My first prints! advice on supports?

Projects & Prints
1

i received my resin yesterday, so naturally i’ve been busy printing! after printing the Formlabs butterfly, i tried three models from Thingiverse - the Legend of Zelda Boss Key (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:39863), a hollow holiday ornament (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34942), and a parametric gimbal (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34238). other than resizing and adding supports, i left them as is, and printed with 50 um layers. the gimbal is still drying (i’m heeding the advice of others on moving parts) but the other two are done. pics are attached.

the print went overnight and by the time i got to them this morning, they’d probably been done for 5 hours. they were really tricky to get off the build platform! the key looks great, i think. the ball was a bit tougher, as the supports were a little wonky - there were a couple of full length (equal to the diameter of the ball) internal to the ball that i removed with a little effort. but it was quite tricky to remove some others, including some that were attached on the inside edge of the star cutouts. i only broke one of the inter-star thin spots removing the supports. i think i’ll be more careful and use snips for the whole thing next time.

if anyone has any feedback that will help for next time, i’m all ears! fun times!

cheers,

-j

PS - sorry for the low-res key pic. instagram wasn’t syncing to my photos folder so it’s a screencap :slight_smile:

2

Very awesome!

Don’t be afraid to try the 100 um settings for parts like that key.  I find that the 100 um on the Form 1 is nothing like 100 um on other printers–you still get nice smooth sides, without ridges.  And it’s a bunch faster, which is the real win.

3

Very cool Jason.

I have also tried the Zelda Boss Key print. If only Link had a Form 1, maybe he could have saved the princess a little faster eh?

I would also suggest playing with the “support settings” in the PreForm software. There are many variables you can adjust based on what you are printing.

4

Martin - thanks! and i’ve been doing more with the 100 um layers and to your point, they’ve looked great!

Jory  - thanks a lot. indeed, i do need to monkey around a bit more in there. so far i’ve left all of the support settings as default. but as i print more and more i realize i do need to check out those variables!

thanks,

jason