MakerGear Forum

Hello,

I just purchased a M Series 3D Printers M2 3D Printer and Simplify3D software. Both the MakeGear 3D printer and software are working nearly perfect and I'm really enjoying the products.

One minor issue I hope to resolve or at least make better deals with printing at 90 degree overhangs. The support settings are all default and here are some pictures to help show how the part is not being printed perfectly in this one area of 90 degree overhang.

Before separating the support: After separating the support: Thank you.

I was able to greatly minimize this problem by rotating the part 90 degrees on the build plate so that the fan cools the support area evenly.

Nice job!

PLA reacts favorably to additional cooling on overhangs, as you discovered. If you want to boost the cooling power exponentially when printing PLA, remove the fan guard on the bed fan (only) and be careful not to stick filament into it.

Unfortunately, filament has to land on something, or you are just squirting liquid plastic into open air. There is usually a small gap (1 horizontal layer or so) between the support and the main print set up in your slicer software. That makes it easier to remove the support after the print is done. But it means you're air printing the bottom of those overhangs, and they tend to turn out that way more often than not.

You can improve the results a little more by trying the settings below in your slicer:

The extra inflation distance carries the support out further than the edge of the print, and makes a more stable "table" for the print to rest on. (Uses a little more filament.)
The dense support layer makes a more solid surface for the falling filament to land on, and it's easy to see. (Be careful to print at the lower end of the temperature range for PLA - 205° is usually good. Otherwise it's harder to get the support removed.)
Using a cross hatched support instead of the parallel ribbons that are the default creates a more stable support table as well, but it's a bit harder to remove.

You can try reducing the Upper Vertical Separation to 0, but I don't recommend it, the Support becomes one with the Print. (Very Zen. )
The only sure-fire way to make it look just as good on the underside of a steep overhang as the top, is to use two different types of filaments for the support and the print in a dual extruder, that either don't bond to each other, or can be dissolved away after the print is done, with zero vertical separation. (That generally takes 4 times longer to do, but it does give excellent results.)

Hi Jules,

I followed all your advice and now the print is much better!
Thank you for all you help.

Wow, that turned out better than I expected....you're welcome!