If you remove the supports, you may damage the models and have to reprint again.
If you don’t remove the supports, the client is not happy and won’t accept.
If you tell the client you don’t want to remove the supports, they will leave.
Sometimes, a looks okay model get some damage during supports removing part and clients are still not happy.
What’s your strategy? welcome share.
I always print what the client sends me, even thou i only got one order so far i will stick with that
if it looks like i will break or damage the print when cleaning up the model i will leave the support and send it as is.
if the client sends something that is clearly not possible i would decline the order and tell why.
I always remove all support before delivery. If its going to be a lot of support I’ll just add a couple dollars to the order.
Id rather break the part myself and reprint it then give it to a customer to break and have to deal with that. Plus I have tools fit to properly remove support.
Is this not standard for most hubs to do this?
I’ve found that learning when to say no is the most important thing with 3D hubs. Sometimes a design just will not work on my printers without a large amount of additional work that the client isn’t willing to pay for. At that point I just let the £10 order (it always seems to be a low value order) go and advise that they look at SLS printing or similar.
I’m with you on this, I operate the exact same way. I’ll normally bundle support removal in (if necessary) for free. I’ve only ever had one order where this was a major thing, and I figured it was worth my time to help build up my hub as it was early days.
Hey Jerry,
For me, the key things are transparency and managing expectations. If you are clear from the start about the extent of the supports, the customer can prepare for it. If you are transparent about who will remove the supports by default, the customer can prepare for it. If the design is not optimal and needs a lot of support, let them know how to fix that. When they then leave because the additional material was too expensive, then you either didn’t do a good enough job of explaining the fixes or they didn’t (want to) listen to your advice and you saved yourself some time and frustration with a suboptimal design.
I have adopted this stance since I have fallen into the trap where a very low revenue order required many hours of post processing work. While I do run my hub mostly for fun, not for money, I do have a very strong opinion on what MY time is worth. A long print is time my printer has to work. A long post processing task is time that I have to work. There is a distinct difference.
So I do not usually remove any supports. But if I see a way where a small design change would mean a lot less support, I raise that point. If the customer asks for me to remove them, I charge for the time I expect it will take. If I then break something, yes, I reprint it and try again.
Sincerely,
Jonas
Thank you Jonas, I agree with you to be transparency and be a better communicator. I actually just fall into a trap that the client put me in a very hard situation. Either I missed the time or I leave the removing supports part to him and get a bad review say I did not finish the model.
I will be more careful in the future with the lesson I just learnt.
Hi
I just thought I’d chime in here even though I do not own a 3D printer myself.
for the past few years, I’ve been using printing services like 3D hubs and others.
All replies to this message thread are valid and very truthful.
Myself, when placing an order for 3D printing, I always specify that I do not want support
material removal.
My interest is to see how my 3D model performs.
I’m always interested in seeing the model as it comes off the build plate.
I feel that sometimes my request is somewhat ignored because I cannot believe the fresh off the build plate
quality of parts that I’m receiving.
Communication between the 3D printer and the designer is critical to satisfying demands on both sides.
3D hubs is just a bit lacking in the communication area, but I’m sure that at some point in time
there will be more document formats that will work in 3D hubs.
Things like Word documents and such are not acceptable attachments at this time.
For now, It appears that drawing files in several formats are ok and it seems that PDF files are also
acceptable when placing an order.
I still need to try out the PDF file format here.
…
Keep up the good work.
It looks like you guys are really trying to do as good as is possible.
Thanks
I’ve been removing supports, and I’m starting to question this as well. For small parts, okay no big deal. But when you’re looking at hours of labor, I start to have a problem. Especially when I may have something important going on. I’m going to start notifying the customer that removal is extra, and finally install my second extruder for HIPS. Just let the parts soak in Limonene, and call it a day. lol
I also assume keeping supports in might be necessary if an item is shipped. I add in single sided razor blades to help removal. I do assume they would hate this and do a poorer job.
I dont usually include support removal in my quotes, i base my quotes on my printer costs.
Minimum wage in australia is about $20 an hour, how much is your time worth?
