Support Material Sucks (for one-head extrusion 3D printers)

I had lots of fun 3D printing Noe’s Mayan inspired planters which will soon launch here on CNCKing.com but it taught me many valuable lessons – one of which – I want to avoid ever having to use support material with my 3D Systems Cube!

In complete contrast to my 3D pyramid that I designed earlier, this model needed support material but where none was required, it looked great! I especially like the Mayan Planter (the red one in the video above) as it had nice smooth lines and curves.

The 3D Systems Cube is a great little 3D printer – I really enjoy working with it but when it comes to support material, the CubeX or zPrinter line of printers is what you really want to be using – the CubeX has multi-head capabilities so you can print supports using a different material that can dissolve away which would mean no grinding or using a set of pliers. I have no patience for pliers beyond a few large pieces and as you saw, the grinder isn’t very good at removing PLA – half the time it melts due tot he heat generated by the disk.

I’ve been busier than usual the past few days filming – 3D printing is a quick film process so is the presentation which is nice but now that I have my ShopBot Desktop uncrated and functioning again… more filming, cutting, printing and general presentation is in my very near future. Too bad I need to sleep otherwise I’d get so much more done and caught-up!

I’ll soon be launching a new category here on CNCKing.com as well – vectors! I’ve been playing with 3D printing vectors and its cool and doesn’t use much material… still have a very full plate and lots of plans, especially plans within plans, so stay tuned!