hey guys I had a bit of a thought today.
I often print prototypes that will have a large flat surface that need support material underneath it, I’m growing sick of the poor quality finish this creates on the layer built on top of the support material.
i was wondering if anyone has ever used the pause at z height and then layed kapton tape on top of the support for the next layer to print on?
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Why don’t you print directly on the glass ? That’s the most beautifull finish…
Yeah I do get a beautiful finish on the glass, but I’m more talking about the supported bottom surfaces of a over hang. Images printing a T shape upright
When I’ve got such object in the air, I’m using soluble filament (but you need a dual head on your printer). Have you consider using this kind of filament ?
I really wanted a dual extruder, in fact that was partly why I chose the UM2 as I thought there was going to be a upgrade for it but sadly they have decided not to go ahead!
Most of the time, you don’t need dual extruder but this is THE use case where it’s mandatory 
Question for you, do you print the soluble support material at 100% and does that eliminate the problem I’m talking about, also what printer do you have?
Why 100% ? No need for 100%.
If I want to limit the amount of soluble filament used, I create a shape below the support I realy need. Even in between in the air if needed… Then I’ve got Object, support, unused object, support, object… Put it into water and trash out the unused Object and that’s it, it’s working realy well !
Why don’t you increase the density of the supports so that the layer on top of the support has enough material below it to extrude a clean surface ?
What type of 3d printer do you have?
Thanks, they look like a wicked machine, I’m now tempted to buy one!! What software do you use for slicing? I have only really played around with cura.
MakerBot desktop and Sailfish Firmware (Sailfish Firmware by jetty - Thingiverse)
