Need help printing a spring

[Brunella 1]

Hello guys. I need to try printing a spiral/spring with my ultimaker. I have no problem in drawing the model in solidworks, but I was wondering if anybody has done this before and can give some advices on the printer settings. The diameter of the spiral will be roughly 50mm and 80mm high.

 

Any suggestions?

Thank you

[fbrc8-erin 270]

I would print it fairly cool so that you don't have a lot of drooping as the material cools. What material are you printing with?

[gr5 2,098]

I hope you have a UM3 as this is tricky without pva support.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

On 5/31/2018 at 12:18 PM, gr5 said:

I hope you have a UM3 as this is tricky without pva support.

I second this because it can definitely require support and that would be tricky without being able to dissolve it away. So maybe not a UM3 per se, but rather a dual extruder machine.

 

But the most important detail is also the diameter of the actual 'wire' as in how thick is the plastic to be and not the full model diameter. That could really play a lot into success. Lordy I know I have pushed boundaries on spindly stuff.

[fbrc8-erin 270]

It certainly won't be as clean without dissolvable or removable supports, but I wouldn't say you can't print a spring.

 

This isn't quite the same, but pretty similar I think to printing a spring: 

 

 

No supports; I can't remember if this was printed on a UMO or UM2 (back in 2013). No supports. I'm pretty sure it was the UMO, but I'd have to defer to @illuminarti to confirm.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

I would say it comes close to qualifying with only the spacing between the layers of wound 'wire' to be considered as it may droop into the winding below.

[geert_2 557]

If I had to print a spring on my single nozzle UM2, I would probably add a very thin wall between the windings (only one line), and cut that out later, as in the quick demo image below. I would also add a base-plate for bonding to the glass.

 

I think it is best to use concentric infill (or make the shell bigger than the spring wire), instead of using diagonal infill, so that the print lines run along the curve of the spring. This should improve strength. And print slow and warm enough for good layer bonding, but not too hot so it does not sag. It might take some trial and error. Show us the results.

 

 

 

[kmanstudios 1,120]

Nice example ?

 

[fbrc8-erin 270]

I think the angle of the spring would also make a difference in how well it prints. I've found a couple of files on Thingiverse that look to have printed okay as springs without any support. They're not perfect and would probably benefit from support, but they seem to have printed.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:487880/makes

[kmanstudios 1,120]

This one used HIPS for support

https://www.thingiverse.com/make:134285

 

This one looks like it was turned upside down with the rough side facing up and the smooth side facing down.

https://www.thingiverse.com/make:105318

 

But, overall, it would depend on how it would be used and the cleanliness needed. I know I have had some strange prints without support that I tried.

[gr5 2,098]

Lots of great answers for someone who may have never come back here to read the answers ?

 

As a mod I can see @Brunella never logged back in since the original post.  But that doesn't mean brunella didn't read the answers without logging in first.

[Brunella 1]

On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 4:59 PM, Brunella said:

Hello guys. I need to try printing a spiral/spring with my ultimaker. I have no problem in drawing the model in solidworks, but I was wondering if anybody has done this before and can give some advices on the printer settings. The diameter of the spiral will be roughly 50mm and 80mm high.

 

Any suggestions?

Thank you

 

On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 5:18 PM, gr5 said:

I hope you have a UM3 as this is tricky without pva support.

I have a UT2 Ext. 

 

[Brunella 1]

Hi guys ,

Thank you very much for all your answers. I'll try to follow all your advices. You have all been very helpful. 

I will share the result of the printing experiments once it's done.

FInger crossed

[Brunella 1]

On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 5:06 PM, fbrc8-erin said:

I would print it fairly cool so that you don't have a lot of drooping as the material cools. What material are you printing with?

PLA to start.

[Brunella 1]

11 minutes ago, gr5 said:

Lots of great answers for someone who may have never come back here to read the answers ?

 

As a mod I can see @Brunella never logged back in since the original post.  But that doesn't mean brunella didn't read the answers without logging in first.

Hi gr5,

 

I am sorry you thought I was not interested in your replies. Actually they have all been very useful. I have seen them through the emails notifications without logging in. I am sorry guys, I am just new in the community and I don't log in very often. However, I am trying to start printing soon. Unfortunately we only have few machines and I have to book it. So I have a little bit to wait. Therefore there is going to be some time between one access and the other, since I am not doing this full time.

But I keep track of all the suggestions.

Thank you very much all.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

Hope you do come back and share your results. We all learn from such things no matter the experience level. :)

[Brunella 1]

4 minutes ago, kmanstudios said:

Hope you do come back and share your results. We all learn from such things no matter the experience level. ?

Sure I will.

Thanks

[Brunella 1]

Hi guys

I put in attachment the stl of what I am going to print. As you suggested I draw a support for it, but I am not sure if it will work. I tried to upload the solidworks file but I didn't realized it is not supported.

 

Any comment will be very much appreciated.

Spiral 1.STL

[geert_2 557]

The supports have to catch the lowest part of each winding, otherwise that area will print in thin air and fall down like spaghetti. So I think it might be best to have the support run through the center of the windings. As shown in this cut-out. This should print, but the lowest layers of each winding will still be ugly due to the overhang. And then in CAD merge both support and spring, so it is in one piece, otherwise it might not slice correctly. After completion, cutting out the support and sanding will be a pain in the ass, but yeah...
 

Also, make sure you have some soft of baseplate to make it stick to the glass. Otherwise it will come off during printing, roll away, and produce spaghetti. Big overhangs tend to curl up, so the nozzle may bang into them. This requires good bonding to the glass to survive these bangings.

 

These are the two reasons why I would rather try to print it vertically. But I have never printed such a spring, so it is all a bit of educated guessing, and it may take a few tests to get it right.

 

 

 

[Brunella 1]

Hello guys!

I think I have a problem with cura. IN attachment the stl am trying to print (spiral plus support). For some reason when I save the gcode and I use the layer vision in cura, it doesn't recognize the support and prints only the spring. Indeed when I tried to print it out it was a mess, and I set the automatic support from Cura. Have you guys ever had this problem?

The file comes out an assembly of the two parts made in Solidworks

Any suggestion will be very much appreciated.

Thank you

Spiral_assembly.STL

[geert_2 557]

I can load the STL in Cura (older version, don't have the latest). It shows up in normal view, but indeed the support is lost in layer view.

 

It seems that the support is too thin? It should be at least 0.4mm wide for a 0.4mm nozzle. But due to the triangular segments of an STL-file, some parts might become 4.1mm, and some other 3.9mm. And these last might drop out. So I always use 0.5mm width for such things, to have a bit spare.

 

[Brunella 1]

Hi

Thank you for your reply. Actually the support is 0.5mm thick. I don't know why it doesn't recognize it.

[geert_2 557]

30 minutes ago, Brunella said:

Hi

Thank you for your reply. Actually the support is 0.5mm thick. I don't know why it doesn't recognize it.

 

It appears that your suppport is way thinner than 0.5mm, maybe only 0.05mm? In my spring it is 0.5mm; and this shows up way thicker if I place both models next to each other in Cura. In my spring, the support does show up correctly in layer view. However, if I make my supports only 0.25mm thick, then it disappears just like in your model. So, could you check that?

 

There may be other issues with the STL-file too: it looks like the support column and spring are not merged into one single object? This might cause issues with printing in some cases. But I don't know anything about the internals of STL-files, nor about how Cura handles them, so I can't give much suggestions on that.

 

For comparison: support in right spring is 0.5mm thick.

 

[Brunella 1]

Hello

Yes you were right. For some reason I messed up in Solidworks. Anyway I Started printing but I have some problems with the build plate adesion. At half way of the printing process it messes up as it lifts form the build plate. I tried to put some glue and even increase a bit the buildplate temperature, unsuccessfully. 

Suggestions?

Thanks

[XYZDesignPro 70]

Sorry, coming late to the party.  What material are you printing with?  Are you printing with a brim for adhesion?  What is your support material?