Supportless overhang 70° / PLA printed spring / stability expected?
I played with younger son's Ender-5 3Dprinter for few months, with my Prusa MINI+ since a week.
I created and 3Dprinted borescope holder for (additional to OctoPi camera) nozzle camera of my MINI+:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods-octoprint-enclosures-nozzles/simple-nozzle-camera-borescope-holder-for-prusa-mini/#post-583282
Today I 3Dprinted "stairway to heaven" as shown in previous photo and described in linked thread.
I really like the nice 3Dprint result, with 0.15mm high steps:
I did the print with "Fillamentum PLA" which I got as birthday present together with the MINI+.
I was surprised about 70° overhang "print into the air" works without issues.
In the morning my younger son challenged the stairway stability and pressed it together.
No problem at all, the print is like a PLA spring.
Is this expected?
Yes. but PLA doesn't last long if used as a spring.
Cheerio,
RE: Supportless overhang 70° / PLA printed spring / stability expected?
@hermannsw
It's very possible to print 70 degree over hangs, it depends on the quality of the finish your looking for, given certain circumstances you can actually get it too look good. the "stairway to heaven" is not one of those circumstances, however it is good experience for you.
Regards
Swiss_Cheese
The Filament Whisperer
RE: Supportless overhang 70° / PLA printed spring / stability expected?
Yes. but PLA doesn't last long if used as a spring.
Thanks for confirmation, and the warning.
I did extend "stairway to heaven" model with 70° overhang linear piece at top in freecad.
I did not know how to move all away from z-axis, for allowing for polar transformation.
So I used PrusaSlicer and imported the STL 4x and moved and turned to final position for print there.
I excercised "print into air" already, and know of a famous fail when joining parts in the air during print:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/english-forum-awesome-prints-hall-of-fame/hall-of-shame/paged/2/#post-583540
So I tried with the added join in the air of the 4 stairways to heaven, and it worked (end of print, with 50x speedup):