Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I'm in my 2nd month of printing and I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of printing, but always looking to learn and get better.

However, supports (& rafts) are still the most bothersome thing about printing. I feel like I could have easily doubled the number of prints if it wasn't for the supports I have to end up cutting away and throwing out. So, I'm looking for some advice on setting them up and removing them.

My supports are based on numbers I picked up from watching a few youtube videos; I primarily use Heavy & Medium supports and have rafts turned off. Light supports almost never used. I don't print on the plate and usually use a 20%-30% incline on the model, with the back/bottom facing the supports so the surface you generally see doesn't end up with any support points mar the surface or be cleaned up.

A couple pictures for reference; these are the latest support setups I did (the Klingon ships are the most recent, but not yet printed, the Federation ships are the most recent successful print I've had). For scale purposes, these models are about 56 mm long/36 mm wide and the have been coming out fine. However, where the support contacts are removed they seem a little rough/messy (disappears under paint) and I'm wondering if there is a "cleaner" way to remove supports without micro marring the surface.

Also, when you remove you supports, how and when do you do it? I'm removing mine primarily prior to curing, using sprue snips (and Xxacto knife to clean up close to the model). I always cut now and no longer "pull" the model from supports, after a couple broken ship supports and other pieces trying to wrangle the mini out. It does get annoying to get amid the support trees and clip them though - does anyone have any tips on that?

That seems pretty reasonable to me WRT how many supports you put on.

I actually have not been inclining my models and haven't had a single issue with it. All my trouble was related to the default settings of the printer (which was like 3 second exposure time, I found a sheet with recommendations online that had people using the same eco resin I was using with 12-18 second exposure times so I bumped it up to 12 and have not had a single failed print since then).

What I tend to do is, a whole cluster of heavy supports just under my model's feet (or some analogous surface that won't ever be visible, like the ball joint where it's going to go into another part, or the socket I'm goign to be putting the flying stand in) and that's my structural 'hold up the model' support. I space them out juuuust enough to not have to clip through a whole pillar of material, and comit to just having to sand that area smooth because it's going to look like trash, but it won't be visible.

Then, I basically use all light supports from then on. Very little, and I basically support every area that's going to overhang.

Lastly, I look for any long, straight pieces like swords, or the engines on your ships. i've found that those tend to droop if you don't give them a number of supports to hold them up. I usually go for a line of supports along the bottom.

I will say my big piece of advice for you would be that the "skate" style base is WAYYYYY easier to remove from the build plate than the "Round" style that you have on. I switched over and I'm never printing another round style base.

The skate basically gives you a diagonal piece that leads down to where the model meets the build plate, and it lets you get the spatula underneath and the models just come off the plate way way easier.

+++1 for the skate base, but keep in mind that adds a lot of material that I do not find is needed. When set to 'none' you get the angled bases that adhere just fine, so is easily removed from the plate. Also, in another thread I had placed my settings for ChiTuBox and they work great for me with about a 70% density for light supports and then place some medium at strategic points where the model is closest to the plate and high stress areas. Below are the shots again.

After the wash your supports should peel right off and not leave any noticeable blemishes, excpet for the medium ones on really smooth areas it could be noticeable. I will use clippers if supports are on very delicate areas.

I've had good success with manual placement and very fine supports as advocated by the 3dprintingpro channel on youtube. I leave medium and heavy at stock settings but for the fine detail stuff I've got contact diameter and depth at 0.08 for lights. I have to cut the heavies and mediums with clippers but the light supports come off with hot water and just pressure with no marring. They won't support ANYTHING though so I only use them for tiny details and not actual support. I make sure I have heavies on the feet of humanoid models as well as interspersed with mediums on large areas like limbs and torso. The lights are only for little details that connect quickly to the already supported model like finger tips or armor details.

While I wholeheartedly support you printing out FASAtrek models, Stormonu, I'm thoroughly disappointed that you selected the L-9 frigate. Every Klingon commander worth their blood wine knows that the D-10 is both tactically and asthetically superior!

 warboss wrote:
I've had good success with manual placement and very fine supports as advocated by the 3dprintingpro channel on youtube. I leave medium and heavy at stock settings but for the fine detail stuff I've got contact diameter and depth at 0.08 for lights. I have to cut the heavies and mediums with clippers but the light supports come off with hot water and just pressure with no marring. They won't support ANYTHING though so I only use them for tiny details and not actual support. I make sure I have heavies on the feet of humanoid models as well as interspersed with mediums on large areas like limbs and torso. The lights are only for little details that connect quickly to the already supported model like finger tips or armor details.

While I wholeheartedly support you printing out FASAtrek models, Stormonu, I'm thoroughly disappointed that you selected the L-9 frigate. Every Klingon commander worth their blood wine knows that the D-10 is both tactically and asthetically superior!

So, I've been doing this same sort of technique but one persistent, annoying issue that I'm running into now more and more with models I'm trying to print that when you mechanically support the model from a flat surface that surface ends up looking like crap.

It seems like it doesn't matter how carefully I space out those heavy supports, if the bottom of my model is a large flat area, that area ends up basically warping down to the build plate in a single solid mass rather than separated supports that I can clip off easily.

This isn't a problem on models that have feet, because all you need to do with feet is clip them roughly down and maybe sand the bottoms to make it easier to glue them down to the base. The issue comes from the fact that I am now printing stuff for Titanicus, which is almost entirely multipart models with ball-and-socket joint connections. In order to make it so that there's no "designated gakky surface" on the guns, for example, I've been finding a convenient place on the model to slice the gun in half, so that the flat sliced surface can go down facing the build plate. And unfortunately what I end up with is a big chunky blob of resin that I have to clip off all at once and that I have to painstakingly sand flat so that when I join the two pieces together the resulting gun isn't crooked.

I'm wondering whether it'd be better to introduce just a slight tilt of like 5-10 degrees on models like this so that the bottom layer of the model doesn't appear all at once, but not enough that I have to have a whole series of supports on a whole bunch of overhanging features across a whole plane of the piece.

Yea you never start on flat surfaces, you want to keep all angles at 45 or sharper ideally.

I watched 3dprintingpro but my machine is a bit violent for his needle thin supports, I keep default Lychee settings (0.3mm lights)

Yes, flat bases on supports are deadly. Your options are to angle or to put the base directly onto the build plate with no supports; however, this can make the model very difficult to remove from the build plate!

 MDSW wrote:
Yes, flat bases on supports are deadly. Your options are to angle or to put the base directly onto the build plate with no supports; however, this can make the model very difficult to remove from the build plate!

D'oh. Why didn't I consider that...These split guns would be perfectly fine attached directly to the build plate.

I'll have to figure out how to add light supports to hold up overhanging details without popping the model up 5mm, adding the base to the support, etc.