3D print keeps warping bottom of horizontal cylinders

[Aremke]

Hey all, I just got a Monoprice Maker Select 3D printer and I am having a heck of a time getting it to cooperate.

I’ve been trying to make custom parts for my Transformer collection. I managed to make a suitable model in TinkerCAD and GCode it in Cura.

The prints come out great except for the barrel of the gun. Every single time, the bottom of the print is missing or warps up and is covered with striations(see pictures). I even flipped the gun upside down in Cura just to test it. It’s always the underside the print, regardless of model orientation.

I have tried everything I can think of to fix this/ I have leveled the print bed a dozen times, cleaned the extruder, cleaned the print bed with alcohol, changed printing temperatures and speeds, changed fan settings. At first I thought it might be the bed leveling and extruder temp because when said extruder works on the barrel, it seems to push into that part of the print more than usual, but I don’t know if that’s a matter of the underside of the barrel warping and curling up *into* the path of the extruder or what.

What am I doing wrong?

[mx20100]

Hey Aremke,

Have you tried to printing it vertically? Or even changing the distance between support and the part.

Best

[cobnut]

Hi @Aremke you may be doing nothing wrong at all. Cylinders printed horizontally are a pain in the *** and what you’re seeing I’ve seen plenty of times. As @mx20100 suggested, the solution I usually go for is to try and print them vertically - along their axis. If that’s not possible then it’s all about the supports. Pretty much the only way I’ve got good looking cylinders (with a smaller radius, as yours are - the bigger the radius, the lower the problem) is by using a soluble support material with a 100% fill; essentially you surround the bottom of the cylinder with solid filament.

If you can’t do that - if you don’t have a dual extruder - then it’s all about working with the support settings. You need a couple of dense infill layers (over 70%) and they need to be as close to your model as possible.

As I said, in my experience they’re just a pain, but experimentation should get you better results. I’d suggest making yourself a small test piece to experiment with (a cylinder only 20mm long, for example) rather than testing with this full model, until you’re happy with the results.

[Kizmet]

I had a similar print. The way the model is on the bed is fine. Here’s what I did to fix it. 1.) (might be safer to use 2 x ikea lak tables for this) I just used a large cardboard box, put the printer in the box, and that solved the warping. (potential fire Hazzard) 2.) I added Z hop 3.) I slowed the printing speed by 50% 4.) used a thick support resolution 5.) added way more support until I was happy with it, like 30 degrees support or less. 6.) increased distance between support and part by a lot It was torture, but it worked Ambient temp in the box was 35C

[jfield]

Can you split the model in to 2 pieces? Make the barrel a separate piece and print it vertically, then glue the 2 parts together.

[Garyg]

Hi

I would print this oriented 90 degrees vertical as mx20100 suggested.

It looks like the model was designed to print vertical because of the related angles.

If printed vertical with supports, the supports would be minimal.

If you decide to print vertical, it might be a good idea to make 2 at a time, so the filament of each layer will

have some time to solidify before adding the next layer.

If your layer resolution is about 0.25mm or so, I think it would look very nice.

…

Just my opinion.

[shahramrobotics]

Add your own support to the model, for a barrel like that you can add a block with a half cylinder cutout and put it below the barrel with like 0.4mm spacing and add a few connection points to them to keep the barrel warm and in place during the print and when it’s done just snap the block off of your model.