Printing with support material.

[dunginhawk]

So, i tried for the first time tonight to print with support material.. Failed miserably... no idea what went wrong per sae but it was bad..
I use mattercontrol with slic3r inside there.
Does anyone have any tried and true abs/pla support settings... i think it went way overboard for me
thanks guys and gals.

edit: more time to write... it could have been a bad slicer job, because after it looked like it printed support material (way too thick) there was no discernable difference in the material to cut it away...
I have much to learn from you jedi masters (i was printing a storm trooper head)

[teoman]

Try matterslice. I got acceptable support material.

[RegB]

For slic3r my support material settings are overhang threshold 0 and enforce support for the first 0 layers.

Ahh but.... there is always a BUTT in the equation.

You were printing a head, roughly analogous to a hollow ball, and without a LOT of support material and/or infill the top of the skull would likely fall in like molten chocolate on a Summer's day at the beach.

Also, consider the issue of cleaning out support material, i.e. the neck is too narrow to get through to remove what is between the ears - I'm assuming you aren't talking about a whole mess of external columns propping up ears, chin, etc. ?
I would just go with about a 10% infill.

PS If you post a link to the model head I'll take a look.

[dunginhawk]

so im using slicer, as i mentioned, and the darth vadar head which needed much less support (just eyes, and a little under the bottom pieces turned out great). i mean like really great.. and the support popped right off.
here is a link to the other storm trooper, which didnt do well at all.
i have a 55 degree overhand threshhold on it.
http://myminifactory.com/object/stormtr ... n-cup-1574

and the darth.. mine looked better than hers.

http://myminifactory.com/object/darth-v ... n-cup-1572

[RegB]

I wouldn't expect either of those to "need" any support material.
The tops of the heads are open, no "roof" to worry about caving in.

I can't get them because I won't register/join.

[dunginhawk]

well look at a couple of the other pics from the storm trooper... the front and sides are where it may be needed... the front especially, it actually comes out and turns down, like the cap of a mushroom...
I could have done darth without it for sure, i just happen to forgot the setting change when i saved the gcode

[NETio]

I have found KISSlicer to have the best support material.

This is a small piece I printed that would obviously not be possible without support, and if the support had stuck too well it would've broken the upper part. The entire piece was encased in support to support the bottom surface of the head, ears, and the "antenna" on the head was the most delicate piece requiring support, with a completely freestanding section that is the lower part of the ball on top which printed flawlessly.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/8hLSGyN.jpg[/img]

[Eaglezsoar]

Absolutely a great print. A job very well done!!

[Polygonhell]

I wanted to agree with NETio, IMO KissSlicer has by far the best support material, it works really well with ABS, with PLA it can be a pain to remove.
Simplify 3D has OK support, it's certainly the easiest to remove but it has no interface layer and it appears like it leaves a full layers gap between the support and the print, this leads to a poor surface finish where the support was actually supporting something.
Slic3r had horrible support the last time I used it.
Cura's is OK.

[NETio]

I just did a large Nylon 618 print with support in KISSlicer and it wasn't "easy" to remove, but it came off cleanly and other than a couple tight corners I just pulled it all off with pliers to remove it, no cutting or prying.

12"x12" phenolic sheet in case someone unfamiliar with the RMax needs something for scale.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/UEa1BHKl.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/0GhQfv9l.jpg[/img]

[geneb]

/r/printerporn

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

/r/printerporn

g.

Are you still in recovery?

[geneb]

That made no sense to me.

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

That made no sense to me.

g.

Exactly, just like your /r/printerporn

[geneb]

It's just because you don't know when the narwhal bacons.

g.

[Nylocke]

*psst, its at midnight*

[Eaglezsoar]

*psst, its at midnight*

Narwhal Bacons?
At Midnight?
And I thought it was just me but I see it is affecting the whole world.

[dunginhawk]

im finding matterslice support to be hit or miss... if you have a large amount of support and use lines instead of grid, it often time wont adhere to the bed well enough to get to the height that it needs. grid works very well, except some times it can be hard to remove.
ill keep playing.
thanks guys.