Printing with supports – more than one way to skein a cat
Nearly every printable thing on Thingiverse adheres to the “45 degree rule” for MakerBotting. There are some very clever ways around such problems – such as Zaggo’s treasure chest with a snap-off support for the chest’s lid. However, Skeinforge1 actually includes a “support cross hatch” option that will create a fibrous sort of netting around your object upon which other parts can be printed. Allan Ecker’s Thingiverse blog post on skeinforge crosshatch support covers this feature in detail.
Until very recently, not many people had posted their experiments with Skeinforge’s support feature. Frankly, I was put off by Allan’s description of the support removal process and instead either designed parts that adhered to the “45 degree rule” or could be assembled from multiple parts to avoid the issue altogether.
Then Rick Pollack of MakerGear posted some details about his orange cat, printed with support material. The cat uploaded by i.Materialize includes a number of features that violate the “45 degree rule.” The head, tail, and entire body of the object essentially have nothing underneath them.
Cat with support
Cat with support
Rick’s post indicates his first attempt, pictured above, at printing this object with support used an older version of Skeinforge. Apparently his second attempt using a newer version of Skeinforge was a lot easier to clean up. The newer version of Skeinforge gives the option of slowing down the extrusion rate, which leaves a thinner support webbing, which makes for easier removal.
Have you tried printing using Skeinforge’s support features? What was your experience?
- Skeinforge is the program used to turn an STL of a 3D model into commands ReplicatorG can understand and interpret into Gcode for the Cupcake [↩]
| Tagged with | cat, makergear, rick pollack, skeinforge | 8 comments |
8 Comments so far
JohnA
I tried slicing the PP3DP bearing with support turned on in RepG19 and SkeinFox and both seemed to do….. nothing different than slicing it without it turned on.
I’ll have to try it in a newer version, but I dread having to migrate settings to another version.
Dave Durant
John: post in the forums or the google group if you need help migrating. I went back & forth on the old and new skeinforge a bunch of times (with lots of screaming and hair pulling in between) before I finally settled on the new stuff.
MakerBlock: I’ve done some experimenting with the support stuff and it’s pretty cool stuff. My number one tip would be to print a bunch of copies of a quick & easy-to-print object, messing a little with the support flow rate modifier each time – there’s going to be a sweet spot where the supports are stable but also easy to remove. Once you find that spot, do the math and figure out what the right PWM is for the layer height and feed rate of your profile. It’s easier than it sounds.
I’ve been preaching for a while now that we CAN do support structures with a makerbot, every time I hear somebody complain that we can’t. They just ignore me, though.
It’s nice to finally get official confirmation of it. 
Perry Cain (neoteric)
I have been using support structures since day one. My settings are here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3856 You’ll notice that almost the entire part is printed above the platform. If you leave enough width between your support structures, and then just crush them with your thumb, they will “accordian” right off. Very sucessful. I also printed the pig the same way, I will post the picture of it.
MakerBlock
@JohnA: Why not try the other bearing by RayRayWasHere? http://www.thingiverse.com/RayRaywasHere
@Dave Durant: I, for one, welcome our new plastic cat overlords. Seeing you guys break the 45 degree rule is pretty exciting. It opens up all kinds of new possibilities.
@Perry Cain: That’s a really great example! Thank you for sharing your Skeinforge prefs! I can’t wait to try those out!
Dave Durant
LOL.. You beat me to it but I am already learning the words to the Meow Mix commercials, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JuVHCJVYf4, which I’m convinced will become our new national anthem.
If people are interested in playing more with support structures in skeinforge, I’ll toss in a blog I wrote a while ago, too: http://davedurant.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/skeinforge-support-part-1/ .
colorbroken
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs631.snc4/59122_720587918952_8101409_40421216_5964690_n.jpg
I don’t know if this linked right, but I designed a new buckle for a Tamrac branded camera bag, and printed it with supports. I won’t say it cleaned up REALLY nicely, but the bottom of the buckle was very hollow in sections, and the final print was pretty terrific overall. (Not on Thingiverse yet, waiting to design the female part first)
I did notice however that I forgot to turn SUPPORTS off after the buckle print, and on my tiny cameras (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4187) it tried to make a support for the “button” on the top of the camera model. This is all fine and good, but it didn’t need one, it was less than 1mm off the main structure. How does Skeinforge handle those kind of situations? Is there a tolerance range you can work within?
beak90
I did a little testing with support. It works great but it is a huge waste of plastic. Thats why a cheaper support material would be nice. The skeinforge supports are really wasteful. It could be rewritten to only have most of the support be really thin but the top layers thick to save plastic. The UP printer has very efficient support structures.
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