A possible solution to PVA nightmares or a non starter !

[Rharrison 2]

Morning all,

 

Hey laying in bed this morning after being up at 3AM in the shed to deal with a failed print due to PVA being blocked I was wondering if it would be possible to build the support structures in PLA which is reliable and print the final few layers before contact in PVA. PLA is cheaper too and far more reliable the big question is can you add PVA on top of PLA very well. Has this been tested and ignored. I'm not too sure how g-code looks or is defined but I'm hoping I could run a test with a search and replace though a generated g-code file and replace most of the support (PVA) with build (PLA). This would be a bit tricky on the angled meeting points between the support and the part as the PVA would need to be added to the end of the lines of the PLA to make sure the contact with the part was still PVA to PLA and not PLA to PLA. Hope that last sentence makes sense.

 

Just a thought not sure if it's been thought about.

 

Clearly it wouldn't work for those structures where the support material needs to be dissolved to get it out from the part. 

 

Any thoughts from the g-code / cura experts out there ?

 

Robert

[tinkergnome 929]

1 hour ago, Rharrison said:

I was wondering if it would be possible to build the support structures in PLA which is reliable and print the final few layers before contact in PVA

 

With Cura - the "support interface" can be used to achieve this.

Basically - "Enable Support Interface" and use the PVA-Extruder only for this specific part of the support - something like this:

 

 

A link with some more pictures:

https://mathgrrl.com/hacktastic/2018/03/dissolvable-support-interface-is-all-you-need/

 

Edit: it was not ignored, quite the contrary - it's a common practice nowadays.

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by tinkergnome

[Rharrison 2]

Ambassador thanks for this. I’m going to give it a go.
 

I’m so glad I asked 🙂 and that someone has the knowledge to point me in the right direction. 
 

thank you sir. I will post an example when I have one.