XL universal knife block - condensed knife slots (vase mode)

I have been using my original universal knife block for about 3 months now. That model took a lot of iteration, and the final top (the bit with the knife slots) that I ended up with was kind of a Frankenstein of all of those iterations. The main issue was that the slots for the knifes were just too wide. Functionally, the condensed slots don't add too much – which is why I waited until I had a reason to fix it – but it does make everything nice and tidy.

To briefly summarize the original : this is a massive knife block, meant to hold a massive amount of knives, as well as a space for your shears and sharpening stick. But it does not come with an equally massive print time – only 20 hours for what is practically your entire print volume.

Print settings for the top

This model prints in vase mode, and actually requires quite specific settings. Here's what I recommend (if you want to stray away from there, make sure to check your layer preview carefully):

- Spiral vase mode / Spiralize outer contour: turn this on, this is how the whole magic works - Layer height: 0.3mm - Line width / Extrusion width: 0.5mm ( this one is important ) - Bottom thickness / Bottom layers: 1.2mm or 4 layers at 0.3mm - Wall speed: 30mm/s ( you can bump this up a bit if you are confident in your printer ) - First layer speed: 20mm/s, maybe even 10mm/s if you have bed adhesion issues - Printing temperature: 5 to 10 degrees hotter than your usual temperature - Flow: 120% Special note for PrusaSlicer and other Slic3r derivatives : Under Print Settings > Advanced , there is a "Slice gap closing radius" setting. You need to set this to 0. This is very important.

Print settings for the body

The body is unchanged from the original model , so you can refer to those print instructions. If you already printed the original and wish you had more condensed knife slots, there's no need to reprint this. The top provided here is a drop-in replacement.

Notes

The model in the photos was printed on an Elegoo Neptune 2 with a 0.4mm nozzle.

I'll take some better photos over the weekend when I have more time.