Support material woes for a wrinkly old man

[yodajammies 0]

Hi guys, I'm having a little trouble dialing in my settings for support material using Cura that perhaps you could chime in on.

Using support type "Everywhere", Cura puts support under the chin, inside the mouth, under the eyebrows, etc. which I assume is making it possible to print this piece in an upright orientation. My settings for the support are:

Material: ABS

Overhang angle - 30 deg

Fill amount - 15%

Distance X/Y - .7mm

Distance Z - .15mm

As you can see from the photos I'm getting some pretty rough scaring at the interface between my support structure and the model.

Any advice on how to make these transitional points less lousy? Thanks!

 

Now as a secondary issue, I've seen this happen at the apex points in several of my prints. My shell and top/bottom thickness is set to .8mm which in the past has been more than adequate to close all the seams and gaps. Everywhere else on my model the print quality is beyond stellar, but I always have trouble with small sections or the very top of the print. I THINK I may be printing a little too hot for ABS (255c) or my minimal layer time of 5s may be too short. Am I on the right track here?

Thanks for the input. You guys rock.

Settings:

 

[yellowshark 153]

Re your secondary issue I have experienced that several times, actually probably most times but I rarely build organic models so I have never tried to fix it. I suspect the answer lies in one of, or both, using a different layer resolution(my gut tells me thinner but I am not actually sure) or increasing the bottom/top number of layers(which I feel is the better solution.)

 

[Titus 170]

A little whipe with acceton should burn through ABS quite easy right?

I'm a PLA user, so I'm not sure though.

 

[nick-s 0]

I use neat acetone to improve the surface finish and remove the layer ridges at times. It works on ABS. However I have been surprised to find that this does not work on ABS+ which I purchased from ICE. Acetone does not seem to touch this.

As a rule, I print at 0.08 thickness with a top / bottom thickness of 1.2mm. 15 layers is usually enough to close any holes in the top, but I do occasionally get a spru type of mark where the nozzle finishes which makes it look like its been injection moulded.

There seem to be big holes in the head. What infill are you using? Perhaps a larger infill density will give it smaller holes to cover when closing?

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

@Yodajammies

I would suggest you should think splitting the model in two parts, and print them separately then glue together. You cad do either face-back or left-right/ If doing so, use also a generous brim to prevent warping, and cut it after gluing.

For the holes on top of the head, increase top solid layers and/or general infill. For 15% infill, use at least 6 top solid layers for 0.15 layer height, or 8-10 for 0.1 mm layer height.

 

[yodajammies 0]

Thanks for the advice guys. I wanted to try to print this monstrous thing in one go to proof my support settings, otherwise I would have split it through the mouth. Yeah, acetone can clean up a lot of things in ABS but the nose and chin are pretty brutal. I'm losing practically all of my detailing in those areas.

Nick - I used 25% infill to get the higher density algorithm with a layer height of 100 microns and a top/bottom thickness of .8mm.

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

It's too hot for the actual speed you're printing the top. Options:

- decrease temperature in general (this is useful for the other problematic areas)

- decrease minimum speed in cooling control