Walls or infill: which is cheaper?

The usual advice: want it stronger, add walls, not infill. We sliced both on three real parts, and the cheaper choice changed from part to part. Send us the STL. We slice it both ways on your printer and give you the time and grams for each.

See both ways

Why there is no one answer

Shells: walls win. On our body shell, 6 walls cost less time than 40 % infill: +1.5 % against +1.7 %.

Small parts: infill wins. On our bracket, 100 % infill took +1.6 %. Four walls took +2.6 %.

Thick parts: it depends how far. On our tray, 40 % infill (+10.7 %) beat 4 walls (+15.0 %). Solid infill (+31.6 %) lost to all of them.

Three parts, both ways

Three parts from our walking robot in PLA on a Bambu A1, 0.20 mm Standard, auto-oriented. The preset ships 2 walls and 15 % grid infill; every figure below is against that. Sliced on 15 October 2026. Time only: strength is not tested here.

wallsbody shell4 walls +1.0 %, 6 walls +1.5 %. 40 % infill +1.7 %, 100 % +2.2 %
infillsmall bracket40 % infill +0.5 %, 100 % +1.6 %. 3 walls +1.9 %, 4 walls +2.6 %
mixedboard tray40 % infill +10.7 %, 3 walls +11.4 %, 4 walls +15.0 %, 6 walls +16.2 %, 100 % infill +31.6 %

Now your batch. Pick a part, a setting and how many:

These are print times, not strength tests. Which one makes your part stronger depends on how it is loaded; we can print test pieces both ways.

What you get

Both ways, sliced: Time and grams with 3, 4 and 6 walls and with 40 and 100 % infill, on your printer and material.
The cheaper one: For each step up, which setting costs less time on this part.
Test pieces: If strength matters, the part printed both ways so you can break them.
A farm if you want one: We can print the batch across our farms in Shenzhen, at the hours we quoted.

Get your numbers

Tell us about the part. We answer within one working day.

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