Any good howto's on printing with support?

[Tonkabot]

I am going to try printing a few things for work that don't have any flat parts. Clearly support will have to be used.

I have not played much with support, and the few times I did it generally worked poorly. Is there a thread I can read all about it in? I did search and could not find much - actually I found a lot about emailing support, but that isn't what I need.

I suspect that I'll print in PLA because that doesn't warp for me ever. I only have one nozzle, so the support will have to be the same stuff.

Any suggestions? which slicer, some settings to start with???

[DavidF]

Good cooling and finding the right temp for extrusion are the biggest things. If you print too hot the support can be a real SOB to remove. Thats all I can contribute.....Good luck

[JFettig]

Kiss has decent support, I have s3d dialed in pretty good for myself, I have a few pounds of abs support laying around

[mhackney]

My take on support is that to really do it right, you should design it into the model. Johann's Kossel Carriages with bearings is a beautiful example. It has a simple ZZZZ support that zips off. I think some of the slicers can do automated support for simple things.

ON MY SOAPBOX...
So many of the "things" posted on the sharing sites are poorly designed in my opinion. If the model requires support to 3D print the designer should provide that integrated into the model. Some are doing that and I expect to see more of this in the future as designers get more sophisticated.
...OFF MY SOAPBOX

So, how do you deal with this on one of these poorly designed things? If you are not happy with the quality/results from auto support generation (or that other slicer's whose name shall not be mentioned attempt at manual support augmentation) You can add the support in CAD or an STL editor and get exactly what you need. More work, yes, but if you demand higher quality then that is the way to go.

cheers,
Michael

[Khalid Khattak]

I am happy with CURA support generation

[JFettig]

100% agreed Michael! Its rare that I ever print anything I find, if I like the idea I design my own.

I usually don't want to take the time to make support, I think slicers should take care of it, but they don't.

Here is a simple part that S3D and Kisslicer could not generate removable support for, its a simple v-band tapered surface so I designed my own support and the part printed perfectly and support popped out nicely. Every other attempt either bonded the support completely or t looked horrible.

Here is another one, I designed the raft and the support into the raft.

I have had the best luck with support 1/2 layer away from the part, its more difficult to remove but it works.

[Khalid Khattak]

I also have very good luck with 0.1mm support layer away from the part..the layer thickness i am using is 0.2mm with 0.4mm nozzle...

[Tonkabot]

My take on support is that to really do it right, you should design it into the model. Johann's Kossel Carriages with bearings is a beautiful example. It has a simple ZZZZ support that zips off. I think some of the slicers can do automated support for simple things.

ON MY SOAPBOX...
So many of the "things" posted on the sharing sites are poorly designed in my opinion. If the model requires support to 3D print the designer should provide that integrated into the model. Some are doing that and I expect to see more of this in the future as designers get more sophisticated.
...OFF MY SOAPBOX

So, how do you deal with this on one of these poorly designed things? If you are not happy with the quality/results from auto support generation (or that other slicer's whose name shall not be mentioned attempt at manual support augmentation) You can add the support in CAD or an STL editor and get exactly what you need. More work, yes, but if you demand higher quality then that is the way to go.

cheers,
Michael

So then I should manually add support in the 3d model. any strategy / rules of the road for doing that successfully?
I hear I should make the support not touch by 1/2 the layer height. Other than that, what? Just make a 10% infill block under it?

[cope413]

I'm biased, of course, but the MatterSlice support (in MatterControl) is fantastic.

My preferred settings

Line pattern
45 degree
3mm pattern spacing
2 interface layers
1mm X/Y distance
1 Z layer gap

Comes off super clean and easy.