Difficult Part

[hatch789]

Hi Guys,

I have a part that is particularly challenging for me to print because it requires a LOT of supports inside just to hold up the top. Lets say this is 160mm in diamater and 80mm high with 1mm thick walls. Everything else is hollow. Think of this like a hollow soup can sliced in half vertically.

As I print the base and walls the print is perfect. No issues at all. Then when I get to the top it goes very badly. I'm exploring options for printer settings to try to overcome this issue but it's a pretty big challenge.

I thought about flipping the part on the printer 90 degrees on the X axis so the two points were on the printer base but I would get degraded results in the walls and also loose the nice smooth bottom and top. I would also need to use a large raft (wasted material) just to secure the object to the print platform. So I would certainly prefer to print it in normal orientation from the bottom up.

The only viable option I see is printing pillar supports all the way from the bottom to the top on the inside. Then I have a tedious job of removing all that stuff. Or printing the object in 2 halves (each 40mm high) then gluing them together. But that really sucks.

So I'm exploring options and reaching out to the experts to see what you would do in this case? I am just doing normal PLA for my material.

I have attached the STL file for you to examine the object. Please don't waste resources printing it ...This is just a test part to illustrate the challenge I face. I'm simply trying to explore options.

[arhi]

I thought about flipping the part on the printer 90 degrees on the X axis so the two points were on the printer base but I would get degraded results in the walls and also loose the nice smooth bottom and top. I would also need to use a large raft (wasted material) just to secure the object to the print platform. So I would certainly prefer to print it in normal orientation from the bottom up.

that's how I often print such objects and after acetone vapor bath they look perfect ... so it really depends on the material, and how good your printer can print but 90 degrees will require very little support

Or printing the object in 2 halves (each 40mm high) then gluing them together. But that really sucks.

or gluing only the top plate, no need to glue half width of the wall, it's much easier to glue the wall to the top plate.

I don't get why ppl in 3d printing try to avoid glue at all cost, plastic, at least those "generally used for printing" like PLA, ABS and PETG, are very easy to glue and bond is very strong so there's really no need to avoid it. If you print ABS you can make your own glue with acetone and scrap ABS that will do chemical welding of your parts making them as strong as they can be (not any less strong then printed), there are also solvent glue's / cements for PLA (weld-on 3 and weld-on 4 are best off the shelf for PLA) and ABS (best stuff imo is acetone+scrap abs) that does the same thing (chemical welding). There's probably chemical welding for PETG too but I never found it, regular glue for plastic from bison, jb (plasticweld) and similar work great..

[horst.w]

To print this as situated is not the solution!
While the pure object needs ~ 55gr (depending of the specific weight), it needs with support 380 gr. Not really realistic.

Turn it to its outside as shown in the picture, that needs 75 gr all together. To remove the support structure is very easy when you use 3 separation layers; importand to use 1 base layer for better sticking on bed of the support area.

Regards
horst.w
GER