Modified Cubes Retraction Test (yes another one...)

thingiverse

This is a very simple model, modified from the standard four cube retraction test model which I designed to be connected via a simple base plate so it could be easily moved once finished while also reducing material and print time. It's just another retraction test but hopefully it'll help someone else like it helped me. You can slice the .STL as is or use OpenSCAD or Customizer to change the size of the "cube" towers. I'm still a 3D printer amateur so follow along with what I did at your own risk, but this is what I distilled from online information, in particular: https://www.matterhackers.com/articles/retraction-just-say-no-to-oozing which you'd probably be better off reading than taking my shorter version as gospel. After calibrating my extruder (Google is your friend) and then running temperature tower tests, I performed the retraction test in the following steps: 1. Slice the model with 0mm retraction distance and print. 2. Slice the model with 1mm retraction distance and print, leaving all other options the same as before. 3. Rinse and repeat in 1mm increments until I got the results I wanted. You can see from the pics that 0mm was as awful as expected, from there you can see the differences each mm made for direct feed vs bowden tube extruders on my two printers. I guess retraction settings should be set for each of my printers with each of the different filament types I have, anyway that's the plan. Feel free to add comments if you have better advice for me or others reading this. If you print and manage to achieve any improvement to your print quality then please post photos and settings. I used this to tune in retraction settings to their best values after running a temperature tower test then ran that one again just to be sure with the new retraction settings. I imagine you could do it the other way round too, but either way I ended with results I was happy with for retraction and temperature. ------------------------------------------------------- If you find this or any of my other designs useful please let me know in the comments section or with a posted "make", it's good motivation for posting additional things. Marble Solitaire Game - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3364658 Door Catch - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3470398 Modified Cubes Retraction Test - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3682887