Easier support removal

[jaysenodell 13]

I’m making “stuff” that needs to be halfway decent looking/finished and simple to get that way. Supports are killing me. 
 

Here’s a flange that requires “finished surface” on both sides and supports. As you can see, I can’t get the dang roof to come off the print. Without the roof the print quality is bad. 
 

 

Any suggestions on how to tweak supports to make the support less aggressively attached to my prints?

 

Thanks!

[Carbon 28]

Ticking this box may improve....

 

 

What material are you using for support?

[reibuehl 42]

If you can print with different materials, then a PETG layer between PLA support and PLA print item might be a solution. I found this in a (German) video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Matf1Mna2zI&list=WL&index=1

[Slashee_the_Cow 269]

31 minutes ago, Carbon said:

Ticking this box may improve....

By the looks of the grid pattern in the picture, it's interface which is sticking. Unfortunately there's only so much you can do:

• Set Support > Support Z Distance (or just for top or bottom) higher. This is more likely to result in stuff drooping instead of getting stuck to support, and you can fix stuck on support with a hobby knife but not drooping. (n.b. always use protection, I've managed to cut myself with one of those things through cut resistant gloves).
• Set Speed > Top/Bottom Speed lower, if you're using a material like PLA which isn't stringy. This will give your material a higher chance to set instead of go down onto the support, but it will significantly increase the print time.
• Lower Material > Support Interface Flow. How much you can lower it to reach the best combination of "strong enough to support stuff" and "weak enough to remove" is really a matter of trial and error and very much dependent on the filament you're using (remember, small scale testing is your friend).
• Consider changing your support type if applicable - I've always found trees much easier to remove than regular support, but for some models, they really don't work and generally don't make a huge difference anyway.
• Change Support > Support Interface Density: lower density means less support for your model, but as long as you don't go so low your material can't even bridge the interface lines, there's a bit less cleanup to do.

@GregValiant has been working on a post-processing script which lets you swap a material just to do the support interface  roof on a certain layer (so if your supported area isn't flat, far too much hassle to be useful) since a lot of kinds of filament you can print don't actually stick to each other (my printer officially supports PLA, PETG and TPU, none of them will adhere to each other).

 

But other than that it's just a case of building up a nice toolkit (hobby knife, some nice tweezers are indispensable, if you can find a set of screwdrivers with tiny heads those are really good at getting under things and lifting them up, a file or two for the bits you just can't pick off but be careful not to go overboard or your print will end up looking like a rough mess) and getting some practice in.

 

Or buy a dual extruder printer and print your support in a different material entirely. Not really a reasonable option unless you already have a dual extruder printer though.

[Carbon 28]

56 minutes ago, Slashee_the_Cow said:

By the looks of the grid pattern in the picture, it's interface which is sticking.

 

Also the "Support Roof" and "Support Floor" was ticked, which would give you something like this....

 

Support layer (breakaway) before material:

 

 

 

Material layer on top of support:

 

 

Surely this will help.....?

[jaysenodell 13]

Roof and floor where ticked. For all intents and purposes, the roof became a new bed but with much better adhession than my bed has ever had. 

 

Ender 3 S1 Pro, 0.6mm hardened snoz installed

Octopi

Cura 5.6

Creality PLA

Printing at 200

 

I would love dual extruders. Anyone want to send me one for free? Until I can make this bad habit cost neutral there will be limited options for "more extruders".

 

@Slashee_the_Cow:

• Z distance may be something to try. I can tollerate some droop, but not much. I'm running into this issue with mating surfaces in alignment rings. 
• Speed. there aren't a lots of top/bottom as these are cylinders. Let me try that one too. 
• Support flow/density: I'm thinking I can cut this WAY back as the support is very hard to remove from these things. Might even make up for slowing things down a bit? 
• Trees on cylinders seem to be ... silly. That said maybe the probem before was that the overhang wasn't 30mm. Let me try that later.

I have the tools. My goal is to need less of them to have a finished product though. My best solution so far is a "hot knife", sanding block, then 1k grit on a slow dremmel for the fillet. Not really something that is sustainable later though. 

[Slashee_the_Cow 269]

7 hours ago, jaysenodell said:

1k grit on a slow dremmel for the fillet

I am jealous of both your grit (unless it's measured differently down here for some reason, but the finest discs/bands I have are 240 grit) and your ability to run slowly (I can only go at 10K RPM minimum, which is still fast enough to melt PLA rather than smooth it).

[jaysenodell 13]

I use drums spindles from my boat building days. The demel is just a standard “variable speed” with flex shaft. The media is from Amazon. Just set the dremel on 1 and use a light hand.

 

A 3mm fillet needs a 2mm drum very lightly dragged around this flange. It will dig fast. Much faster than it does in gelcoat/fiberglass.