How to Make a Vase With Cura 3.1 in Vase Mode

My pro-tip is explaining how to use vase mode and what it is in cura 3.1. 3D printing vases is one of the easiest and least known thing to do with a 3D printer. Everyone assumes you do it by using default 3D printing settings you use for doing high resolution models, but that is one way to do it, and there are easier ways. In this tutorial I am going to explain how to do it and explain something called vase mode. Vase mode gives you the ability to print stuff like vases significantly faster and much higher resolution. Without vase mode 3D printed vases would look kinda weird looking for they would have lines along the z axis on them and would take literally forever. Lets get started!

Now in order to make vases you need to know what vase mode is. Vase mode gives you the ability to turn a solid object into a vase that doesn't require supports. It does this by printing no roofs on an object, 1 perimeter around the object, 1 or more base layers for the bottom of the object. As you can imagine you would need a pretty big nozzle to print vases with one perimeter for the vase. As you might already imagine there are a few complications with that.

If you print too fast with a single nozzle your printer will either not be able to cool it fast enough or would under heat and shut itself off. Of course this is pretty fail safe it is best to be cautious of that. If your print can't cool the print fast enough you will experience warping and an ugly 3D print. So be careful!!!

Step 1: Bill of Materials and Prior Knowledge.

Do not attempt this if you do not have a working 3D printer, that is fully calibrated, and without the necessary skills of troubleshooting a 3D printer. You will need those.

You are also going to need a vise, drill, a drill bit that is minimally 1mm in diameter or a 1mm nozzle for your 3D printer, 3D printer, and filament. I used PLA for this.

I will be using Cura for this tutorial. If you have a printer Gcode won't work with this tutorial, and it would be different for you.

Step 2: Drilling the Nozzle [Optional]

Drilling the nozzle is crucial if you don't have the right nozzle of the right size. A hand drill works great for this. Doesn't have to be too perfect.

Basically put the nozzle in a vise and drill a hole through the hole that's already in it smaller than your filament diameter and that is greater than 1mm. This doesn't have to be perfect and is quite easy to do.

Step 3: Working With Cura 3.1

The first image you see above is the .STL file in Cura. When we print it it will look much different for it won't have infill or roofs like a vase would.

Go to Cura 3.1 and select Print Setup >> Custom >> Special Modes >> Spiralize to enable Vase Mode. Or just search for Spiralize in the Cura search tab.

Then you are going to need to adjust your layer height based upon your new nozzle and your nozzle diameter in settings.

What I am about to say will be different for everyone else. I did my print at 20mm/s but that is because I had warpage if I went any faster. This will take trouble shooting and a lot of experimenting to get right. I found the best nozzle diameter for me was 1/16" and I did that print at about 20mm/s. Slower the better. Good luck!

Step 4: Results! :-)

If you printed the Vase.stl file I gave out you should have gotten something similar to the image above that is water tight. Good luck and I hope you have fun with this.

The nice thing about this is if you are doing a demonstration with your 3D printer Vase Mode is something I would use because it looks so cool and it goes so fast.