1 Topic by cujo3131

  • cujo3131
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Topic: Support Material

Greetings folks....

Just wanted to stop in and ask some questions....

First off, I am a school instructor who for the last year and a half have worked with students using a Makerbot in my
classroom... My students love printing objects.  Recently, we have started using the Sailfish firmware with our Makerbot to allow it to print better and because its support material creates a type of accordian filament that can be peeled from the model
easily....

Fast Forward, I recently purchased a Solidoodle 3 a few weeks ago... I love the spring loaded extruder feature and the 3 point leveling process... both MUCH better than the Replicator 1.  I also love that it has a much larger build area than Makerbot hands down... at about 1/2 the cost of a Replicator 2.

Now the question... I have got to the point that I have been able to turn out some very nice piece with my Solidoodle3...


The radar eye, logic surrounds, and holoprojector in my R2 dome are all printed from my Solidoodle3.

... BUT  I have yet to print much of anything that needed support in some way, that was not a major fail... either too much support that bonds to the model and is a nightmare to remove... or thinking it should be printing support but it doesn't....

Kinda frustrated and wonder if I understand the support settings fully.... Is there a tutorial or good example thread of how to set this up to get decent support that isn't a pain in the butt to remove later?????

Thanks for listening and the help....

Matthew

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2 Reply by ITman496

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Re: Support Material

I'm pretty sure that the support structures are more of a slicer thing then a printer thing. What does the replicator use as it's slicer?  (I'm not the best person to ask for this, just talking really)

3 Reply by MolecularConcept (edited by MolecularConcept 2013-09-08 01:34:08)

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Re: Support Material

I second that. Support is generated by the slicer... makerbot uses replicatorg? I've read that people prefer Kisslicers support material

4 Reply by cujo3131

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Re: Support Material

The Replicator either uses Replicator or Makerware and is pretty much based in Skeinforge....

While I see that I have the option of using Skeinforge in Repetier, I have actually been using SLIC3R to do the slicing as I like the model results better... just really not sure how to setup the support part of it....

KissSlicer... what is that? and can it be used with Repetier????

Matt

5 Reply by MolecularConcept

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Re: Support Material

kisslicer is a stand alone slicing program. like slic3r only its not intergrated into RHost you save the Gcode, and manually load (F2 in RHost) and print.

6 Reply by dkeeling728 (edited by dkeeling728 2013-09-08 19:59:59)

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Re: Support Material

Ive had some good luck with support in slic3r/RH. perhaps i can help.

most important is to make sure its set to rectilinear, honeycomb will be impossible to remove.

second most important is to check that you have interface layers turned on and set to 1. what this does is make the slicer skip a layer between the model and the support, giving you a MUCH easier to remove support and a practically flawless model. you will have some issues if you have large areas of nearly horizontal overhang, just make sure your support spacing is a smaller number if you have models like this.

third most important is to check the thread size and speed for support. by default, slic3r tries to print like .2 mm width support at something like 70 mm/s. this usually results in spaghetti and a failed model that gets printed in midair. open up the thread width to something like .30-.40. and turn the support printing speed down to 55-60 mm/s slows your prints, but gives much nicer results. i currently run .32mm extrusion width and 55mm/s for my support.

(edit: forgot to mention about speed, if you haven't discovered it yet. in the manual control tab of RH, there's a speed and extrusion rate slider, you can turn your speed settings down in slic3r to a conservative level until you get a feel for them, and use the slider to bump the print speed up as its actually printing, or adjust the extrusion rate on the fly as well)

last but not least, have you installed a cooling fan for your prints? contrary to popular belief. if you have a full enclosure to keep the ambient temp up in your print chamber, a cooling fan on the extruder pointing at the print will help ABS print quality a LOT, just like PLA, and it does not seem to me to affect part strength, although i usually acetone vapor bathe everything that needs to be strong so who knows. the point of me mentioning cooling fan is that, with a fan on, ABS can be printed to impressive overhangs and may not need support. ive seen models come out great with up to aprox. 65 degree overhang and no support.

7 Reply by cujo3131

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Re: Support Material

Dkeeling...

Those setting that you suggested worked pretty slick... I did notice however that the support material was VERY thin and tried to tear itself apart a couple of times.. is there a way to just slightly thicken the support material?


Matt