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Dealing with support material

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Phistina, Sep 10, 2014.

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  1. Phistina

    Phistina New Member

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    I have a R1 and print PLA mostly. How can I make the support material generated easier to break apart from an object? I have used scrapers and xacto knives and even chisel type tools. I feel like those people in the infomercials that can't hold all the limes or tear the paper towels. THERE'S GOTTA BE A BETTER WAY!

    Is ABS easier to discard of the support material?
     
    #1 Phistina, Sep 10, 2014
  2. Peter Krska

    Peter Krska Active Member

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    I have been using Cura, latest version. It has easy to remove support. The secret is to make sure your level isn't too low. That will create harder to remove support.

    You can still print even off too low. The filament will be squished too much.

    There are two options in Cura. Grids and lines. Grids are sometimes preferred since it's like small boxes, that get removed.

    Other times lines work. They are single walled support that can be yanked out in a single pull. Strands are held together.

    I use the Touching Bed feature for support. Seems to work great since the program decides where to put that support depending if it's hanging or not over the bed.

    Support everything is overkill and I rarely use it.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk in Canada
     
    #2 Peter Krska, Sep 10, 2014
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    There is a better way...better software.

    The supports worked hit-and-miss for us as for how they both were placed and how removable they were with the free slicers.

    Nothing made supports like Simplify3D (sadly, not free). Those work (in that they support what is needed) and are extremely easy to remove (you can't tell where they even were after removal) and adding extra one (if you thought it was needed) was click and done.
     
    #3 mark tomlinson, Sep 10, 2014
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  4. Phistina

    Phistina New Member

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    I am very tempted to purchase simplify3D if it works as good as you say it does.

    I will try Cura tonight and give free a chance :)
     
    #4 Phistina, Sep 10, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 10, 2014
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Give the free software a shot first. If you can get happy supports with it, you can save the price :)
    For us, that was one area we struggled with for a long time. Granted, since I stopped using the other software, some of them have improved. You may be able to get supports that work for you with them--absolutely give it a whirl.

    I am convinced that if I just knew how to tweak it I could have gotten Skeinforge to deliver workable supports (it just has so many buttons to push and knobs to tweak that there MUST be a workable combination in there somewhere).
     
    #5 mark tomlinson, Sep 10, 2014
  6. Phistina

    Phistina New Member

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    I just want to say that this community of helpfulness gives me hope for humanity.
     
    #6 Phistina, Sep 10, 2014
  7. Phistina

    Phistina New Member

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    switching to the Cura slicer has worked well so far, much better than matter slicer for what I am printing right now imo. although I haven't had to print anything with support material yet. I think one of my problems was chain printing and not letting everything cool back down and cleaning the glass and re-glusticking (sp? not a word, I know) between prints. I will keep this updated and post pictures of my findings as I plan to do more this week when I get home from work.
     
    #7 Phistina, Sep 15, 2014
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    This was the last print I did with significant supports.
    They peeled away easily.

    [​IMG]
     
    #8 mark tomlinson, Sep 20, 2014
  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    When we first started using support, Cura was the worst. Those were virtually unremovable...however I have not tired it in over a year so it is likely that they have improved it.
     
    #9 mark tomlinson, Sep 20, 2014
  10. Phistina

    Phistina New Member

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    well the support issue is gone with the large grid in Cura but I will have to make another post because of everything else wrong
     
    #10 Phistina, Oct 9, 2014
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