The “New Version” is significantly cheaper. If I’m printing in PLA, surely you just use this new version? Or is there some benefit to using the older, more expensive “Support for PLA/PETG” filament for the support interface, given the price difference?
And I assume when printing in PETG, the PLA/PETG version would be the better choice?
I’m very new to using support filaments as support/raft interface - so any help is appreciated. Thankyou!
The “New Version” is significantly cheaper. If I’m printing in PLA, surely you just use this new version? Or is there some benefit to using the older, more expensive “Support for PLA/PETG” filament for the support interface, given the price difference?
And I assume when printing in PETG, the PLA/PETG version would be the better choice?
Bambu unfortunately made their “New Version” of Support for PLA significantly LESS reliable for PLA printing compared to the old version.
Support for PLA/PETG works great when you’re using single nozzle printer, but not reliable on dual nozzle printer.
So at the current stage, no very reliable interface material.
So for example, if I used an X2D machine as intended - main nozzle PLA, and secondary auxiliary nozzle loaded with Bambu Lab’s “Support for PLA/PETG” for support/raft interface. You are saying it’s not reliable? What makes it unreliable in this scenario?
What doesn’t stick? The new version support filament doesn’t stick to the main print material?
I actually used an X2D with PETG and Support for PLA/PETG as an interface layer yesterday and it worked great. (Just one print though, not a tonne of experience with it…)
It’s unreliable because the two materials don’t bond well enough
For support materials you want them to bond *just enough to:
hold against warping or other deforms, and
enough to make the small features to also hold in place*,
but not bonding too well that would make it too difficult to remove
the first case:
you’re printing a building model, which has a large balcony that is square and has a large bottom surface. if the support material is not reliable enough, the corners of that balcony would warp and deform.
the second case:
you’re printing a figurine and it has fingers pointing downwards. So, these fingers would be printed from finger tips first, then get connected to other parts on higher layers. To support these fingers your supports generated tiny interface layers. if it’s not reliable enough, the finger would break off during print, or deform.
Doubling back on this. If I used an X2D machine as intended - main nozzle PLA, and secondary auxiliary nozzle loaded with Bambu Lab’s “Support for PLA/PETG” for support/raft interface. I don’t get how the dual nozzle setup would make the supports/print unreliable? Wouldn’t it be more stable because you have 1 nozzle delivering 1 material throughout the print? No mixing in the hot end?
There seems to be a pretty wide spectrum of success and failure with these specific Bambu Lab support filaments. Feels like it really depends on what you are printing.
because the filament was developed with single nozzle machines (x1/p1/a1) in mind, and in that case the purge amount simply cannot purge out all the pla out of the nozzle. which means there would be some pla contaminants left in the support material, that would give you more adhesion than the support material alone.
various tests have been conducted by me and other community members to confirm this, the more you purge, the worse the adhesion. then for the H2/X2, since you don’t have any PLA in the aux nozzle to start with, you can imagine the weakened bond.
I used the new support for pla last week on a yarn bowl where the middle feature is printed on top of it for about 100 layers before it connects to the rest of the model. It held fine. It works just as well as using PETG, because it is PETG and PET.
I haven’t tried the support for PLA/PETG yet. Although I might soon. I really need something that can handle a 40-45°c chamber temp though as that’s what I print my PETG at. It should considering it’s mostly TPU with a touch of PET and PCT.
Feels like it really depends on what you are printing.