Help on loose support structures

[michael sezer 0]

Hi everyone,

 

It's the first time I'm seeking help from the ultimaker community so please help me out on this issue cause I'm going crazy over it. I printed the part in the picture multiple times before and every time I've had issues with the supports. In the middle area of the part you can see that the support structures are loose and in the air (see the attached photos), this causes the supports to fail during the print. I tried to add additional support structures and changed their configurations by reducing the extra support structure's  x/y and z distances to 0. Even when it's 0 the print still fails which I think is due to the support base not sticking well enough to the print. Do you have any idea on how to fix this issue? Please help me out!

[gr5 2,172]

So you left out some details.  I'm going to guess you have a UM3 or S5 and are printing with PVA support.  If so you need to increase horizontal expansion so the support reaches down to the print bed because PVA does not stick well on top of PLA (but the other way around is fine).  You need a tower to the glass to hold it still and "horizontal expansion" takes care of that.

 

If not please explain what materials you are using, what kind of printer, and I don't understand the lower picture so - maybe include some more photos?  Maybe a photo of the failed part?  Maybe?

 

[michael sezer 0]

I have a UM2+ and a UM3 extended. I tried to print this part on both of them. I tried with PLA and supports were also PLA. However this time I want to try CPE on CPE. The print itself never failed but the support structure I'm talking about breaks away after a while and as a consequence the main print part also doesn't come out perfectly. I attached some new photos and tried to describe what I mean...My main problem is that the extra added support column breaks away in the middle of the print. I think it's because it doesn't adhere well to the main print model. As you can see in the pictures the support structure is floating in the air and I can't get it to stick better even though I adjusted x/y and z distance to 0...

[gr5 2,172]

I understand better now.  Setting "support horizontal expansion" to a very large number - maybe 20mm might help quite a bit here.  Anyway I rarely use support and I'm not sure you need it here.  Anyway...

 

I'm pretty sure the problem is the "support x/y distance" parameter.  It's trying to stay .875mm from that tilted "wall" (yes it thinks of that as a wall most likely).  Of course then you will have the problem that the support is touching other walls and really hard to remove.

 

Do you really need support for this part?  It's hard to tell but it looks like it's supporting a flat roof that is bridged between walls.  You don't need support when there is bridging like this.  I mean it's not as pretty but it works.

 

I recommend you use PVA support.  Although I don't remember if PVA works with CPE (just checked the compatibility chart on the ultimaker page and it says it works but not so well with cpe+ evidently).  Definitely if you use PVA support set "support horizontal expansion" large enough (20mm?  30mm?) so that the pva reaches from here down to the glass.

[gr5 2,172]

Looking again - some areas clearly need support.  Just maybe not this area that is failing.  Too bad.  I'd go with pva.

[michael sezer 0]

I tried printing without support for that specific area and it turned out quite good! it created some minor rough edges at the bottom of the overhang part but it's not a big deal (I can sand that part). I guess printing with pva and setting the horizontal expansion large enough would definitely work as well but it worked out ok without it. Thanks for your help!