Silk PLA Settings: How to Get a Glossy Finish Every Time

Silk PLA makes prints look amazing, but one wrong slicer setting turns a mirror finish into a dull, bubbly mess. Here are the settings and tests I use to get a consistent glossy finish, in Orca Slicer (most slicers have the same options).

The quick version

• Print hotter than normal PLA: more heat means more gloss and less stringing.
• Print slower, especially outer walls. At high speed you need even more heat, and overhangs suffer.
• Keep fans at 100% and speeds consistent, or you'll get dull patches.
• Use a 0.16 mm layer height or lower. Skip ironing and fuzzy skin.
• Dry it for 4 to 6 hours at 55-60°C. Wet silk strings, blobs and loses its shine.
• Run a temperature tower for every new brand, at the speed you'll actually print.

What is silk PLA?

It's PLA with roughly 10-20% polyester or elastomer-type additives (not actual silk). They make it flow more smoothly and self-level, which creates the gloss. Every brand's blend is different, so the same settings give different results between brands. It's also more brittle than normal PLA, so use it for looks, not strength.

Temperature: hotter is shinier

On my temp tower (190-230°C at 30 mm/s), the gloss faded to matte as the temperature dropped, and the lower sections strung more. That's the opposite of normal PLA: the additives need extra heat to flow and blend. Sunlu silk held its gloss to a lower temperature than Bambu's silk, even with both dried and the same retraction settings. That's why you test each brand.

Speed: silk hates it

At 30 mm/s the filament has time to cool evenly and self-level. At 100 mm/s you need more heat to get the same gloss, and then overhangs and bridges start to fail. If you print fast, turn on slow down for overhangs.

Watch for speed changes across the whole model: a Benchy printed half at 30 and half at 100 mm/s showed an obvious line in the gloss. To fix it:

• Keep the fan at 100% for the whole print.
• Slow the outer walls to the speed you used for your temp tower. For a fully uniform shine, match the inner walls and top surface too.
• Scroll through the slicer's colour schemes (speed, fan, layer time). You want one solid colour. Small, fast layers dull the finish, so enable a max fan speed threshold / layer time setting to slow those down.

Retraction, top layers and supports

• Stringing with dry filament? Run a retraction test at 0.2 mm layer height so each segment is 1 mm of retraction. A quick pass with a blowtorch cleans up what's left.
• Bubbling top layers come from hot filament sagging over sparse infill. I went up to 10 top layers and it disappeared. Adaptive cubic infill also helps.
• Support marks show more on shiny silk. A top Z distance of about 0.275 works well. Print a top Z distance test to dial it in for your printer.

Dual and tri-colour silk

Colour-shifting silk gives amazing results straight off the printer, but every spool is wound differently. For symmetrical prints, print a configuration disk (about 20 minutes). Each notch is 15°, so find where the colour changes and rotate your model to match. Mine met at 105°, so I rotated the dragon 105° and the colours split right down the middle.

To avoid half-empty spools you can't join neatly, size your prints to use the spool evenly. My dragons use close to 500 g, so I get two per spool. The low-poly dragon is available with a commercial licence on my Patreon.

What I use

• Want silk prints without the tuning? PCBWay prints them for you ($5 credit with this link)

More on drying: how to tell if filament is wet and the best ways to dry it.

Questions? Ask in the video comments, or join the community.

More guides

Scrubbler Nozzle Wiper for Bambu Lab P1S: Install Guide and Fix Bambu Lab Prints Not Sticking? How to Fix Bed Adhesion How to Tell If Filament Is Wet, and the Best Ways to Dry It

Common questions

What temperature should I print silk PLA at?

Hotter than normal PLA. In my temperature towers, gloss faded to matte at lower temperatures and stringing got worse. Print a temp tower for each brand at the speed you'll actually use.

Why is my silk PLA print dull?

Usually it's printed too cold or too fast, or the slicer is changing speed and fan between layers. Slow the outer walls, keep the fan at 100% and keep speeds consistent.

What layer height is best for silk PLA?

0.16 mm or lower for a smoother, glossier surface. Avoid ironing and fuzzy skin.

How do I reduce support marks on silk PLA?

Set the top Z distance to around 0.275 and fine-tune it with a top Z distance test print.

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