Jan "Jenkings" Škoda - blog

I couldn't find any suitable cases for camera filters, so I started designing my own. I decided to 3D print separate cases, one for each filter, with the description of the filter on the lid.

After some tinkering and test printing with PLA, I arrived at the ideal design where the lenses would not rattle and fit perfectly.

Then I thought about the material for the final cases. I am a bit afraid to use PLA because it gets soft at about 70 degrees Celsius. It may look fine, but if you imagine leaving the case in the car in the sun, the case can easily melt a bit and damage the lenses. So I decided to try PETG. I have never printed anything other than PLA, but it looked like PETG should be quite easy to print, and it just needs a bit higher temperatures. However, I found that the bed adhesion was really bad. Even though the PLA always prints very well and adheres very well, I was unable to get it to stick to the bed. For the large parts (box and lid) I had to restart printing about fifteen times to get it to stick well enough to continue printing.

However, when I tried to print the hinge to join these large parts together, I spent about two hours trying to improve the adhesion, but in the end I gave up. I was then given some advice about using the glue stick to keep the print on the bed, but I have not tried that yet.

Fortunately, my colleague offered to print them for me on an SLA printer, which should be even better and of course much easier for me. So now I am waiting for him to print them for me.