Printing Material and Settings
There are many options to close from for material, and the SoarKraft models are designed to work with just about any type of material to make a flyable model. Some materials are stronger, some are lighter, and more and more come out all the time. You do not need to settle on one material, you can mix and match to suit your flying conditions or performance level. Some specific "slicer" setting are necessary, but hopefully the following will help with that. Also see out Youtube channels for new materials.
Easy Materials
SoarKraft designs can be printed in many different materials, but do not require anything special other than proper settings. Printing thin wall sections will take special settings, and test prints are recommended. Start with a tail fin or the SoarKraft test print.
PLA - Easy - cheap - stiff - great for slope
PLA+ (PLAPro) - Easy - Best tough material.. better than PETG.
PETG - retraction setting are key - great colors - better for hot weather / sun - strong but flexible.
Foaming Light Weight PLA - increased printed difficulty - able to get 50% weight reduction but has variable density - flexible / feels like foam - expensive per roll / but makes 2x when printing.
Low Density PLA - light weight already (~65%) - prints with similar settings and ease of PLA - strong but flexible - new
Cura and Prusa Slicer configuration settings below
Printing Materials we have tested
Basic PrusaSlicer Profiles
Download and import the .ini configuration file for PLA, LW-PLA, and a test part. Get started printing - more material configurations coming soon
Cura Settings
Here are setting for some of the materials for the Cura Slicer. We recommend Cura 4.11-4.13 for the best results. Cura 5.0+ wokrs, but the Combing mode does not work properly.... nor does "outer before inner".... sure they will fix this, but as of 5.2.1 it is still not working.
PLA+ - increase nozzle temp to 220
Polymaker LW-PLA - use PLA setting, but also turn on Combing mode.... not in skin
Bed Adhesion
We print most all of our material on blue painters tape, Scotch Blue #2090. Because warping is a huge problem, any lifting can ruin a part. With a bed temperature of 60C for PLA and 85C for PETG, we get great parts every time... they are hard to get off... but a little rubbing alcohol and some heat (warm the print bed to 60C if cool) and tape gives way releasing the part. Brims are recommended if you are having trouble, but not necessary. The "skirt" tacks down the tape to help it stay in place while printing the first layer.... then it is good from there.
Best Slicer??
Cura, PrusaSlicer and Simplify3D seam to be the most popular for preparing parts for 3D printing. There are others that can do it also. We use a combination because they each have benfits. A slicer is required and is an important part of 3D printing to know how to use. There are too many printers, materials and conditions that need to be part of the gcode, the specific machine instructions, to get a usable part... it is not hard and there are many resources to help understand what to do.
