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Topic: Support structures

My experience with support structures is that they are very difficult to remove while still leaving the remaining print looking decent.  What support patterns do you favor, and at what density?  Any tips for printing support and still having it fairly easy to remove?

I'm printing at 0.1 mm

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Re: Support structures

I use skienforge at .6 flow.  It peels off well but you still need to sand a little if you want it perfect. If it's critical i model in my own support and leave minimal contract points.

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Re: Support structures

Keep crosshatch turned off.  You want an accordian pattern that pulls out in strips.

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Re: Support structures

Yes, the crosshatch is impossible to remove.

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Re: Support structures

This is what I'm getting with Slic3r for support with Rectilinear and 2.5mm spacing.  Any idea what to tweak?

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Re: Support structures

my little finger tell me that support build by slic3r is not good... use support from Skeinforge.. imho

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Re: Support structures

I've never had usable support from Slic3r. Kisslicer support is excellent, but often needs a raft to stick to the bed.  Support needs to be thin for removal, but that thinness is bad for adhesion to the bed.

8 (edited by cmetzel 2012-11-19 20:15:33)

Re: Support structures

IanJohnson wrote:

I've never had usable support from Slic3r. Kisslicer support is excellent, but often needs a raft to stick to the bed.  Support needs to be thin for removal, but that thinness is bad for adhesion to the bed.

That's where designing your own comes in.  I make my towers thick and full on the bed contact, but the last couple layers are sparse that contact my part.  The whole support breaks off as one piece and I have less lines on my part to deal with.

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Re: Support structures

I gave up, and have split the part into two pieces.  I will glue it together after I have printed the pieces.  I hope/trust that Slic3r will improve over time.

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Re: Support structures

IanJohnson wrote:

Keep crosshatch turned off.  You want an accordian pattern that pulls out in strips.

In the Skein Forge settings, how do you turn off cross hatching for the supports? It looks like unchecking that won't give you any supports at all.

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Re: Support structures

Set the pull down to support everywhere but leave crosshatch unchecked.

12 (edited by HelmutK 2012-11-21 16:28:55)

Re: Support structures

I found if I wanted Support without Raft in Skeinforge I had to check both Activate Raft and Add Raft, and then set Base Layers to 0 and Interface Layer to 0 (to prevent a Raft), then uncheck Support Cross Hatch to make it easier to remove the Support, and then finally for Support Material Choice set it to Everywhere or Exterior Only.

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Re: Support structures

If you need to print support in slic3r but are having trouble getting the support to stick to the bed, you can try to use a 2-3 mm brim. 

Print Settings->Skirt and brim

Slic3r adds a brim to the support and the printed part by default.  This can help the support to stay around even when it is only very thin lines. 

The brim is fairly easy to remove from the part with knife.

I have some nice pieces printed at .1mm but you can see where I removed the support.

My extrusion width for support is set at .25, think i might take it down even more.

Designing your own support is a good idea, I had thought about it but never attempted it.

Anybody got any shots of their custom designed support?  Are there any best practices on how to design for easy removal and without damaging the part?  I know the Form 1 printer support looks kinda like a needle, with the thin end contacting the part and the large end contacting the bed.

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Re: Support structures

Check out the work of ysb in "Printing Human Figures"  http://www.soliforum.com/topic/1781/pri … n-figures/ for a great example of manually designed support.

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