3D printing overhangs with support structures

3D Printing & Imaging
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Rick Pollack of Shaker Heights, OH, printed this cat design with the help of support structures that are printed along with the main object, but the extruder prints the support materials at a cooler temperature. This makes them easier to remove. Readers, have you played around with support materials settings in Skeinforge? [Thanks, clothbot]

2 thoughts on “3D printing overhangs with support structures

  1. Dave Durant says:

    > ..but the extruder prints the support materials at a cooler temperature..

    Though you can tell the software to do that, I’m fairly sure that’s not how this was done. Instead, Rick used a lower flow rate (extruder speed) at the same feed rate (platform speed) to print the support structures.

    Dropping the flow rate without dropping the feed rate gets you plastic that’s less dense than what you would normally want in the object itself. These low-density bits break off pretty easily and are great for support structures..

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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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