PETG Print with TPU Support Interface on XL 5T
I recently printed a drain pan for draining water out of my washing machine’s drain filter. This print necessitated a long horizontal portion (similar to a pan handle) to reach over the washers flip down door since the washer’s hose is too short to reach over the door. Unfortunately this meant I needed to use supports. I prefer PETG for this type of print. I tried PLA interface on the supports but the PETG would not stick at all even with a zero gap.
I have printed PETG and TPU together many times before and they do stick together but it is not a strong bond without mechanical interaction. So I printed the PETG supports with one layer of orange TPU for the interface. The PETG stuck well during printing. After printing I removed most of the support structure from the TPU and then scraped an edge of the TPU from the PETG surface. I then used a needle nose pliers to roll the TPU layer off. The result was a very good layer…for PETG. Much better and way easier than a standard PETG support.
Since the TPU was only one layer this minimized tool changes as well. I plan to use this method on all of my PETG prints needing support. I could not find any mention of this in the forum search. Does anyone else have experience printing this way? I have attached pics of the process.
Happy Printing!
