Lithopane tester

thingiverse

I like to print lithophans from time to time. However, I encountered a problem - not all filament is suitable, and some has varying thicknesses. To find out how transparent my filament is, I conducted this simple test. The first disc starts with 0.1mm at the center and gradually increases to 1 mm at the edge. The other discs have diameters of 1mm, 2mm, and 3mm. Three millimeters seems incredibly promising - I was thrilled just to achieve results with 2mm filament previously. Using this test method, you can even assess up to 7 mm. I tested it on two PLA filaments already. One went up to 1.3 mm before the light was blocked, and the other reached about 2.2 mm - a useful range for lithophans. The thicker the filament, the better the results will be, as you'll get more fluent shading. One key tip: always use 100% infill for accurate results; otherwise, they won't be reliable.