Most 3D printers provide a couple of 3D models for users to test. Most common is the "3DBenchy" designed by Creative Tools, but some other models are also provided by default by each printer. Obviously some of them "go easy" on the printer and it's a bit thought to miss a rather good print result using the printer default settings. We've seen that with the 3D printers we got for testing, and that's understandable. So, why using the our Flying Piggy Bank printer tester model?
Simply because it's a thin shell model, and usually that's really hard to print with filament (FDM) printers when surfaces show up aggressive slope gradients. Most software slicers set a constant layer thickness and thus saving computational work and printing time. As example, the use of variable layer thickness it's one of the approaches to address mid-air printing issues and surface quality when dealing with slope gradients, specially when a surface normal vector tends to be vertical on 3 axis 3D printers.
Somewhere in the future we'll see good quality and accessible multi-axis 3D desktop FDM printers and slicers , but for now 3 axis FDM 3D printers are the most affordable solution for most users.
And this is why the Flying Piggy Bank is a great tool to test your 3D printer and slicer.
If printed well, then we get a cool piggy bank gift and therefore we'll be saving waste and our planet. The sample above showing printing gaps was printed at a brand new Creality K1 printer, using Creality 1.75mm Hyper PLA filament and Creality Print software slicer with default settings for such filament.