HIPS dissolvable support test

[jsc]

HIPS can be had cheaply now, so I decided to try dissolvable support. I used my whitehead link for the model. I used 80% interface layers with 0 layer separation and 0mm horizontal separation with Simplify3D.

As it came off the build plate:

knot-1.jpg (149.75 KiB) Viewed 14092 times

Supported surface:

knot-2.jpg (163.65 KiB) Viewed 14092 times

Good things:

• Using the second extruder for support works well. You don't have to worry as much about oozing because the main filament ooze will mostly be caught by the support, and the support filament ooze will all be going away anyway.
• HIPS dissolves away very well in limonene. There is some visible residue in my photo, but it is soft and easily wiped away.
• ABS sticks well to HIPS. Will try PLA on a HIPS raft later.
• Having a solid support with no separation makes precarious objects easy to print (and "impossible" prints possible).
• You can have support in places where it would be very difficult to remove.

Not so good thing:
Bottom surface quality didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped for. Actually, some of the imperfections are from overhang curling in unsupported areas. The fully supported areas turned out okay. I will try a print with much more extensive support later.

[Jules]

Purty durned cool!

[Levi8than]

Is this using s3d's snap away supports? I would suggest tryingsupports with intimate contact and just saturate the area, you might be able to adjust the settings to get this, if you are lucky.

[jsc]

I am using S3D, but as I mentioned I set the separation layers and horizontal distance to zero. The support is basically fused to the print and must be dissolved off. I should have made the support much more extensive though, and covered all the overhang areas.

[rsilvers]

There is a snap-away option in S3D?

[Levi8than]

There is a snap-away option in S3D?

It's not a check box, but by default as long as the supports have only one angle set and reasonable spacing from the design, they snap off reasonably cleanly after printing. You can even nearly unfold the snake of support that comes off.

[Tim]

So how do you compare this to the one that you posted in your original thread on "OpenSCAD knots"? That one looked impressively defect-free. But then, judging from the concentric rings directly facing the viewer, I'd say you photographed it from the good side. For fairness, you have to show us the bad side of that one!

[jimc]

hmmm, i would think the supported areas would have come out better with direct contact.

[jsc]

jimc, you can see in the top picture how the support was fairly restricted, about 55 degrees and up I think. I've just finished another one, a little larger and with more aggressive support settings. Looks good for now, but we'll see the result when it comes out of the drink.

Tim, I gave the white one away to my friend getting his PhD, so I can't show you the underside. As you suspect, the bottom wasn't nearly as clean.

[rsilvers]

This may take special software and there would be oozing and pressure issues, but imagine having a 1mm nozzle and a 0.25mm nozzle, and the 1mm is used for most of the print, and the 0.25mm only kicks in for surface details smaller than what the 1mm can print.