RE: New method of printing perfect supports
@tumblebeer
I posted this under your youtube video already. It fits to this idea as well.
How about a solution which could be 100% 3D printed? Some kind of bistable pure mechanical mechanism holding the pen, which could be switched when the printhead moves to a trigger at the end of the y-axis.
Doesn't need to add much weight if you take a click-pen for example. Yeah, that could be the easiest solution. A click-pen on the carriage and a trigger ramp/slope/triangle at the end of the y-axis.
RE: New method of printing perfect supports
Awesome idea. A similar idea is used in Rize's patented augmented polymer deposition system. https://rize3d.com/choose-rize/augmented-deposition
Your method of depositing a makeshift release agent, seems to be unique enough so as to not step on anyones toes at either Rize or Stratasys, as they just print a uv cured ink using existing modified printhead technology.
Keep Plugging away at this!
RE: New method of printing perfect supports
Having avoided supports for the most part of the last few years, favouring instead to design parts accordingly so they don't need them or in some cases multipart designs for later adhesion, this is very promising and is definitely something I would love to try out.
Has anyone attempted this using Octoprint yet, having sliced their objects in Prusaslicer?
It appears that the pause commands I inserted manually turn the heaters off, home the X/Y axis (didn't notice the Z sorry) and then continue with the moves for the next layer without the heaters on.
Is this a known issue with Octoprint or am I naïve to rely on Prusaslicer and should enter my GCode pause commands manually?
RE: New method of printing perfect supports
This looks like a superb solution to the problems we all have with supports. If you want great part quality, the support has to be so close that removing it becomes a problem. Make removal easier and the part quality can suffer.
One thing I would recommend, don't go too far with the pencil idea. While it looks to work, it seems to me that the marker pen works better. The other advantage of the marker is that the tip won't wear down (or quickly at least). As the pencil tip wears, then it may stop marking the part. A spring loaded system could help but will increase the possibility of clipping the print and snapping off the support.
Good work!
J
RE: New method of printing perfect supports
Hi I would like to replicate this design. May I ask for help with the script and slic3r profiles. Thank you
RE: New method of printing perfect supports
After seeing the mod on YT I figured I'd give it a go, but without the additional requirements for electronics and such. Unfortunately I very much lost interest in this and so now I'm just posting what I got done in case someone could use it for their design and the plugin alone should be useful for people.
It would be able to use any marker/sharpie regardless of internal push-push mechanisms, but I think that's not the best solution and instead use a sharpie with internal pus-push mechanism in combination with the plugin I wrote for cloning a section of gcode with offsets (support-interface section).
Here's the thingiverse page ( https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4489448 ) with all the files that were designed for an easythreed x1 mini (got it for my nephews as a gift and ended up using it for prototyping due to it's comfy size and simplicity) and I think it should be usable in most i3/bowden styled setups with minor adjustments. At least the push-push mechanism should be usable.
I also made a short video of the setup and the post processing plugin in action, but the offsets aren't properly calibrated and I lost interest in this thing so they are the stage I left them at a month or so ago.
RE: New method of printing perfect supports
Hi, I've asked about this at Ultimaker forum and learned there's a feature called "Support interface extruder" in Cura. Just FYI https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/33646-using-e1-for-support-interface-layers-only/