How To 3D Print Without Supports? 3D Printing Support Overhang?

How To 3d Print Without Supports? 3D printing can be tricky, especially for beginners. One of the most common problems with 3D printers is supports. Supports are created when a layer is printed and there’s no room to print below it so the printer has to pause and create some extra space before continuing on. This means that you need to spend time removing those supports manually – which is not only time-consuming but also very frustrating!

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How to 3d print without supports?

3D Printing is becoming more and more popular now for home use. However, there are still many problems that people run into when trying to print their 3D models. One of them is supports! Supports can ruin the overall look of any model if they’re not thought out properly. And let’s be honest, most people don’t think about supports at all or just ignore them completely thinking that their slicer program will figure it out for them.

And hey, you might get lucky every once in a while and your model may print without support but what happens when you want to do something more complex? What happens when you want to make hollow parts like spheres or columns?

Well, then you’ll need supports! But this tutorial isn’t about printing spheres or columns, it’s about how to 3d print without supports!

3D printers differ from one another in many ways.

They can range from a basic RepRap printer all the way up to a professional zcorp printer. Each of these printers will have different settings and options that can be changed in order for you to get the best prints possible. And while we won’t dive into each and every model and their respective settings (although we do plan on doing so in future articles) we will touch upon the main setting that you need to look out for when printing without support: your infill percentage!

Let me explain; When printing any object with 3D Printing, there are always two separate types of layers: the model layer and the support layer. There are two distinct differences between the layers which affect the overall look of your print:

Your infill, or in other words support density, will have a huge impact on how much support is needed for your print. A lower infill percentage indicates that there will be a larger gap between each printed line while a higher infill percentage means that each printed line will be closer together.

The reasoning behind this is that the more lines you have during each layer, the more accurate it will be when it comes to printing overhangs (those parts of an object where no filament can touch the build plate).

How To 3d Print Without Supports? (cre: hackaday)

So what do you need to do in order to get rid of supports?

Simple! Increase your infill percentage and you’re good to go! Fewer lines will equal less support and more surface area for your object! As always, there’s a bit more to it than that.

So what will happen if I print with an infill of 100%? Will my object have no supports or too much support? In the case of an infill percentage of 100%, as long as your model doesn’t have any overhangs then you’ll be fine without using any additional special settings. However, if you try to print anything that has an angle greater than 45 degrees then the layers will come out cloudy and you’ll end up with a crumbled mess. So to avoid this from happening, we recommend that you do not print at such a high infill percentage.

You can try it for yourself! Go ahead and download this file. Let’s check printed model.

Once you’ve unzipped it, load up your slicer of choice and print the model with different infill percentages (5% to 100%) to see how each one affects the overall look of your print. You’ll quickly notice that the higher the infill, the more pronounced each printed line will be on your model.

Once you get a feel for how high an infill percentage is required for your print, simply adjust accordingly in order to get rid of supports without having too many lines or wasting too much filament! And don’t forget to experiment by printing overhangs at lower infill percentages than the rest so that you can get a feel for how high you can go before getting a crumbled mess.

Remember that no matter what infill percentage you use, a certain overhang will always result in a crumbled mess. Experiment to find out what works best for your printer and filament blend. Oh and just to note, we printed the model used in this article with an infill of 10% on our CR-10 3D Printer at 70mm/s print speed, 0.1mm layer height, 0.4mm nozzle diameter (with 1.75mm filament), and 2 shells (top/bottom).

Just don’t forget that if your slicer program has the ability to adjust its supports specifically, make sure you disable all supports whatsoever!

How To 3d Print Without Supports?

Is 3D print support too strong?

The support in 3D printing is a double-edged sword. On the one hand side it prevents parts of the model to droop too much during print, on the other hand, it can cause problems in post-processing.

Especially when sculpting organic things like faces it’s often hard to remove all supports without breaking or bending the model.

One way around this is using superglue instead of common ABS/PLA glue when attaching supports to models. It works but smells terrible and sticks everything together through capillary forces so you’ll have to use acetone afterward to separate your model from its platform.

The positive sides are that there is no warping whatsoever, even very tiny details are supported well enough this method so cleaning them off with a knife (other than removing the supports) is not necessary.

This is especially true for models with high dimensional accuracy like those coming from 3D scanners.

How To 3d Print Without Supports?(cre: pinshape)

3D printing supports hard to removals

There are many areas where 3D printing can make a difference, either in terms of cost savings or increased effectiveness.

One of the most promising uses for 3D printing is that of supporting hard-to-remove objects, especially in the case of implants. Removing dental implants (and screws, plates, and other objects used during oral surgery) is already one of the most common applications for 3D printed surgical guides. Dr. Bernhard Hesse has been developing different 3D printed surgical solutions since 2009 when he founded his company BH Dental Solutions. His website shows all kinds of interesting examples.

The biggest problem is placing dental implants in adults who have lost all their teeth on one side due to accident or illness. This is, of course, a major problem for the affected person’s quality of life, but also financially since dental implants can be quite expensive compared to regular filling materials. As Dr.

How To 3d Print Without Supports? (cre: gambody)

“Clearly it would be preferable if replacement teeth could simply be printed using 3D printers and thus saving time and costs.

” That is exactly what they are now working on in cooperation with the University Hospital Aachen (RWTH).

They aim to provide better implants with increased stability, which means longer life spans combined with less discomfort for patients. The lead physician at the university clinic involved with this project is Dr. Peter Jansen who sees many advantages offered by 3D printing technology. “The biggest advantage is that we can design and manufacture very individualized solutions for each patient.

The implant fitter can scan the existing teeth and also check what type of work is necessary prior to surgery, such as adapting the height of the prepared tooth or including a bracket comparable to a crown in order to increase stability.” Dr. Jansen emphasizes that there were no cases where the prepared tooth was not stable enough afterward and could therefore be used without problems.

Do you know Gambody? This company prints and share STL files of video game and comic book models (axis). Let’s check and reply, comment to them. Link: gambody.com

Conclusion

3D printing is a fascinating process. A 3D printer can create objects from scratch without any human input, and it’s been used to print everything from toys to prosthetic limbs in order to improve people’s lives.

The only things that limit the possibilities of this technology are your imagination and budget. There are many different types of 3D printers on the market for everyone with a range of budgets, but they all have one commonality- you need supports before you start printing anything!

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