Recently I 3D printed some parts that needed supports.
How you orient the piece and how you do the supports matters a lot.
Attempt #1:
With the finished surface pointed up, I tried enabling supports the default way. I'm using PLA+ which is a bit stiffer and has better layer adhesion than PLA.
It printed fast and produced a high quality top finish:
However removing the support material took me more than an hour and where the supports were ended up looking bad afterwards. Also it was hard to determine where the part ended and the support began, so I accidentally chiseled off some of the actual part:
Attempt #2:
I tried flipping the part over with the front cover outside face on the textured print bed.
I also tried enabling Bambu's Support for PLA filament at the interface layer:
This special filament material is designed to not stick as well to PLA.
Note that we're not printing the entire support with the second filament. We're only using it on the interface. This uses way less of this filament and relies more on the bulk filament I'm already leveraging. After changing the support interface filament, it prompted and I also accepted these changes:
When using support material for the support interface, We recommend the following settings:
- 0 to z distance
- 0 interface spacing
- interlaced rectilinear pattern
- disable independent support layer height
This resulted in a much better experience in removing the supports:
Although the place where the supports were is still a bit rough. (see middle section)
Followup:
To achieve the result I am looking for, the rough edge of the support interface will be on the inside of the part where nobody has to touch it. However I will definitely be utilizing the Support for PLA material at the interface layer to make my life easier when removing supports.
Update:
You might also find this article about Support settings in Bambu Studio.
