lowlylowlycook Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 So I'd like to print this hand for a dread claw (tm) conversion I'm doing for a friend, but am unsure how to handle the support issue. When I did a scaled down test print the volume between the base and the palm was full of support that wasn't easy to remove. I fixed that by clipping the hand off the base after which the support structure surprisingly easily. The full sized print is going to take a while so I'd like a bit of advice. Some ideas that occur to me: 1) Just print on the base then clip the hand off as before 2) Remove the base before slicing and hope that none of the fingers become unstuck. 3) Remove that part of the base inside the fingers so that the print has a ring base to keep it from breaking off 4) Remove the base and print with the hand orientated fingers up wrist down. 5) If possible, learn to add supports by hand in Cura. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmorse Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 Wrist down seems like the obvious choice as long as it looks good in the slicer. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlylowlycook Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 29 minutes ago, cmorse said: Wrist down seems like the obvious choice as long as it looks good in the slicer. The only downside I see is that the wrist will probably be exposed in the final model. Maybe I could split it into two prints cut at the wrist then glue them together. I guess supports are a bit of mystery to me since sometimes they pull away easily and reveal top notch detail behind them, and other times I end up damaging a model trying to even remove them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmorse Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 3 minutes ago, lowlylowlycook said: The only downside I see is that the wrist will probably be exposed in the final model. Maybe I could split it into two prints cut at the wrist then glue them together. I guess supports are a bit of mystery to me since sometimes they pull away easily and reveal top notch detail behind them, and other times I end up damaging a model trying to even remove them. The wrist is just going to be a smooth flat surface though. If it doesn't end up smooth enough just sand it, adding filler if necessary. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlylowlycook Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 So this is another support problem I'm having When I printed this guy his hull came out very nice but the legs were encased in supports carbonite style. Should I remove the legs to print separately? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmorse Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 7 hours ago, lowlylowlycook said: So this is another support problem I'm having When I printed this guy his hull came out very nice but the legs were encased in supports carbonite style. Should I remove the legs to print separately? That one is harder to say say just from a picture. If the main problem is just getting the supports off and otherwise it's printing well I'd probably start by fiddling with the supports to find a setting that made them work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnwulf Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 17 hours ago, lowlylowlycook said: So this is another support problem I'm having When I printed this guy his hull came out very nice but the legs were encased in supports carbonite style. Should I remove the legs to print separately? For this one, I would try with a raft and Tree supports. Raft will increase the bed contact, and tree supports will be more open and easier to remove. In general for detailed things like this I tend to prefer them, though every print has it's own quirks. You'll probably still have the legs wrapped but they'll be thinner. Alternately, something else to consider if you want to use traditional supports is to turn off support perimeters. they do add structural strength to the supports but that's not always necessary. In other news, I found my extrusion issue. The extruder gear had a nice smooth channel worn in the teeth. I had a spare from when I got my all metal extruder, so I just swapped it out, though I suppose I could have adjusted it down a little to expose new teeth. In any case so far the prints are good. I haven't done any long prints yet though so I'm still worried about the fan I have on the hotend, so I'm looking in to adapting a 5015 blower to do the heat sink cooling instead of the 4010 fan. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlylowlycook Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Well now I've found the tree support option so that's something. Now will come some experiments. Thanks guys. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlylowlycook Posted June 23, 2021 Share Posted June 23, 2021 A combination of putting the hand fingers up and using tree supports worked nicely. I also sliced off the model at the wrist so it would lie flat on the bed. Slight bonus,: FDM tree supports seem like they could be used for alien or underwater plants. Again, thanks for the tips. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnwulf Posted June 23, 2021 Share Posted June 23, 2021 Glad it worked out for you :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haldir Posted July 11, 2021 Share Posted July 11, 2021 Changing a X-Axis belt on a CR-6. Something I've been putting off for longer then I want to remember. It also something I'm going to do next week. I was curious without the tensioner on the end, is the process the same as a changing a belt on a Ender 3? Sadly there isn't much on the web in regards to this or at least I can't find anything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmorse Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 On 7/10/2021 at 7:51 PM, haldir said: Changing a X-Axis belt on a CR-6. Something I've been putting off for longer then I want to remember. It also something I'm going to do next week. I was curious without the tensioner on the end, is the process the same as a changing a belt on a Ender 3? Sadly there isn't much on the web in regards to this or at least I can't find anything. It's probably the same or very close. It's very straight forward, so once you start doing it you'll likely have no trouble even without looking anything up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadgetman! Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 Weird things are happening with my Wanhao i3... It heats up and starts printing, but after 10 - 15 minutes or so, the hot-end temperature starts dropping. There's no error message and it doesn't stop attempting to print, either. Switch it off and on again, and it will work again... for a short period again. Just changing the temperature in the settings while the print is running doesn't make any difference. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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