Why are my prints becoming hairy due to support?

[sandrako]

I printed this Zeus figurine and when I removed the support it was indistinguishable and almost hairy with filament. Any ideas on why this is happening? Design error?

[Gfisherwils]

I think this may down to the support being too close to the model itself and instead of supporting the model fusing with it. I would take a look in your slicer software to see how the support effects the layers as it builds

[Filemon]

I say this is a question for @ProdPoint or @James_2

[James_2]

wow - was the support completely encapsulating the print?

So some information needed - slicer, printer, layer height, type of filament temperature, retraction settings and what the support looked like.

There should only be two tiny places that you need support on - actually probably just one - the outstretched arm.

If you have meshmixer (free) you can grow a support tree to take care of it hardly being there.

hairy stringing is normally a product of too much heat, insufficient retraction and possibly too much speed.

but you should get way better than that.

Happy to look at the stl in a slicer - but you should be able to get way better than that

James

[ProdPoint]

Printing with support materials with FDM machines will always give you bad surface finish unless you’re willing to take time and finish it by hand.

Judging by the picture though the temp was slightly too high.

As @James_2 mentioned this kind of unregular model is a perfect case for using support material from meshmixer, which is easier to remove, uses less materials and give you better surface finish.

Although the support generation is fully automated you might find this blog post usefull to optimise the support: Extrudable Me! | MeshMixer 2.0: Best Newcomer in a Supporting Role?

[key23d]

Hi Sandrako,

the problem is that the nozzle has to go from the object to the support and back so if the temperature is to high the strings are formed.

I have also trouble with stringing sometimes and it normally comes back to temperature mainly.

I just printed a bucket at 210 and when it was halfway the handle I changed it to 205 because of the strings.

You can see in the photograph what that did; no more strings (and even better I lowered the temperature because there was a big bridge coming up as well )

Kind regards, Guy

[3DPrintingNinja]

It is most likely because you are printing too fast. “Stringy” happens because the extruder will move without extruding filament, but it moves too quickly for the filament to stick and instead the filament gets dragged with the extruder. You can fix this by changing the settings to a slower speed when you slice your model to be printed.

Here is a link to 3D Printing Problems (a work in progress…): 3D Printing Ninja : Free Help Guide to Master 3D Printing: Failed Print? Here Is a Troubleshooting Guide for 3D Printing. Most Common Errors After 3D Printing.