New User Having Trouble with Arch Printing

[venom121212 0]

Hi all,

I recently got a 3D printer (I'm sure you've heard this before) and am having a blast with it. I got the Ender 3 and am using Cura as the slicing software.

 

I am referencing the part(s) attached:

The printing goes really well until the uprights of the arches near the top. The extruder will sometimes catch on the uprights while moving between them. This bends them to the wrong position, making the extruder print in midair. I am now attempting to add a draft to the arch to thicken the upright. Do you think this will help?

 

Other ideas I'm considering:

-Put a support pillar right in the middle of the arch

-Try to make a super thin wall under the arch to keep the uprights from flexing laterally while printing

Oval RF Bath2.STL

Oval Bath Bomb Holder Right Faucet.STL

[gr5 2,172]

For those too lazy to download the STL, here is his object.

[gr5 2,172]

Well the uprights shouldn't bend much - I mean they should just bounce back.  when you have strong overhangs like as you approach the top of this arch, you get raised edges on the edge that overhangs.  You can reduce this by cranking the fan to max but by default the fan should already be on max.  If you can add more fans to your print head that will definitely help.

 

Baring that you could add some kind of temporary support - maybe connect the two arches together when the arch hits about 45 degrees of overhang.  To stiffen it up during printing.  This should be unnecessary.  

 

You could also thicken those arms in the Y direction as shown in picture above.  The strength/stiffness is proportional to the cube of the thickness so adding just 10% thicker will make it 30% stiffer.  50% thicker will be 3.3X stiffer.

 

You could also consider printing this in 2 parts.  The basket as one part and the handle as a second part (printed on it's side).  Make sure there is lots of surface area of contact and strongly consider putting some kind of groove or something to help position the parts during gluing and also for mechanical strengthening later.

 

cyanoacrylate (super glue) works well on pla.

 

[venom121212 0]

Thank you for the prompt response, I frantically looked for an edit button when the STL files didn't preview 😑

The version you pictured is my v2, I added the small draft on the uprights to help support it (before, it was only the wall thickness, no draft). I'm currently designing it in 2 parts with a pin-hinge idea in mind. Thank you for the info/advice!