Crystal Bowl (Vase Mode)

A “crystal” bowl inspired by cut crystal glass, designed to catch the light in its facets. It prints in spiral vase mode.

If you want to sell prints of this model, check out the Commercial Tier of my Printables club.

How to print:

• Spiral Vase Mode with bottom layers
• PETG recommended
  • It is sturdier and in my opinion looks nicer to use a larger nozzle size, but this will work with a standard 0.4mm nozzle in PETG. You will probably want to turn your fan off and print at a higher temperature for better strength and layer adhesion.
  • You can also print in PLA if you use a larger nozzle, e.g. 0.8mm.
    • I don't recommend printing in PLA with a standard 0.4mm nozzle, as the print would be fairly fragile.
  • If you print it in another material, let me know the results!

The PETG in the photos is Prusament Ultramarine Blue Transparent, which imo is gorgeous when printed with a larger nozzle.

Standard vase mode design disclaimer: This is not designed to hold water. Water-tight prints require very finely-tuned slicing and/or a sealant coating.

New to vase mode or still learning?

• Spiral vase mode takes the outside wall of a solid, continuous model and calculates a continuous single spiraling path to print to the top. Usually this is after a few standard solid layers at the bottom.
• In Prusa slicer, this is the “Spiral vase” option you can check off in Print Settings > Layers and Perimeters. It will automatically change several of your settings to be compatible with the mode.
• In Cura slicer: Special Modes > Spiralize Outer Contour
• To get a good vase mode print, you'll want to refine a couple more settings. You want to print slow and steady, and for PLA, often at a lower extrusion rate than normal printing. IMO you should test settings for each filament, as well as for different layer heights, to determine a temperature, extrusion %, and speed (if the speed hasn't been slowed down automatically) to get a nice, clean vase mode print with that filament. Too much extrusion will get you tiny bumps around your print; too little can make it too fragile and prone to cracking between layers. With PETG, I've had the best results printing at a higher temperature for strength, and turning the fan off or keeping it as low as possible.
  • If you're still getting bumps: especially if you're on a more basic machine like an Ender 3, it may be a matter of computing and RAM, and your printer having tiny moments where it pauses. Fixes include using a faster microSD, being hardwired to the printer if you usually use OctoPrint, or upgrading your firmware (this is what worked for me) with options including arc calculation (marlin 2.0 and on), disallowing the printer from writing to the SD card, and turning off the power failure recovery mode. (The latter is very useful but may cause those little pauses with a big file.)