3D Print Faster Without Losing Quality

Summary

The video presents seven slicer techniques for reducing 3D print time while retaining useful strength or detail. The presenter compares prints made with the same model, printer, and filament, including one example that reduces print time from four hours to one.

1. Find the filament’s maximum volumetric speed

Filament flow—not just printer capability—can limit print speed. The presenter recommends running a maximum-flow-rate test in the slicer, inspecting where the print begins to fail, and using that point to set a practical speed limit. A suggested test range is 10–25 or 30, depending on the filament.

2. Choose infill for the job

• Grid: A general-purpose balance of speed and strength.
• Gyroid: Stronger than grid in the presenter’s comparison, but slower.
• Lightning: Adds infill only where needed, making it fast and suitable for decorative parts, but weak.

For parts that need strength with little infill, the presenter recommends using three or four perimeters. One example reduces a cube print from about 4.5 hours with grid infill to 2.5 hours with lightning infill.

3. Match nozzle size to the goal—and adjust slicer settings

A 0.2 mm nozzle is suited to finer detail, while 0.4 mm is presented as a general-purpose option. Nozzles of 0.6 or 0.8 mm can help produce faster, stronger parts when some detail loss is acceptable.

Simply installing a larger nozzle may yield little speed improvement. In the presenter’s example, a 0.8 mm nozzle provides more benefit when perimeter and top/bottom layer counts are reduced while aiming to preserve strength.

4. Increase layer height when detail allows

Thicker layers print faster but reduce detail. The video compares 0.08 mm for fine detail with 0.28 mm for speed, and suggests trying up to 0.32 mm, particularly for flatter models with fewer curves. One example print time drops from 1 hour 40 minutes to 57 minutes.

5. Increase line width

For a 0.4 mm nozzle, the presenter suggests a line-width range of roughly 0.3–0.5 mm and recommends setting widths to 0.5 mm for speed. The video describes this as a way to save time without the visible quality effect associated with changing layer height.

6. Use variable layer height

Variable layer height uses thinner layers in areas with more detail and thicker layers elsewhere, balancing surface definition and print time. The presenter shows how to adjust the setting toward either speed or quality.

7. Print by object for multi-part, multicolor models

Instead of printing color layers with repeated filament purges, split a model into separate pieces and set the slicer’s print sequence to by object. In the example, a frog print goes from 4 hours 39 minutes—with 64 color changes—to about 1.5 hours with one color change. The separate eyes are glued on afterward.

The video notes that ordinary multicolor systems, such as an A1 with AMS Lite, can generate purge waste; multi-toolhead printers are another option.

Overall takeaway

Choose settings based on the model: faster settings can trade off detail or strength, but combining techniques can substantially reduce print time.

Source

The guide is presented by a single narrator for the Nel 3D English channel. It is instructional rather than a product review.