Winged Victory of the Supports

[Titus 170]

Just completed probably the most challenging single print we ever did:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:227865/#files

Had to nurture and support the support by hand to prevent it from moving too much. I'm not sure why the supports are moving so much during prints, creating messy results at the start of the wings, where at other places they are really doing their job well. Overall, really glad with the final result. The blueish white from Colorfabb has a nice touch on the print.

Any ideas, tips to make sure the supports hold up better?

 

[personal-drones 44]

Very nice print! I had the same problem with tiny rounded structures going up, nearly impossible to keep them really in place. Going slower can help but it is not a "final" solution. It was heroic that you standed there and acted as a "human support"

I would guess you could activate Cura supports, play with the settings in the expert settings and see if you can add some more useful support structures. If you have simplify 3D you could manually add some additional supports. I hear that also meshmixer allows you to add supports, not sure how though, still have to try that.

 

[IRobertI 520]

Things will move since the plastic tugs slightly on the print while the nozzle is depositing material. It's hard to avoid. When I use that type of Meshmixer support I always add additional columns to make the support more rigid and stable. You can do that by just clicking on the already generated support and dragging it down towards the "ground". It's really finicky at times though so don't get too frustrated.

 

[Titus 170]

These supports were generated with Meshmixer by downeym(see files link). I was thinking of adding some extra, but if you take the better dragon for example(http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:218026) that thing is awesome

 

[IRobertI 520]

I would download the original and create the supports myself. If nothing else it would be a learning experience.

The support that guy created isn't very good IMHO. Look at the support for the left wing. All of that support is... supported by two single columns -> super weak and bendy. Stand two sticks up and lean them against each other, now push them over, super easy to do. Now take three sticks and lean them against each other, much much stronger. Same things applies here.

 

[Titus 170]

Damn, I'm having a hard time again with mesh mixer. It keeps crashing, it doesn't create supports itself and I can't add them myself -_- With a file of 230 Mb. Scaling it down first