Hi Everyone,
Cant seem to print this model correctly. It is for a customer and is printed in ABS on a ormerod 2. I can’t get the blades and the holes right.
If anybody has some tips I would really like the help
Anton
Wim spoel_netfabb (1).stl (2.23 MB)
Yikes. That’s a nasty model to try to print on a FDM printer. If I measured right, those holes are only 5mm across?
I’d rotate it 90 degrees so that the fins all print upright. Depending on the quality the customer selected, they can’t expect all the holes to be perfect. Unless they also payed you for support removal (or if you provide that for free.) then you could print with light supports and they would be responsible for drilling out the holes.
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This does not work the holes collapsed and when I add support it just fills the holes.
Hi, I would also rotate it 90 degrees so the fins print upright, that half’s the overhangs. I also use mesh-mixer to produce the support needed, it’s quite easy to remove with a little scaring. The bottom might need the most clean up so allow time using some mini files, the holes could be drilled to the correct size to clean them. I have attached a supported STL of your model.
Wim spoel_netfabb_Supported (1).stl (6.4 MB)
I’m still struggling with getting bridging to work perfectly as well, and have ended up using support more than I used to.
Although I agree with others comments about rotating the model, I’d also suggest printing it on a raft/and/or wide brim. Those thin vertical walls look like they’ll curl up- it look like a radiator, and I think it’ll cool quickly.
As it’s ABS, you could also split it just below each fin and print each segment flat and then glue then together afterwards. ABS glues very well compared to PLA IMHO. It ups the labour, but keeps everything in the right plane for support free easy printing. Even easier if you can find something to form it up on and then clamp it.
But if it must be a single print and you’re out of time, consider trying different slicers. For one print I was struggling with I ended up buying Simplify 3D in desperation. I don’t think it does much better than slic3r or Cura in most areas, but it does shine for supports. It’s the only software that I’ve used so far that creates easily removable supports that also work. They almost fall off afterwards, with very little surface marring. I’m sure you could get similar with slic3r or cura with time and experimentation, but simplify’s supports just worked for me right out of the box.
You may also want to experiment with orienting it so the series of smaller holes are in a horizontal plane and slowing the print/lowering the temperature/little bit of cooling(?) for that section.
Good luck!
As far as I can imagine, this is the support for some coils (e.g. of a transformer), and the holes allows the wires to come out. In the large square hole there should come a magnetic piece or an assembly of them, hence it has to be nice finished as well.
To start with, I would cut the piece in half, e.g. using netFabb Basic, placed on the fins, as seen in StudioK’s picture, but rotated around X/Y so that the holes will be part of a single half.
Than both halves should be printed placed on the full side (as the bottom piece from the entire part). You can later on easily glue them together with acetone.
Now, for the holes, simply adjust the cooling by reducing print speed strategy in your slicer, so that the print speed in the holes area will not exceed 15 mm/s, and the holes should come fine.
L.E. It is also that you want to make sure the fins are printed with perimeters only, hence you have to adjust the extrusion width and/or number of perimeters in the shell of a slice, to print correctly the thin walls (if not did it already 
As it is an almost modular object, I would split it into parts (see attachments) to be glued:
1 x bottom
14 x inner
1 x top
On the Ormerod 2 you can put 4 parts at once on the plate, so you will need 4 printing sessions.
Cheers,
M.
Wim spoel_netfabb (bottom).stl (155 KB)
Wim spoel_netfabb (inner).stl (167 KB)
Wim spoel_netfabb (top).stl (158 KB)
