Getting round holes on support <Solved>

[zemlin]

You might be able to gimmick up a smaller separation by changing the layer thickess in mid-object, but that way lies madness.

I disagree with it being madness. It seems fairly straight forward to build a layer or two at a different z-axis value. It just needs to be done in a way that the next material deposits at a higher level. A layer or two of support at a different thickness to achieve a partial layer gap shouldn't be a big deal, IMHO.

Your idea of building in support though - that's something I hadn't thought of and certainly worth considering.

[jsc]

Can you show us the whole part? Maybe there is an alternative way to print it.

[zemlin]

Can you show us the whole part? Maybe there is an alternative way to print it.

It's really not about this part, but getting a baseline process set up for ABS that will work well with support - and I'm getting close. I'm out of town for a few days so the playing is on hold, but once I realized bridging settings were not impacting the outlines (which should have been obvious from the preview), I changed my approach. The primary variable I'm tweaking now is layer thickness - so I can find the sweet spot where I'm not over-bonding with the support structure, yet there's enough contact to produce a clean first layer. Then I'll tweak the bridging settings to get the best infill I can achieve.

The last test part I printed looked pretty good - with the fillet around the holes. I'm probably just another test or two away from good-enough - and then I'll store that factory file in the template folder - and I will share my final results here.

Then I may repeat the process with the .5mm nozzle - since I'm homing in on a layer thickness that is less that what I was hoping for (on the order of .15mm) - build times will be a bit slow on anything largish.

[zemlin]

After more than 15 test parts & process iterations, here's where i ended up.

support breaks off clean leaving just a bit of stress whitening. Part has some horizontal slots as well - support comes out of those cleanly too. My build surface is PEI over MIC-6 plate - coated with ABS juice. Bed temp is 90C. This part is fairly small, so don't know if this bed temp will work on a larger part. I ended up just tweaking the layer thickness. Too thin and the support bonds too well. Too thick and the supported material gets ugly. 0.175mm with the .35mm nozzle ended up being the sweet spot. Have not tested ABS with the 0.50mm nozzle.

A couple months back I would have told you ABS was pretty worthless - but I'm quite pleased with the results I'm getting now.
Factory file is attached (REV E. Dual).

[Jules]

If you don't mind.....go in and post the results on "Insta's Filaments that work with the M2" thread as well....otherwise we'll never be able to find the settings again here in the Tech Support section.

Great work! Your circles look perfect now!

[zemlin]

If you don't mind.....

Thanks. I don't mind at all.

[jsc]

Good job. Working through the parameter space of possible settings for different filaments is a big part of the craft of 3D printing.

ABS is pretty worthless, though....

[thunderbt3]

Wave a lighter across the print surface for a brief second and the stress whitening disappears!

[zemlin]

Wave a lighter across the print surface for a brief second and the stress whitening disappears!

Hadn't thought about flaming - sounds like a quick and effective treatment. Thanks.