Printing over support structure

[MiningAdam 0]

Hello,

I recently bought an Ultimaker 2, my first 3D printer. The sample prints worked great out of the box, which was wonderful. I decided to download a couple of models online to ease myself into the world of 3D printing. Today, I tried to print a WW2 tank that I found on thingiverse. I am new to this, so I chose normal quality and checked the box to add support structure. The body of the tank would be printing over air if I did not have it.

Printing begins, and support structure prints in a grid in the areas that it needs to. This seems to be fine. Then the print starts moving back and forth across those support structures, printing the chassis of the tank. What is supposed to be the bottom of the tank, filled in all the way does not come out. It looks as though the filament is having trouble printing over the gaps between the support structure.

My question is, how to remedy this. I believe there to be two solutions, but could be wrong. One solution is to add more support structure to cover more of the open air that this part is trying to be printed on. This would make it harder to remove the structure later, and does not seem like the best method. Solution number two that I believe could work (though I don't know much about printing yet) is that I need to change the way the filament is coming out of the nozzle. It is not adhering to this section of the print the way I would like it to, and I don't think the support structure is to blame.

Since I am new to 3D printing, I do not know how much the settings in Cura affect my prints, or how to troubleshoot this issue that I am having. Any advice, references to other peoples problems would be very helpful.

I thank you for your help.

Adam

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi Adam,

Welcome to the forum!

It would be very helpful, especially in a case like this, if you could add some photo's of your print which illustrates the problem.

That is usually very helpful for everyone to understand the issue.

Looking forward seeing the pictures

[MiningAdam 0]

This photo should hopefully help. This was a very small print. Only maybe an inch or two long. It printed some support structure for the body of the tank, because that part is lifted off the ground. When it printed over it, it looks like it had a lot of trouble filling in the bottom of the body.

[peggyb 170]

a higher infill will be better, it is not very hard to remove, there is a gap between the model and the infill. Only the top will 'fall' on the infill and leave little scars after removal.

When the print starts to bridge over the infill you can slow the speed down manually, and when it's done return to normal speed.

It is a small print, so maybe check your cooling settings, the fan should be on full when the bridging starts.

[MiningAdam 0]

Okay, thank you very much for your help!

[SandervG 1,521]

Did your next print come out better?