Eliminate seams in your 3D prints with scarf joint seams - An exciting development!

Check out my 2nd channel, TT Racing: / @ttracingyt
Soon, the visible seam on 3D printed parts will be greatly diminished, thanks to a new development called scarf seams. In this video, I shine a spotlight on the work of the developers, as well as the work of the community in testing to make sure it works. All the details you need to test yourself are included, plus my own testing results across a range of 3D printers.
0:00 Introduction
0:49 Scarf seam origins
GitHub pull request: github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlic...
1:55 What is a scarf seam/joint and why is it needed?
Scarf joint wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarf_j...
4:07 How to test this yourself before it is officially released
A huge thanks to the X1Plus team for telling me about this and also assisting me in downloading the pre-release version. www.x1plus.net
My previous X1Plus video: • X1plus community Bambu...
6:44 Designing a seam testing model
My model free and open source on Printables: www.printables.com/model/7846...
7:46 Collaborating with psiberfunk
Orca Slicer guide to scarf seams by Adam L: www.printables.com/model/7833...
8:57 My results on various printers
10:55 Conclusion
Buy quality and affordable filament from X3D. Buy 3, get 1 free and a free sample pack with every order: www.x3d.com.au
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[@blockfifteen]

gotta love the tenacity of the FDM world, still improving while remaining open source

[@ThisisDD]

Sharing common goals!

[@blockfifteen]

@@ThisisDD such a relief. nowadays with most companies locking stuff up for better margins, open source is a bit of a beacon of hope. Cheers mate, I hope all of this innovation helps your future endeavors out.

[@Alfaghetty]

Eh seems like bambu is trying pretty hard to change that, and fairly successfully given how well they are doing.

[@Fennecbutt]

​@@Alfaghettyyup bambu keep claiming they're innovating but they're not. They built on top of open source work and yet people are treating them with cult like adoration like Apple customers do.

[@SonicKiwi123]

​​@@Fennecbuttexactly why (and only why) I will never purchase one of their machines. I will gladly fork over twice as much to prusa, so long as they remain open source, in good spirit. (Not if they start trying to be "technically" open source)

[@SaigeSauce]

Oh my gosh this is going to be a game changer! Hiding or make the seam less visible has been such a time sink and annoyance. Especially with larger layer heights or silk filaments. I'm so excited!! Thank you to all the amazing people in the printing dev community ☺

[@MarkusNemesis]

Where were you the day where Vase mode died?

[@alejandroperez5368]

​@@MarkusNemesis You can't print functional parts in vase mode unless they're toys.

[@DrPersonman]

​@@alejandroperez5368 you sort of can but it's uhhh... different. You slow the speed waaay down but set your line width to 2mm+ and a layer height of .6+ (yes it works with a .4mm nozzle, somehow). If you get the speed and heat right you can make strong and functional containers or rigid tubing and whatnot.

[@alejandroperez5368]

@@DrPersonman right, two or three use cases. Not relevant to make a post about.

[@tjpprojects7192]

​@@alejandroperez5368"Laughs in functional molds for wax candles being able to be printed in vase mode"

[@MirageDU]

And again I'm baffled how a "simple" change can make so much difference. Kudos to everyone working on this!

[@dangerfly]

It seems pretty obvious like ketchup bottles sitting on their tops.

[@attack125]

you should be baffeled by the fact that it's 2024 before someone finally made this a thing

[@MirageDU]

@@attack125 No one stopped you from implementing this 5 years ago. 😜

[@attack125]

@@MirageDU the fuck you talking about. it's still not propperly done today. even in orca slicer. cnc is almost 70 years old. 3d printing is almost 40 years old. if you think we aren't moving too slow then you have braindamage. i was not at all praising this advancement. i was pointing out that FINALLY it's not looking like the dark ages anymore. that we are STARTING to move in the right direction. github. and random software passed around between friends. doesn't count. so 5 years ago this wasn't "implementable" as you suggested. i'm not going to do their r&d for them for something that should have been a thing since before i got into 3d printing.

[@UncleJessy]

Oh wow. This could be huge. Seam lines are one thing I’ve had to explain over and over again to people who have bought 3D prints but unfamiliar with 3d printing limitations

[@mariospanayiotou6644]

Exactly! I feel like this is the only thing keeping 3D printing from perfection.

[@MrGerhardGrobler]

Preaching to the choir. No, the model is broken. Where? Inspects model. All is fine. Look here, see it is broken. Huh? Oh! That is a seam line. No it is broken. It is a seam line. Like when you sow 2 pieces of cloth together. But it is supposed to look like it was injection moulded. This is a print. Not an injection moulded model. Yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada!

[@sydnerd]

Truly love that 3D printers more and more move towards the 3rd dimension, rather than just printing horizontal layers.

[@nikoraasu6929]

when we finally get a commercially sold 3D printer (or a great open source project like the Vorons - that will push companies to copy the design, which is great) that are specifically designed for non planar 3D printing then I'd say we'll start moving towards non planar 3D printing as it truly is amazing

[@jokerace8227]

A lot of what makes it tricky to print more freely in 3D is the shape of the tip of the nozzle itself. Maybe nozzles that look more like the shape of a tip of a ball point pen, minus the ball, would have an easier time with "beyond layering" type printing. But in some ways the tip having some flatness around the hole does seem to actually help with layer printing quality, especially when extruding wider than the nozzle's hole diameter.

[@bonovoxel7527]

Yessss dude, non planar slicing, even with a mildly steep angle such as just 20°, would be gamechanging!@@nikoraasu6929

[@bonovoxel7527]

Yesh, unfortunately. I have the 0.4 mm nozzle but often use a 0.6mm or wider line, to save time. If there will be nozzles specific for non-planar, they would probably admit no more than 150% layer width compared with the hole. And it would probably screw up the appearance a bit if the .4 nozzle has a .6 flat surface it would probably print right until only 0.58 width. For reference a 0.4 nozzle now begins to screw up quality even at low flow and speed, around 250% width. 0,96 mm line with 0.4 nozzle still prints fine. This won't be possible with thinner pointed nozzles.@@jokerace8227

[@roderik1990]

That and cooling becomes a lot more awkward if you also have to have enough clearance for the non-Planar moves.

[@Jynxx_13]

I've had trouble with parts that have to fit together with tight tolerances, and the seam was a big part of this. I hope this takes off and developed more.

[@amicloud_yt]

Exactly why I am so excited for this development as well! I have two files next to my printer solely for filing down seams on tight fitting parts.

[@riversshadow9678]

My solution to this issue for my prints was using the random seam option. It adds a bit of friction, and works reasonably well for a nice friction fit between parts. These scarf seams might help resolve the same issue but hopefully with more reliability and better aesthetics.

[@joshdog1648]

The reason I scrolled down the comments. I usually add geometry to my CAD parts so that I don't have to file seams (e.g small radius or v-notch on cylindrical parts combined with seam on sharpest corner). This is also quite time consuming though...

[@dougsholly9323]

My favorite part about this is the organic collaboration that occurs with open source. This isn't just in 3D printing, but really any open source code project. I love it when the reward for participating in a solution is not motivated by reward, but rather by recognition of your contribution.

[@ChrisFloof]

I can't wait to try this with random seam position for printing figures!

[@brettzolstick989]

This might work really well with random seems!

[@ChrisFloof]

@@tcount-si8wh That's a bummer to hear. Still going to try out of curiosity though 😆

[@blockfifteen]

@@brettzolstick989 can’t wait to see how companies can refine this with their bigger teams.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

Not to mention "fuzzy skin" for creating textured surfaces, which can also help hide seams.

[@bonovoxel7527]

I thought the same. This is made to hide continuous seam, using it on random seams point... I figure it turning out as a broken fuzzy skin effect. Many figures in the video show something similar even it's probably not the way those have created. But yeah, when you have a figure which is 360° saying it's meant to be seen from all angles... And the seam won't hide good in the plies of it surface bc it hasn't or they're on plain sight, this thing can improve the final result and make it at least less of a compromise on the side or on the plies where you decide to put the seams. @@tcount-si8wh

[@802Garage]

Since I began 3D printing I've wondered why there wasn't an option to basically treat outer seams like they're part of a vase mode print. Don't stop moving, just ramp up to the next layer. Obviously for prints that are sent to print the outer wall last, it would need to step inward quite quickly after that and then move on to the next command, but it should still hid the seam well. This basically accomplishes that in a clever more order based way. Really excited to try this out soon! Great job to all involved.

[@tarakivu8861]

There is also still no detection for printing in mid-air when e.g. printing outside to inside for better dimensional accuracy. Really cought me fof-guard. Or hole-shrinkage-compensation. SuperSlicer has it and its great, PrusaSlicer again very conservative with settings and doesnt have it.

[@mariospanayiotou6644]

I’ve been wondering the same thing. Also it seems (pun intended) like a lot of times the seam could be on the inside(say you are printing a helmet, the seam would be inside where nobody cares how it looks like) or even inside the infil. I guess now you can draw the seam so maybe you can do that i just didnt try it that way. I do the “layer inspection” thingy like in the video where it shows you how the layer is “drawn” and i think to myself damn the start and end point could easily be in the infill here. If i print something like a cube the layer is made without stops and z hops like in vase mode kinda, so why couldn’t the start and end point be on the inside wall or the infill? Why the outer wall? Am i missing something here

[@802Garage]

@@mariospanayiotou6644 Yeah, there are definitely a lot of tactics to hide seams I'm surprised haven't been explored. Like basically treating horizontal layer walls like vase mode instead of starting and stopping every wall line.

[@SuperInstaGib]

I love that this channel takes the time to highlight the community contributors making these things possible. To be frank I just don’t have the time and energy to keep up with another community, and this channel makes it a lot easier. Hats off to the developers here, this is an elegant improvement to a consistent FDM issue that no one else seems to pay attention to. I look forward to seeing how this develops going forward

[@owenpatrick874]

Love your integration with and call out of the community.

[@glennfelpel9785]

Thank you for all the effort you put into keeping up with all these developments. It is truly amazing how the 3D printing world keeps improving and improving. Thank you again.

[@hectororestes2752]

Tried to develop something similar for concrete printing with a kuka arm. Im glad someone figured it out!

[@cmh8133]

This is a fantastic development. My thanks to all who are actively work on this. Thank you for your channel and bringing this news to us. Kudos.

[@zumuvtuber]

Great development! A huge thank you to everyone who's working on it and testing it 🙌

[@christopherlarime4095]

Amazing stuff. Very cool to see the progression day after day. Thank you for continuing to bring great content!

[@ShadwTrooper]

I'm excited to see this make its way into the stable releases. Thanks for sharing!

[@merlin1109]

Really appreciate all the hard work creating a fix for the unsightly seams.

[@Dilshad-gu7je]

Thanks Michael! Looking forward to this coming to the production versions of our slicers. Really appreciate the time and effort you have invested in this and the many other projects to which you are contributing.

[@PeaceLoveAndGuns]

I'd love to see this come to Cura, for sure.

[@t0neturb080]

Coasting in the experimental tab I've been using it for a while now an it seems to work pretty well

[@kane101985]

​@@t0neturb080oh, it's in Cura already?? I will have to check that out then.

[@riba2233]

@@kane101985 it isn't, not the same thing

[@HE-162]

People still use cura?

[@riba2233]

@@HE-162 yeah lol

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

Definitely looking forward to using this in the future and wishing you all the best in the testing process 👍

[@apinakapinastorba]

Lovely improvement! Really impressed with these people doing the open source work

[@amicloud_yt]

I remember seeing those posts discussing this and I've been not-so-patiently waiting for the implementation. Very exciting!

[@slipknotman515]

I printed one of those print in place collapsible katanas last night, and wanted to have a video on while I unstuck the seams from each of the blades. OF COURSE this is the video that pops up on my home page! I'm definitely going to take this for a test drive.

[@gunsboy77]

I reprinted the test one for the sword more than 50 times with no luck.

[@JShiddy]

This will definitely be my next area of testing. Great video!

[@JohnChuprun]

The contributors to the open source slicer effort are impressive. Huge respect to them.

[@teapotwar]

It's been pretty cool to see all these neat features get developed and become common everywhere in a very quick timespan. Love how a lot of doesn't require any new hardware either. Thanks for showcasing this!

[@gibsonsimpson]

Very cool topic. Thanks for covering in!

[@lucamagni99]

Great implementation, I'll try this afternoon!

[@dragade101]

Thank you for testing this!

[@n0isyfox]

Great video explaining this very clearly! And thanks for all of your work exposing and attracting people's interests in this and making that wonderful testing model 😽

[@donjohnson7746]

Love this guys videos, straight to the point and inspiration always comes from them. Details without the bloat

[@RyanGroe]

This was a very impressive video. The information is thorough and well laid out. Thank you so much

[@MrGerhardGrobler]

Admiration for the community. I am just a user. So I really appreciate their efforts to make our experience so much better. Reducing post processing of the models.

[@Fluli]

I have been thinking of this a while now. Glad to see it being implemented

[@yitspaerl7255]

Impressive. Thanks for sharing this!

[@Golfboy-ze3le]

Very excited! Thanks for printing on CR-10 max! Great work everyone!

[@FUZE_313]

This is amazing. I love that the 3d printing technology is going forwards

[@jdl3408]

This is a really cool development. Thanks for sharing.

[@riodave4954]

Amazing work guys!! Keep it up!

[@FunDumb]

Very cool. I will have to give this orca slicer a try.

[@viewatyourownrisk]

Thanks for sharing exciting stuff

[@momobear66]

Great team work in open source project!!

[@kurtlindner]

This is a great idea. It all clicked in my head as soon as I saw the title.

[@terryclair2914]

Very excited about these seam improvements! This has been the biggest headache in FDM 3D printing for me. Thanks everyone working on this issue.

[@karmakh]

I had always wondered if there was something that could be done with the seams. So happy to see this development!

[@zdenekvalek1538]

Exactly what I needed. I was already thinking about my own improvements. This one is better than what I had on my mind, so I can forget about that. Kudos for being so much fair with credits (y)

[@armoth6958]

I always value your videos, most importantly I value your integrity - giving credit and being totally truly honest. Keep it up! Really appreciate you. Thank you for always bringing valuable And practical content

[@VoidScytheX]

Realy nice, thx for the information and testings.

[@grzegorzawniczak583]

well done! everything is precisely described and works great, thx!

[@amicojeko]

Finally! For a seamless world!

[@MrSchnoufy]

Hello, Thank you very much for your precise explanations of this feature and your involvement in this project to raise the profile of these behind-the-scenes developers. 😉😊 'Yippie ki-yay' to them and to the community. 👍

[@BennyTygohome]

Very cool! Can't wait for it to reach the common masses 🎉😊

[@user-pk4hn1uz1k]

The true innovation in 3D printing these days to me seems to be all the clever ideas that get implemented in the software. It's always amazing to see these incremental open source improvements that keep improving prints.

[@Lyoishi]

Appreciate your videos that highlight promising new software/techniques like this. Just like non planar printing, supportless printing, and HueForge.

[@bozthescrewup410]

Very excited for this to get good! It would greatly improve my products!

[@MCsCreations]

Pretty interesting indeed! Thanks, Michael! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@riba2233]

awesone news, very excited and can't wait for it to be available in slicers :)

[@radarmusen]

That good work, it’s how open source should work. Looking forward to have it in the future slicers.

[@AFistfulOf4K]

Very cool! I look forward to this technique and that new suportless overhang technique becoming standard features.

[@dayworkhard]

Thanks for sharing. Hopefully it will be added to the main stream.

[@sonofbrun6033]

This community is just the best!

[@KipppopotamusJR]

Lovely shouting out the devs

[@kevincandiloro9524]

Looks like some great progress and an exciting update to fdm printing.

[@rjakiel73]

This is fantastic! The second I saw the title it made perfect sense. I use scarf seems all the time when blacksmithing but it never dawned on me to apply it to 3D printing.

[@yasin_uyghur]

Thanks a lot for sharing 🎉❤

[@sterkriger2572]

Not the first time I see woodworking techniques being great for FDM. One of the best and fastest ways to clean the layer lines of models is with luthier wood scrapers

[@digital0785]

been using the 2.0 build of orca with this for a few weeks i'm loving it it's wild how things are still coming out so frequently for improvements gonna have to grab the new version tho !~

[@esrAsnataS]

What an absolutely brilliant community.

[@dtaggartofRTD]

That seems to make a world of difference. If/when they make it to the stable releases, I'll definitely be using them.

[@almarma]

Really exciting idea! Great job by Michael here not only testing and informing us of this development, but also collaborating in its progress! Now we need also a video from CNC Kitchen to show us if it also improves its strength which I suspect it does

[@CraigHollabaugh]

Thanks for update

[@mururoa7024]

Absolutely amazing. I never thought we'd be able to get rid of seams. It reminds me of the coasting features available in slicers like Cura. Coasting required a lot of manual tweaking almost per material per part, and the results weren't as good.

[@haansworsie]

As a CNC Machinist, I've been using the same method but for CNC machining to stop part shift due to minimal suction

[@BeefIngot]

Really awesome. I remember a time where I cared more experimenting with all sorts of settings and even manual gcode changes to get a somewhat similar result. Im far too lazy now but I absolutely am anticipating opening up a new version of Bambu Studio and magically having the seams disappear.

[@Insorik]

wow, looks great and its going to get better im so impressed. i'd love to see how this looks with transparent filament and the "print glass" settings

[@4funrc11]

Bravo! 👍 Many thanks.

[@Marc_ViperTool]

This looks great!

[@LayerLabAustralia]

Dude... Your videos are freaking amazing 🤩 you are a wealth of knowledge... Keep up the great work! Aussie Aussie Aussie!

[@tinymito]

I am super excited!

[@gentleman3931]

awesome! Will try ❤

[@Underestimated37]

This has been an enormous headache for ages, so I’m very excited to see where this goes!

[@JaxxMan1974]

Just subscribed & recently discovered your website. My new printer CR-M4 has a very small FB community & needs all your websites testing & calibration help. Thank you so much for what you do.

[@instantfun4384]

Thats why i like open source. Orca slicer have awesome community!

[@miraclo3]

I'm so excited for this

[@bruceyoung1343]

Any way to make our prints better looking is welcome. Thank You

[@woodwaker1]

This will be an interesting project to follow. I think I'll wait awhile until it is more mature

[@rogermayer104]

I use it in Orca V2.0.0 Beta. Amazing result especially with larger nozzle.

[@StefsEngineering]

In a way I've been applying something similar for the past 6 years by using a minus value for additional extrude after a retract and at the end of a perimiter loop a wipe followed by a retract. Nice video with some great tips/suggestions, thanks!

[@designgears]

I've been printing my fidgets with this for about a week now, and they're coming out so much better, the seam is nearly invisible with my model and filament. Excited to see this nailed down.

[@Nolano386]

I'm definitely excited for this! I'm gonna wait a bit until people hash out the best way to implement it though.

[@dcfred777]

Like everyone else here I think the 3D printing community is amazing!! Thank you all for looking into making 3d printers better every day!!

[@Ikaros473]

this is so exciting!

[@edeniaAJ]

This is also good from a tolerance perspective. It's frustrating when you print something to fit into something else and it can't, 'cause seams!

[@WouterZtube]

Very very promising. I print a lot of circular objects so if this development continues I’d be very happy

[@JulianMakes]

Looks great!

[@senorali]

This is fantastic. I feel like variable extrusion height has more potential applications as well. Maybe zig-zagging the layer height all the way around could create more contact surface area between layers and increase adhesion as a result?

[@girrrrrrr2]

Cnckitchen did a video on that recently, and yes it does improve strength, like a lot.

[@cocoxcocoa]

@@girrrrrrr2that was his "brick layer" video right? I believe what Senorali is talking about is making it so that a single wall layer changes its hight as it prints. Kind of like making each line into a roller coaster track, that goes up and down as it prints.

[@girrrrrrr2]

@@cocoxcocoa yeah that was the brick layer. I have not seen anything like that, although I do wonder what the benefits would be, because there would be weak spots where the layers eventually overlap unless I'm thinking about it incorrectly.

[@cocoxcocoa]

@girrrrrrr2 my initial thoughts about that would be that the first layer is like a roller coaster, where it goes up and down, and then the layers on top of it don't change their thickness, but still follow the roller coasters change in hight. Then the wall that is beside that one does the same thing, but the height change is inverted. So the first wall of the first layer changes between a layer hight of .1mm to maybe .3mm as it prints, starting at .1mm. But then the second wall would do the same, but start at .3mm. So the high point of one wall, would be the low point of the wall beside it. Then, if the layer height is set to .1mm, then every wall layer would essentially be fusing to 3 other wall layers beside it, instead of the usual 1, because the "roller coaster tracks" would be criss crossing eachother in height.

[@girrrrrrr2]

@@cocoxcocoa ah alright, you can sorta do something like that in superslicer with combine infill. But that doesn't do all of the perimeters.

[@Anderswelle]

The beauty of this is, that its all solved in the Gcode. So any printer (new or old) would be able to make this work.. :) Very nice

[@ares395]

I though that was already tried in a way but I guess the biggest difference is in how the layer starts and moves diagonally. I recon this makes the biggest difference since all kinds of flow setting at the end of a layer were tried already with various results. This is pretty exciting.

[@3d_car_audio]

THANKS, LEGEND !!!