Print directly on build plate, no supports ... is that allowed?

General Discussion
1

I’ve had my Form 2 since December 2015 and It’s been working like a champ … Tonight I came across a situation that I’ve never run into before … the possibility of printing without support structure. And I’m wondering if it’s a good or bad idea.

I have a part that is totally flat on the back and is not very thick, it seems sensible that I can save about 4 hours of print time if I orient it flat on the build plate and don’t have any supports at all.

Is this allowed? Will it cause any problems at all?

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2

It is fine to print directly on the platform but:

  1. You might get a little bit of inaccuracy on the Z-axis
  2. Since your model has a large surface area on the bottom it might be tough for the printer to do the peeling process.
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3

Part removal will be a pain and point (1) from @aad345 is especially valid because the height of the part in its shortest section is very small.

If I were in your situation, I either would print that part without support and increase the thickness of the bottom-most region or would rotate the part by about 78º and print with supports.

4

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys. I ended up just orienting it like I would normally, about 20 degrees off vertical and then added supports … and I let it print all night. This morning it was done and waiting for me and it came out fine.

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