So I built a solid wooden table for my son’s 3D printer and we got the printer setup and running. We started to print some 28mm miniatures from Thingiverse but some figures just don’t print well without supports and the support system in Repetier Host with CuraEngine Slicer leave a lot to be desired. No manual supports and the options are either Touching Bed which on the rare occasions when it is enough, works well or Everywhere which is terrible as removing the supports generally damages the detail of the figure.
The other problem we’re experiencing is with trying to print more then 1 item at a time. As a simple test, I tried 5 4-sides dice. simple pyramids in the end. We still suffered spagettification on 3 of the dice.
So any suggestions or hints?
Any other free slicers that work well for small parts?
I have had good luck designing simple sliders for my shower doors that I can’t find anywhere. I used FreeCad to create and exported as an STL to slice using Repetier Host. Worked great.
Describe what you mean by spaghettification? If you can’t print multiple d4s at once, then I’m thinking that there’s something wrong with your printer settings, because that should be a really easy task.
If you’re comfortable with FreeCad or other 3D design programs, you might be able to import the STLs from Thingiverse and edit in custom supports. But you’re always going to get some surface issues where the supports attach: I don’t think there’s any way around that, with a single-material FDM printer (and the printers for which it’s not an issue are much more expensive).
Sorry, spaghettification is when you get a bundle of thin twisted strands instead of a solid shape. What you typical see in attempts to print an unsupported portion of a drawing.
I’m not comfortable in FreeCad yet but I will try to become so. If adding the custom supports isn’t too bad in FreeCad I’ll learn how. Honestly, I used FreeCad for the first time yesterday. I believe I can get the hang of it.
I was just reading about the 2 head printers today where the one head is a water soluble filament used for the supports. Sounds great but not in my near future.
Well, I use Tinkercad, not FreeCad, so I don’t know precisely how you’d do it. But if I were putting in custom supports, I’d just make towers of simple shapes like boxes, with closely-spaced sharp edges on top right up against the main model.
What model is the printer? And are you using Cura just straight “out of the box”, or a version of it which came with your printer? If the printer came with its own, make sure you’re using that.
What model is the printer? I recently got a super cheap Anet A8 ($130 on amazon) and boy is it cheap. I found that I couldn’t get very good results with the version of Cura they bundled with it. When I switched to Slic3r, my results improved by a lot. The key settings seemed to be the extruder multiplier and the print speed. Try slowing down the print speed in half, and decrease or increase the extruder multiplier by 5% and see if your results improve.
The spaghettification issue sounds like it might be a bed leveling or nozzle height issue. I found adding bed autoleveling to my printer helped greatly.
3d printing is a fun hobby. I bought a $130 printer, and I’ve probably put another $300 into it in “improvements.”
I am not familiar with that model of printer. On mine, you buy one on Amazon. You may have to reflash the firmware. There are probably instructions on line somewhere for your printer. Do you know which firmware it uses?
If you are using one of the standard ones like Marlin, it’s pretty simple.
I am not familiar with that model of printer. On mine, you buy one on Amazon. You may have to reflash the firmware. There are probably instructions on line somewhere for your printer. Do you know which firmware it uses?
If you are using one of the standard ones like Marlin, it’s pretty simple.
That is, you buy the sensor on Amazon and bolt it onto the extruder. You may have to print a bracket. Then you have to enable it in your firmware.
So nearly 3 months later and I’m getting fairly good at this. We’ve printed dozens of figures and found that my taking the .stl drawings into Meshmixer (free) and use the plane cut under Edit to clean up or remove the base. Maybe Select tool to help. Then to analysis where I first use Inspector and then Overhangs. The Overhang step is the great part, it puts up a really good support system that have vastly improved my prints. I then Export the .stl and bring it back to the Repetier-Host software where I ensure it is ready for slicing and then slice it without supports.
I also find that the smaller the print, the less likely the Tevo Tornado will print any decent details. But larger thicker prints work great. So Trolls & Gargoyles work well, half-elven archers & kobolds not so much.
Glad to hear you’re getting into it! I wish I had my own, but meanwhile, using the ones at the library is still cheap and relatively easy. To me, though, the real fun is in the designing.