfaces (think I beam) than you would get by keeping the beam dimensions the same and increasing your infill percentage.

[@droknarnaramor8650]

If you need something that will hold tv on wall while still looking fancy as you designed it why would you use infill just drill it fill it with cheaper stronger material. Expanding foam for sth like it has to survive fall from 3m. But still hanging your monitor or tv? Use wood it is much cheaper...

[@habiit7178]

Missed the point all of them probably Biden voters Yeah I went there.

[@hellterminator]

Sure, you don't need infill for display pieces, but if it's a load-bearing component (especial if there is risk of substantial damage to property or even injury if it fails) I go 100% infill.

[@Hugh.Manatee]

Same here, I recently printed a joint for a robot leg at 50% infill, but had to redo it at a higher percentage because the piece still broke under torsion stress.

[@hellterminator]

AdenineMonkey My scariest print to date was a pair of high heels for when the student magazine was writing a piece about our 3D printing club and asked us to print some wearables (and were quite insistent on the shoes). We actually had them sign a waiver saying that they were not safe to wear, but apparently they held up.

[@urjnlegend]

hellterminator what material were they printed in?

[@hellterminator]

urjnlegend I think we used ABS, but it's been a couple of years. The straps were just cut from leather.

[@OU81TWO]

"(especial if there is risk of substantial damage to property or even injury if it fails) I go 100% infill" Yeah, don't use plastic if failure can result in damage or injury. I'm tempted to call you an idiot for making a statement like this but I'll be nice instead.

[@jakereason8095]

I used to spend a lot of time customizing and playing with action figures as a kid. I'm confident that I would've done anything to get my hands on a 3D printer if they were available. So much possibilities; printing and coloring all 150 pokemon (many to scale), pokeballs and other items, major anime characters like nurse joy, team rocket, both oaks, ... hell, even entire building parts and vehicles. That alone almost makes me wish I was a kid again.

[@urjnlegend]

Jake Reason when you have kids, you can have the knowledge to make thir childhoods even better. but nothing is stopping you from printing it now too!

[@jakereason8095]

I know I'll sound like an old person saying this, but kids these days seem to be born with phones in their hands. I think they'll be too preoccupied with phones/internet (or thinking about them) to be bored enough to spend time engaging with their imagination. I don't think they'll appreciate 3d printing in the way I described. They might like 3d printing for other reasons though.

[@stephenshoihet2590]

Minecraft called and would like to have a word with you... :-)

[@jakereason8095]

Good point. Perhaps action figures and physical toys in general will go (went?) the way of the dodo. New generations will manage to find new ways to entertain themselves.

[@urjnlegend]

Jake Reason thats rediculous. nothing will ever replace toys. if something does, we are moving in the wrong direction.

[@magickaldood]

It would be interesting to see a stress test to determine the optimal fill rate/wall thickness for a given application, e.g. torsional, transverse and axial load capabilities. Maybe something like a rectangular prism of a standardized size. Perhaps different materials would respond more favorably to a reduction in fill rate or wall thickness?

[@kzalesak4]

40% according to the undergrad paper someone did at our uni on our instron. All black PLA on ultimakers

[@Janovich]

If you need infill to support the top layers, just use lightning infill pattern and increase the top layer numbers as well

[@ZackMuffinMan]

I print at 10% for pretty much everything. I tried 5%, but it was so little, it started stringing. I also made that Pikachu as my first print ever!+

[@willcrockett6707]

Nice job on this video Joel. I too have been testing infill densities and find that if I use the “gyroid” infill pattern I can print as a much lower percentage than other shapes and still maintain the integrity of the parts we make for classic cars. Thanks for the good info buddy!

[@MetaBloxer]

4:30 you should have printed a slowpoke and taken it's tail

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Holy cow, GREAT idea! Maybe I need to do another one of these videos :)

[@_JustBeingCasual]

Slowpoke wouldn't have noticed, takes a day to render all that information

[@pr0xZen]

I think this would have been a lot more useful if you included some examples of models which _do_ need infill to print (properly). A single example of a model that doesn't need it, isn't particularly helpful. Plenty of those. Understanding _why_ a model would _need_ infill, would teach people to recognize it on their own, and consider/account for it, in their own designs.

[@UncleJessy]

Great video man. Half of the stuff I print anyways is just used for display in my man cave so I will for sure be trying this out. Will hopefully also save a little on the print time as well.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Uncle Jessy Sweet! Keep me posted on how well this works out for you.

[@splatterbrain3788]

For sure. I've experimented with infill on a small variety of shapes at a couple sizes on the same build. Everything passed my 'smash it against the wall' test. However, I did build a little herb grinder (for a friend) and I did do 50% fill with .15 layers because even if all that plastic is redundant, this thing is going to be put to use pretty regularly.

[@Paulthefonz]

"Your wasting plastic in your 3-d printing band here's why" And I'm like "bitch I can't even hook up a regular printer"

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Paulthefonz HAHAHAHHAHA!

[@MaybeNotARobot]

Paulthefonz I am saddened, for I have but one like to give.

[@IshamPadron]

I totally agree with your assessment. In most cases you don't need any infill unless I think you are going to drill through the model or you need it to be super ridged for certain applications. For creative or display pieces 0 infill works great.

[@Barnacules]

Wasting infill is like going to the dentist 🦷

[@crmusicproduction]

Hey thanks for this video. As now I am really getting into 3D printing like crazy. I have been using just 5% infill but now you have shown that it is ok to print as hollow, this will also cut printing time down as well. Cheers! All the best from England :-)

[@sublimationman]

I agree for decorative and non structural prints. However I print a lot of structural parts including tools and parts used in industrial machines I make and sell for a living. These parts would not be breakable by hand as you did. My first printer had some parts that the maker (not me) printed with 4 perimeters and 40% infill, guess what happened? Well one of those parts was the main support for the X belt and it broke while printing and caused the belt to become extremely loose. I was able to glue and use Zip ties on it well enough to print a replacement and that lasted 3 years until I stopped using that printer (that part is still fine today). Not everybody prints shelf decorations and props for cosplay. Many people use real world applications and many times they need high infill or even solid. I would say a good 50% of my prints are solid though many are only 5mm thick or less.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+sublimationman Great info my friend. You have to use what's right for you and the model application. I'm not printing any structural parts at the moment, so my infill requirements aren't huge. I *did* have to print some replacement parts for my Wombot printer. I printed the X axis brackets using Colorfabb PLA at 50% infill, and they are the right strength. Lastly, thank you so much for your comment! I'm always extremely happy to meet people (digital or otherwise) who do more than what I am doing with 3d printing!

[@sublimationman]

Joel, just FWI I am also Epoxyjewelry on Twitter :-)

[@3DPrintingNerd]

sublimationman oh, OH! HEY MAN!

[@Huskiefluff]

I use PETG and infill/solid is a must for anything you print, the plastic can sag super easy, and requires a ton of cooling if you use less infill. if you tried to print PETG with no infill it would just cave in on itself while printing.

[@droknarnaramor8650]

If you use 3d printer for solid plastic structures you have a lot of money. Try this print your part hollow use it as a mold for epoxy or sth like this. Mold for aluminium (cans from cola XD) with plaster over your part.

[@C-M-E]

Considering this is 4 years old but the knowledge still applies, I've begun printing out my library of 3d modeled figures from the last decade or so into 1/6th scale statues and am really trying to cut down on print time. Taking out the infil was my first choice, though I'm of the opinion that some is necessary as you mentioned in the vid just so some parts will actually print. Little fiddly bits like outstretched fingers or facial props. I'm going to be molding them anyway, but what I'm planning to do for structural support is fill them with 8lb pourable foam, provided the reaction doesn't torch through the model. Should give it a bit of heft and support while molding and casting.

[@SisterRose]

you could just glue the ear back on, you know. maybe make him a cute bandage out of some modelling clay. would make a cute giveaway thing. (the fixed Pikachu, not the ear, that'd be creepy)

[@JerrySchun]

Thank you so much man! I am printing extensions for my Ikea Lack enclosure. One leg took me 9 hours and 10 minutes. During that print I watched some video's on YT to pass the time. I found this one and I tried it on the next leg. It was done in 4 hours and 1 minute. Just by going from 2 border and 20% infill honycone 3D to 3 borders and 5% linear infill. THANKS SO SO MUCH MAN!

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Welcome!!!

[@ABaumstumpf]

it would have been a betetr comparison if you made it no infill 3 layer wall, and 20% infill 2 layer wall. The 3rd layer of the wall should be using about the same amount of material as the infill would have. no infill 3 layers: 2420 mm 20% infill 3 layers: 3360 mm 20 infill with 2 layer shell should be around 2600 mm. Well, the parts i print (or rather let a friend print for me) are not for decoration but usage. a lot of the time they are so thin that the slicers produce them as solid pieces anyway. And those times they are thicker i need the structural strength. A bit of infill (10%) is fine for testing, for the final thing it is more like 50% or self-made structures.

[@stefan_HEX]

Quick Tip: For prints that must have say 30% infill just in one critical area, You can make 3 or more processes in simplify3D to for example use 5% and 30% and then 5% again. Use start and stop at layer and change infill amount and top, bottom solid layers of our processes.

[@KiterTMK]

Personally I don't care about the plastic usage at all since I print very often and only use 1 roll per month, and I am only concerned about printing time and quality. I print with 50% infill for parts that I use for my printer. But you are right that some parts could still be made with 3 or even 4 perimiters with little to no infill and still retain strength. It works with pikachu, but won't work so much with objects that have a flat surface on top.

[@ChrisHarmon1]

With proper cooling and a few top layers it'll work just fine even at 0%.

[@Brandon_Makes_Stuff]

Using this video as inspiration when I first got into 3D printing, now I can make just about anything with three perimeters and ZERO infill. Usually zero supports as well. Thank you!

[@mastermaker666]

How about making a crush test comparison of different materials and infills using printed spheres, that would give a really good idea about how much infill actually effects strength(and it would also make for a good visual demonstration ).

[@hellterminator]

Actually spheres would be a pretty bad example as they are very structurally strong to begin with, a cube would be more representative of the average model.

[@mastermaker666]

Which is why I suggested them, with cubes all you would get is crush of layers on top of layers and that doesn't really tell you much about anything beyond the materials resistance to compression.

[@hellterminator]

Thomas Maker I don't follow. A sphere will absorb a lot of the stress in its shell (a property not shared by most models), thus significantly limiting the effect of infill (which is what we want to test).

[@mastermaker666]

6AM response and google+ not immediately showing the context to help one remember that it was about infill and not layer adhesion/shear and stretch strength(and a post made 2 weeks ago).....The inherent strength of a sphere might still give some interesting results though, seeing the difference between a sphere and a cube with the same wall and infill using a variety of filaments could be quite illuminating..

[@LordOfNihil]

i get bad surfacing if i go below 15%, so i usually use 20% if i dont care and 25% if i do. if i want a structurally rigid part i usually use 2mm walls on everything. you can add further rigidity with geometry, like stepped ridges, grooves, or putting holes everywhere, the idea is these create additional perimeter passes in areas that need reinforcement. theres a lot of things you can do with strength increasing geometry (like a protruding peg on one part i made kept breaking off, and i solved the issue by ringing the base of the peg with a bunch of 2mm cubes, to generate better adhesion between the side walls and the surface layers). these work independent of infill since its all going to get extra perimeter. you still use plastic but at least this way you can select the areas you want reinforced. infill has diminishing returns when used for strengthening.

[@BIGTTSNORLAX]

And then I made ANOTHER! (walls tremble) 'Pi-ka-CHUUU' 'Oh god, no Pikachu. No!'

[@CMDRFandragon]

So 3d Printing prints stuff like the rings of a tree? It looks like thin ring after ring that eventually makes up the piece.

...and, slic3r and the newer cura, both open-source, have settings to use internal supports when your infill is at 0%, whereas your favorite proprietary simplify3d DOES NOT HAVE THAT, so how do you feel about advocating so loud for proprietary stuff?

[@3DPrintingNerd]

I advocate for what I use and what works for me. #highfive

3D Printing Nerd so, let me understand here: you make a video about printing hollow with simplify3d even though it is the inferior slicer for this case, since slic3r and cura both have a feature which allows complicated hollow prints to succeed while simplify3d does not; and you call that 'what works for me', just because you in this case used a simple part? Notwithstanding the fact that simplify3d forbids sharing the resulting gcode and the reverse engineering of its .factory format, this is just plain wrong. Also, nothing prevents you to use slic3r and cura. They are open source and also freely downloadable.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Cláudio Sampaio This video is also a year old, and I've had the chance to use more than Sinolify3D in that year. Simplify3D doesn't prohibit the sharing of their generated gcode - I've looked into that AND had a conversation with Simplify3D and that just isn't the case.

3D Printing Nerd it is in their EULA, what they say to you personally does not matter much because it is the letter of the law that matters. I talked to Richard Horne and he said he had the same conversation and they said they added this to prevent people from making their software available through the cloud to lots of people and thus harm their sales. There is even a reddit thread about it, read on: www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/49otwi/simplify3ds_license_prohibits_the_sharing_of/ Let me emphasize that this is the nature of proprietary software: anything and everything to enforce that artificial scarcity that leads to profit and power, even if it harms the user. Nothing wrong about profit, but everything wrong about control of creative work and arbitrary prohibitions.

[@Huskiefluff]

why dont you make a youtube video about it then @claudio, oh, seems you arent very good at it.

[@matthwy1]

If you're printing with a triple perimeter you are still adding a lot of plastic to the model, since it's near the outside circumference. It would help to see what the weight difference is between infill and beefed up perimeter to quantify the plastic savings.

[@reviews4youz989]

Hi Joel,I understand what you are saying and it all makes sense, however, if you are eliminating infill but increasing the perimeter how much are you really saving? I want to stress that I am not trying to come across as being ignorant or whatever but it's just an observation.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Reviews 4 Youz !!! I thought about this after I read this from you, so I did a test. I put a 100mm cube in Simplify3D, set perimeters to 2, and infill to 10%. Simplify3D reported a 12 hour print time, and a plastic weight of 157.11 grams. I then changed it to 3 perimeters and reduced the infill percentage to zero. Simplify3D now reports 6.5 hours to print, and a plastic weight of 68.71 grams. You're not ignorant - it's a great question. Looks like the answer is you really are saving quite a bit of filament.

[@reviews4youz989]

+3D Printing Nerd excellent !! funny thing is I was going to ask you to do this exact test. Thank you for all your videos, I love your enthusiasm and dedication to detail.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Reviews 4 Youz !!! Aww, thank you! #highfive

[@Willy_Tepes]

I have been making some aircraft wings and though I want them completely hollow I also need strength in some directions. I solved this by designing it as a shell (copy and scale down the model, place it inside). This let me place internal supports only where I needed them. 5-10% infill works as well.

[@diAbrahaMoctezuma]

Sure forget about infill as long as the part is just for show, if you actually need the part to do some mechanical work, varying infill density along the sections that require it is a must, specially with abs. In short, if its not a serious project just do whatever infill.

[@dgurevich1]

One of the functional things I printed was a speed loader for my glock magazine. I first printed it with 20% infill and it broke pushing the last bullet into the mag. So I printed another one with 100% infill and that thing is solid as a rock.

[@WildfoxFabrication]

Mike Tyson strikes again...

[@chalkers]

Last night I set off a scaled up Darth Vader Buddha (with Saber) on my FFCP at 0% infill and it turned out pretty well for and an ornament. There were some horizontal areas that were a little sketchy but it's really not bad. Doing one with some infill at the moment as a gift.

[@KevinFrenchpiisceiss]

I print a lot of quadcopter stuff so yeah, 100% infil all the way. At least for the arms

[@幽霊船-o4h]

Kevin French nice pb it was a good ep

[@wtfpercussion]

Does 90% to 100% make a difference in your experience?

[@astaschak]

This is great to have popped up on my home page once my current prints done I am going to do a 300% of this exact model. I'm gonna go re-slice it at 0 percent and see the plastic and time savings. The color I'm using is getting a little low so this is perfect.

[@kyletaulton8256]

"Stop wasting plastic" *prints an object just to break it*

[@mymrmelon3503]

I have found that a very good setting for decently strong prints, without wasting too much plastic is 15% infill with GRID pattern. Overall the Grid pattern tends to be one of the strongest.

[@bobthecannibal1]

Considering the last functional items I printed on my machine were things that needed to bear a fair amount of load, I wouldn't consider dropping my infill percentage below 10% of them. These items were 50m worth of ABS filament. If the part breaks, that's wasted filament as well. I'm not going to quibble over a meter or five (at most) worth of filament as long as the print works. Now if you're screwing around and making Tchotchkes, sure, cut the infill. But if you're doing functional things, don't take the risk unless you can do your own FEA.

[@seigeengine]

Now if only you could have watched the video instead of whining to the comments about something he already covered.

[@jasond.valentine5931]

This guy makes the videos easy to watch, must be a lovely person to have around.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Awww. Thank you for such kind words.

[@Adam2050]

Didn't you just waste plastic showing us :D

[@kamo7293]

Adam2050 a small sacrifice to pay to educate people

[@brendonmoore1619]

Adam2050 educating them on how to make useless items that are thrown out after you loss interest it it. No wastage here.

[@YOURMOMxo69xo]

The reason the strength doesn't seem linear is because your constant variable. The perimeter outlines. More infill is still the best way to get a stronger part.

[@TheSuperiorMonty]

he avoided breaking the scaled model i wonder if it's because he knew it was gonna break easier lmao

[@AndresSanchez-io1oi]

Not a Man Studios 200 IQ

[@shelby50411]

Thats because of all the angles and specific shape of that picachoo model...making its outer shell naturally strong this,no infill wont work on most projects but it does have its place in 3d printing

[@BachikoiBabi]

"its just a hollow shell" this perfectly describes my life...

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Awww. Do you need a hug?

[@AsitorCorporation]

I've even done 1 or 2 layer thick prints, then about 3-5% gyroid infill, surprisingly strong, you can throw them at a tiled floor and they don't break. Depends on the use obviously, I'll go for higher infill for functional things that need strength but most stuff you can do much lower on, gyroid is good also because it's quite even and gives lots of area for parts to build on internally if they need to.

[@lorenzoiannuzzi3937]

so 0% is over kill. Got it.

[@pauljs75]

Should do some comparisons for something considered load-bearing instead of just for display only. Display only stuff makes sense to minimize to zero whenever possible, yet it'd be neat to see some kind of functional component(s) stress tested to give an idea of what margins one could get away with.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

For load bearing I had thought about it, but, I need to get a good engineering-backed set of tests. Plus, with all the different types of infill, it could be very involved.

[@territango6132]

about to pee my pants but I don't care

[@3DPrintingNerd]

YOU PEE THOSE PANTS!

[@territango6132]

XD XD I made it to the bathroom in time XD XD

[@spitfire7170]

aesthetics are king so I go with 100% infill for parts using translucent filaments that will have an area wide enough that the infill pattern will be too distracting because the only other choice for those is zero infill and that usually comes with bridging issues that will be just as obvious and an infill pattern when you look at the part, everything else I range from 5% to 20% depending on how worried I am about the top layer sagging and not really because of strength. though I've been 3D printing only for barely 2 months now so maybe I'm just wrong lol

[@kevindeason4525]

You didn't say anything to really prove your point

[@nugenki]

Yeah, I didn't see anything. Sure he broke an ear off, but the piece where the ear and the head meets wouldn't have any infill in it anyways. The only thing I can conclude is that small plastic parts are tougher to break. Should have tried to crush the bigger pikachu with and without infill.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Nugenrules crush the bigger Pikachu? My kids would kill me if I hurt that thing.

[@nugenki]

Lol, okay but I would like to see something crushed for testing. Don't you think it's not enough to break one without infill without a reference to one with? My cheapo 3d printer comes in on monday so I'll be able to test it myself if you don't want to test this and video it yourself.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+Nugenrules Well, crushing is interesting because of course infill will help - if anything it puts more material in the way of what's crushing. However, YES, test this when you get your printer!

[@paigemccluggage241]

I agree with this if the part is decorative. But if I were printing all of my parts with 0% infill, my kid would surely break it. I agree with you on reducing plastic use and being conscious to the types of plastics that we are using and the impact that some of these plastics have on the planet. A little more testing would have been nice to see, but great video. thanks.

[@pajamas720]

Here are my recommendations: Hotter extrusion temperature and less fans. turn down your print speed slightly too. the slower the part cools the stronger it'll be. you may consider using an enclosure or annealing some parts as well but tweaking print settings should come first. Use more perimeters. this will add more material to where part strength is needed most. same for top/ bottom layers but i think perimeters are faster and have a much greater effect combined with print orientation. adaptive infills. you can set it fairly high and it'll only put more infill close to perimeters and top/ bottom layers where you need it most strength wise. honestly though infill is one of the least effective ways to strengthen your parts. And of course if your printing mini figures you dont need a whole lot of part strength to begin with, you can turn the above settings down

[@thekaratekid02]

I bought a cr-10 about a year back because of your review on it, and its been one of my favorite purchases. I love your content!

[@Akkznxn]

Never thought about it like that. I think you still might need infill when it comes to prints that have a large flat surface area on the top and bottom like rectangular boxes but having less infill and strengthening the walls not only reduces the amount of plastic used but also the time to print!

[@stevegek]

What I did... print hollow, then at 90% when the top of your model is still open: pause it. Then insert a mixture of very small pebles (like 1-3mm in size) and glue. Finish the print... and you have a strong and heavy model. The heavy-part makes it feel more expensive. Works great on presents. :P

[@OwenWithAHammer]

I find that % largely depends on the size of what you're printing, the % doesn't scale perfectly. Like on a 100x100mm print, 5-10% infill is the lowest that makes sense, where as on a 300x300mm print, you can get away with 1-5% infill. I've found that adding 1-2% infill on my massive prints, along with a decent wall thickness, printed with a .8 nozzle, results in really fast and strong large prints. The difference in time and filament used is minimal but the strength is quite night and day comparing a hollow cube 300x300 vs one with 2% infill.

[@justinvzu01]

I printed a lead bender from thingiverse for my electrical engineering study. I used 100% infil because it's a small print and I don't want it to break in my bag. I definitely didn't need to do it, but I'd rather just be sure. With larger prints or on time constraint I definitely use like 15% infil.

[@DIY3DTECHcom]

The key to 3D printing is the "math" behind the slicer and the folks at Simplify 3D seem to have done their home work. Would be interesting to have compared the same (i.e. no infill) with Cura & Slic3r to see if printing empty yielded the same results structurally.

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+DIY3DTECH.com That *would* be an interesting test!

[@DIY3DTECHcom]

There you go! Look forward to seeing the results!

[@PKTEK]

I actually change up my percentage depending on what I'm building. For instance, I use 20-40% for a swords hilt but use about 10% for the blade to keep everything light.

[@osimmac]

looking at how strong it was really gave me a feel for how strong it was.

[@Rueb]

You are great! I printed a bust of spiderman and it was the most sturdy thing ever with 15% infill. It didn't need it. It probably cost me time more than anything. I am going to try and do more with less. Also, I printed out a spinner for a friends volunteer Lil' Brother and I couldn't fit pennies in one of the weight slots because it was TOO BIG. I had printed one months earlier with 15% default infill and it was in proportion. Either way great advice! Thank you.

[@md95tsi]

Thank You I just purchased the Anet A8 i know watch that thing but i will read everything over and over like You had suggested in Your 5 things starting 3d printing Thank You for what You do i hope to learn alot more as I go into printing

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+md 95tsi congrats!

[@3DJapan]

I don't have an infill percentage. Though there are often some supports left inside that I can't snip off.

[@ChrisHarmon1]

IF the model is for "looks" I usually print with 0% infill with two shells/outlines/perimeters(whatever your slicer calls it) and usually get away with it long as I use 5-10 "top" layers. I've spent countless hours printing including two whole home made printers while only using probably 5lbs of PLA/ABS in 2+ years.

[@jimbobbyrnes]

infill seems to only effect top layer quality and not internal strength on small models. but for functional parts i find cubic subdivision to be my wheelhouse at around 8-50%.

[@SnapshotTube2]

With more infill your 2nd moment of area will be larger and should yield you greater bend strength. If you can get good layer adhesion, more really is more. At least with PC and CF blends. I'm not sure about non-engineering filaments but there is a noticeable increase in yield strength with increased infill from my limited experience. Though from a strength of materials standpoint it makes sense. For non-mechanical models you should not even approach 50%.

[@TheRealUmlat]

Joel, Took your advice and when to zero on a project. It's incredibly strong and save me A LOT of plastic!! Thanks for the tip!

[@3DPrintingNerd]

+TheRealUmlat Welcome! Hey, I'm here to help :)

[@fhuber7507]

Consider an aluminum tube... all of the strength is in the shell. Huge ships use hollow drive shafts from turbine to prop. they have thin (compared to diameter) shells and are often filled with sand to prevent collapse under torque.

[@Jenny_Digital]

+3D Printing Nerd you make a good point there. I've only recently discovered how to use Slic3r's own plater to import modifiers such that I can direct the infill density in a more nuanced way.

[@IvanHoeEeWu]

@Joel, awesome video! 20% infill > 1h 05m build time. 10.10g plastic. 0% infill > still shows same build time 1h 05m. 7.28g plastic. what's the actual build time?

[@kazolar]

Definitely a good tip. I often try to go low infill, it's internal as long the outside structure works for the job -- save some plastic, and money. I've printed a really huge cave/perch for my bearded dragon with 3 perimeters, 6 top and bottom layers and 12% infill out of PETG -- there were a lot of flat surfaces, so you need some infill, but just enough for the top and bottom layers to start to stick since PETG doesn't bridge well and active cooling with PETG totally ruins layer bonding, so fan is typically turned off. But at 12% it's hella strong, I still used 4.5 kg (it's big) but if I used higher infill, I'd have needed even more, for a model that big -- 20% infill would have gone to 7 or 8 kg, adds up quick

[@joblessalex]

kg? What kind of printer do you run? Must've been massive

[@kazolar]

+joblessalex, I have 2 now, the new one is large 12x12x12 inches. The bearded dragon perch/cave was printed on my MakerGear M2. The volume there is 10x8x8, much smaller. I just split the model into 24 pieces and glue/weld it into a the huge thing it became.

[@kazolar]

+joblessalex, I have 2 now, the new one is large 12x12x12 inches. The bearded dragon perch/cave was printed on my MakerGear M2. The volume there is 10x8x8, much smaller. I just split the model into 24 pieces and glue/weld it into a the huge thing it became.

[@MsRaskauskas]

No wonder you have so many views on this! I think you ought to change your name to 3D Printing Hero. Your videos are fun and straight to the point. I have learned more of what I want to know about 3D printing from you than anywhere else ( I think that just made sense).High Five!

[@3DPrintingNerd]

Thank you so much! That's incredibly kind of you to say!

[@MrCow579]

I print depending on how strong the part has to be as in, how much weight it will have to carry if it's going to have forces on it. for things like keychains I print with 100% since it's such a small thing that it barely takes any extra plastic.

[@cannagrowva9373]

Im new to 3D printing and use about 15-20% infill on most models unless Im going for weight. For example, Im in the process of creating a Star Wars chess set and printed at 80% infill to give the pieces some extra weight. Anyway, very informative. Thanks man. Have a good one. HIGH FIVE!!

[@danieldold4959]

How do you know if the model has 3 layers? If not how would you add them?

[@nicougrikify]

1. How do you know if you can get away with just printing 3 perimeters ? 2. What kind of prints need infill ? 3. What are the types of prints tht benefit greatly from high infill % ?

[@benno6981]

One time I was printing the exact same Pikachu and forgot that the default print was on vase mode and it printed without infill. I couldn't tell the difference until I got bored and broke it open

[@Xiaolaoshu888]

Yeah, I'm getting really solid results with 15% infill and double line count on the walls, and that's for pretty large flat surfaces that need some support. Regular PLA.

[@kantpredict]

I did a very large print recently (about 20x22x24cm) and did 5% infill with the 3d cubic infill so I wouldn't run out of filament. Unfortunately, a lot of it didn't bond very well internally so left my part a bit squishy. And I still ran out of filament. Should've gone for more walls and just filled it with something later.