Skirt Edge or Balsa What to use in Cure?

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Skirt Edge or Raft are Cura settings that determine the type of adhesion to the build plate. Its correct use is of vital importance to have good quality 3D prints.

Advanced users are already pretty clear on which one to use, but for those just starting out it can be a bit confusing.

In this post I want to define and explain what the differences are between Skirt Border or Raft to make it clear when to use them.

What is a 3D printed skirt?

The skirt (also known as “Skirt” in English), It is a continuous line printed around the 3D model, but not connected to the model..

This type of adhesion to the build plate is not functional with the model because there will be no connection between the two, but it will serve another purpose.

What is the 3D printed skirt for?

It is used to purge the filament through the extruder nozzle., avoiding plastic shortages when starting to print the model.

Also when printing multiple laps, It is used to determine if the printing plate is level..

The way to tell is to see if the lines are stuck together.

In case the Skirt lines are not sticking together, or if they are peeling off when printing, or if they cannot be seen because the nozzle is too close to the bed, it means that the print bed needs to be leveled.

This is a very used trick when printing because With just 3 or 5 turns of the skirt you can tell if the printer bed is properly leveled or if you need to level it again.

How reliable are the Skirt lines:

If the lines are glued to the build plate and are also glued together, you could leave without looking at the first layer and when you come back the model would be printed perfectly, (that important is to have the bed well leveled)

Skirt options are:

• Type of adhesion of the printing plate: Skirt
• Skirt Line Count: 5
• Skirt Distance: 10.0mm
• Minimum Skirt/Edge Length: 250.0

When to wear a 3D printed skirt

Use the Skirt option with materials that are easy to print and do not peel off the print bed, like PLA for example.

With technical or more difficult to print materials, you can have warping problems.

You can see more about warping in this post: Warping, corner lifting.

In these cases you will have to use another type of adhesion to the printing plate such as Edges or Brim to avoid this type of problem.

What is Edge in 3D printing

Brim in Cura (also known as “Brim” in English) is the printing of continuous lines on the first layer, around the base of the model.

In this case, the printed lines are connected to the 3D model, and this connection will reinforce and improve the adhesion to the 3D printer's printing plate.

The edge just like the skirt can be used by advanced users to tell if the heated bed is properly leveled, following exactly the same control steps already mentioned above in the “Skirt” settings.

The more turns the edge has, the better the adhesion of the model to be printed, this can be beneficial when printing materials such as Petg.

What is the Edge used for in 3D printing?

The Cura Edge serves to improve the adhesion of the 3D model to the printing plate.

Using Borders in Cura dramatically increases the success rate when printing with technical or more difficult to print materials such as PetG, Nylon, ABS among others.

Provides better adhesion and reduces the chances of the model coming off the print bed.

The Border options are:

• Type of adhesion of the printing plate: Edge
• Border Width: 8.0mm
• Border line count: 14 (laps)
• edge distance: 0.0mm
• Border only on the outside: (Tick)

When to use Border

Use the “Border” setting in Cura whenever you use materials like PetG, Nylon, ABS or any other 3D filament that is prone to warping, or peeling off the print bed.

It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to use Edge with this type of filament because you will run the risk of the piece coming off the print bed or lifting at one of its corners.

While there are many tricks to improve adhesion to the printing plate, this is one of the best and more recommended.

It should be noted that for any of the methods of adhesion to the printing plate that you use the bed must be perfectly level.

What is Balsa in 3D printing

The raft in 3D printing (Also known as “Raft” in English) is a Cura setting that when activated adds a base of 2 or more printing layers below the model to be printed..

Create conveniently a flat surface below the 3D model, which can help with the sticking of objects.

In this case Objects are not printed directly on the print bed, but on top of the Raft.

Once the piece is printed, the raft must be unstuck and discarded.

The downside of this system is that a little more 3D filament is wasted than with the other two methods.

What is the Raft for?

The raft in 3D printing serves to improve adhesion on the printing plate and correct possible errors with bed leveling.

It also helps prevent deformation due to temperature differences (warping) when printing with 3D filaments such as ABS.

It can help stabilize 3D models with small parts, which do not adhere or peel off the print bed.

Configure Raft in Cura

In the “Print Bed Adhesion” settings window select the “Raft” option

Balsa's default options are: (for 0.4mm nozzle)

• Type of adhesion of the printing plate: Raft
• Additional raft margin: 15.0 mm (The distance around the model that will have a raft can be lowered to avoid wasting so much filament).
• Balsa Smoothing: 5.0 mm (Controls how much the inside corners are rounded on the raft outline)
• Balsa air chamber: 0.3 mm (This is the space between the last layer of the raft and the first layer of the model)
• Overlaying the initial layers in Z: 0.15 mm (It serves to compensate the loss of material in the air gap)
• Upper layers of the raft: 2 (Number of smooth layers above the first 2 of the raft, it is where the model rests)
• Thickness of the upper layers of the raft: 0.2 mm (Layer thickness of upper layers)
• Width of the top lines of the raft: 0.4 (Top surface line width, usually equal to nozzle size)
• raft top spacing: 0.4mm (The gap must be equal to the line width (nozzle) to produce a solid surface)
• Intermediate raft thickness: 0.3 mm (Thickness of the intermediate layer of the Balsa)
• Intermediate raft line width: 0.8 mm (Width of the lines of the middle layer of the raft)
• raft spacing: 1.0 mm (distance between the raft lines for the middle layer of the raft)
• raft base thickness: 0.24mm (Thickness of the raft base layer. This should be a thick layer that will adhere firmly to the build plate)
• Raft Baseline Width: 0.8 mm (Width of the lines on the base layer of the raft. They should be thick lines to facilitate adhesion)
• Raft Baseline Space: 1.6mm (Distance between balsa lines for the balsa base layer. Wide spacing allows the balsa to be removed from the board)
• Raft printing speed: 25.0 mm/s (It is the speed at which the raft is printed)
• Raft fan speed: 0.0 % (Fan speed for raft)

Balsa's settings in Cura will have many options, you don't need to select them all.

When to use the Raft in Cura

The raft can be used on very special occasions, such as when you have trouble leveling the bed.

Another reason may be to avoid problems with the adhesion of the parts to the print bed

The raft may not be one of the most used settings.

The most normal thing is to use the “Skirt” with PLA and the “Edges” with Petg and other more technical 3D filaments.

Only when all options have failed would I recommend using a raft.

Video on YouTube: Wave! creations

The last option on the list is “None”, and this option is chosen when you do not want to use any of the options.

This can be useful when you want to print a large object and need to use the 100%'s print bed width.

Since Cura reserves these spaces, choosing the “None” the entire width of the print bed can be accessed. In the case of Ender 3 printers the bed size is 23.5 cm and the entire bed space could be used.

Conclusions Skirt Edge or Raft:

Skirt:

1. Used with PLA filament and is used to extrude filament before starting the print.
2. It helps when changing the color of the filament as it finishes extruding or pulling out the old filament.
3. It is used to check that the print bed is correctly leveled and that there are no adhesion problems to the bed.

Borders:

1. Improves adhesion to the print bed.
2. They are used with PETG or ABS filament and other technical materials that tend to deform or produce warping.
3. They also have the same filament purging and print bed leveling control benefits that the Skirt lines have.

Raft:

1. Improves adhesion to the print bed.
2. It is used only on very special occasions. (If you can't level the print bed properly for example)
3. It can help with the adhesion of small parts of the models to be printed (including supports).

None:

1. It is chosen when you do not want to use any of the sticking options.
2. You can take advantage of the space on the print bed in Cura.

Always use the Skirt and Brim with any type of material as needed. Avoid using the Raft if possible because it uses a lot of material, so you'll want to learn how to level the print bed properly.

If the edges are not enough to maintain the adhesion of the pieces, there is a plugin in Cura called “Tab Anti Warping“It can help you fix the parts even more to the printing plate, with an effect similar to the raft but without using as much filament.

Thank you for getting here, I hope you enjoyed this post.