Raft and support material are fusing with parts.

Print-related things have been going surprisingly well lately, and I'm starting to try my luck with printing with rafts and support material. However, the raft and supports are fusing with my parts and they are impossible to remove without breaking anything. This is happening with 100% of my prints and none of the settings I've tweaked have given me better results. Any advice is, as always, greatly appreciated.

 

In Cura, you can tweak it. Expert menu > Open expert settings, and it's the Distance X/Y and Distance Z for the support. Default settings for it (the ones listed in the mouseover) usually work okay for me but you can increase it a little on a test piece and see how it goes.

 

So autopsyturvy do you use cura or reprap by default.

 

I think you mean Repetier, not Reprap?

I use Cura most of the time lately as it requires less fiddling and generally gives better surface quality, and will print things that Slic3r won't, without requiring I run it through Netfabb. It also, um, prints more melodiously, somehow? Cura usually sounds like weird electronic music, while printing with Repetier/Slic3r sounds, um... rather like a robot making vigorous love to an unbalanced washing machine. Not usually much of a concern but as my printer is in my living room right now, I'd rather listen to a Cura print all evening than a Slic3r one.

Slic3r has much more ability to change settings, though, and for complex parts needing support in odd places like I've been doing lately, it's really necessary, unless I want to put support -everywhere-, and that's wasteful and a pain to remove well.

Really a matter of learning the particular programs, figuring out their strengths/weaknesses, and using the right tool for the job depending on what you're printing.

 

you are right i meant Repetier
I'm trying cura now. It seems to do rafts better. I've had Repetier build a nice raft over a couple of layers. Then drop down a layer and grind it all off into a nice ball.

 

Sorry I am late with following up on this thread. It's been a busy holiday season for me

Slic3r lets you set how far you want your supports from your print as well, though it does not let you choose per axis. I tweaked the setting and it didn't help, but I'll try again with Cura (which is conveniently included with MatterControl).

Coincidentally, I just tested Cura for the first time a few hours ago. For the 5mm calibration step pyramid, it took about five times longer than Slic3r to make an identical print with identical settings. Most of the delay was because it insisted on pausing the print every single layer to allow the newly-laid PLA to cool. My fan is installed, but Cura refuses to use it. Worse yet, since my nozzle oozes plastic while idling at temperature and Cura paused the print so often, there was a huge amount of buildup that stuck to the part and actually claimed most of the top pyramid step. I'll test Cura on other models at some point, but my first impressions aren't too great.

In unrelated news, the first spool of filament I bought since getting my RoBo (1kg SainSmart white PLA) just went empty. Printing with black PLA now. I kind of miss white. It was prettier...