Print Support Help  

RE: Print Support Help

That's a design as close to bad as it gets for FDM printing. I wouldn't have hopes for supports here. Assuming the key is symmetric along the long axis, I'd cut it in half in the slicer so you have two parts that have flat surfaces and don't require supports at all. Yes, you'll have to glue them together but I think what you're going to get is way better than trying to make supports work here. Unless your printer can do multi-material in which you might want to use a different material as supports. 

Where did you get the file?  It's not well designed for 3D printing so the orientation on the print sheet may be critical.

Please save your project as a .3mf file

Files > Save Project as

Zip the .3mf and post it here. It will contain both your part and your settings for us to diagnose.

And in the meanwhile, dry your filament.

Cheerio,

RE: Print Support Help

Please note I've designed this myself and I've done random troubleshooting to fix it. I am not an expert in any way so please be gentle. Also Idk if I've saved this correctly. Please let me know if I need to redo this and re-upload or if you need any other information. I'll be happy to look up any info you might need but I'll probably need exact terms.

Thanks for the help!!!

Bottle opener key 3mf

@foxrun3d was right.  The best way to deal with this is to cut it down the middle, print the two sides and glue together.

I have prepped it accordigly (attached) - I don't know your printer so I haven't touched the settings, use a standard preset.

Cheerio,

RE: Print Support Help

Any cubic mega zero 2 using PLA. .4 nozzle.

Is there a glue you'd recommend using? I feel like super glue hasn't worked well for me in the past.

Thanks for looking at it, I'll view your file tomorrow.

RE: Print Support Help

This is the way. 

When you design objects, keep in mind that overhangs—such as created by the round shaft of the key and in particular those ring-shaped bands around the shaft —are a big problem for FDM printers as there's no support for them from below. Sure, adding supports in the slicer can help but in a model like this with plenty of unsupported curvature I think the results will always be "suboptimal". Splitting a model is often the only reasonable alternative. Prusaslicer makes this really easy with its Cut function that you can use to split an object in half. Another idea is to make a cylindrical object hexagonal, but here it wouldn't help because of the stuff wrapped around the shaft  

RE: Print Support Help

I can try doing that, is there any glue other than super glue you would recommend?

Try first on some scraps:  PLA can often be joined with acetone.

Cheerio,

RE: Print Support Help

The best glue I've found is HFT glue https://a.co/d/gk6RRAx

RE: Print Support Help

Thanks guys so sorry for the late reply. I was trying to respond on my phone but every time I tried it said I had to login again and was in an endless loop. Thank you both so much for the support. I'll be trying both suggestions with the split print as soon as I can and give an update asap.

I really really appreciate all the help from you!!!

RE: Print Support Help

Did a test print and this happened, caught it at 66%. I have no idea what happened. 😭 

RE: Print Support Help

You had a layer shift.  This often as a result of a head-crash where part of the print lifted from the bed.  The most likely cause, looking at the pictures, is lowered adhesion due to a dirty print sheet. There are smears all over it; thoroughly clean the print sheet before trying again.

Cheerio,

RE:

Thank you. I had cleaned the mat with soap and water and noticed that the print mat moved easier on the bed so I added a few clothespins to it to hold it to the bed. That seemed to help but there also seems to be a bit of build up happening on the nozzle that I'm not seeing right away. ( I'm doing multiple things while attempting to print this and I haven't had a chance to watch it the entire time. I noticed with the first attempt there was some sort of globby filament that was on the bed. This seemed to happen again this second time as well but I removed it early on. Still I missed that there was another shift until the print was finished. I did have a slight extrusion multiplier on that I've turned off and I've slowed the movement speed all around. but haven't yet tried a third time. I'm not sure if there's anything else to check.  It seems to be only happening on the y-axis and the belt is not loose. From what I've looked into my print bed was very wobbly so I've tightened the nuts below the bed to tighten it up which tightened up the belt. I have it tight enough so that the bed doesn't wobble however I don't believe it to be too tight as to cause an issue but again I don't know.

RE: Print Support Help

Long, skinny models like this may have a tendency to peel up at the ends during a print. Normally I'd suggest putting a brim on this, but with the complex geometry brim removal may be annoying, especially in the areas where it isn't necessary.

You may want to add some helper disks (also sometimes referred to as "Mouse Ears", which seems fitting given your model) to the ends. To do this, right click on your model and in the contextual menu select "Add Part/Gallery" and select the "helper_disk.stl". Move this to the tip of the key. For good measure, you might want to add two more helper disks and put them on the bumps of the heart handle. You should do this to both halves of your split key. The helper disks should print as a single layer making them easy to trim off after printing much like one would trim off a brim.