I recently watched a YouTube video (The SECRET to printing ANY miniature in PLA is.) of using a resin slicer for miniatures and exporting the g-code and then using an A1 to print the miniatures. The end results were VERY impressive.
I would be nice to have to have this feature not just for miniatures but for other prints where one would just need single point of contact for support. Also to avoid having to use another slicer to get this ability.
I clicked on the video eagerly expecting something impressive. I was disappointed. None of his prints even came close to being successful. Makes you wonder what his expectations were.
First, he seems naïve about the properties of matte filament. Anyone with experience in these forums knows that matte filament has poor layer adhesion and isn’t suited for the fine details he was trying to achieve.
Second, he ignored the first rule of the scientific method: he didn’t print a control group using standard slicer supports for comparison. Instead, he he went straight to print using settings meant for resin and produce really bad outcome, and he was mighty proud of that fact.
Third, the awful print quality suggests he didn’t properly calibrate his filament at all. He never mentioned calibration and he repeatedly mentioned stringing, yet seemed unaware that this is something calibration can fix. Despite having 68K subscribers, his competency in FDM printing is questionable. The stringiness alone should have been easy to correct with proper tuning.
Given these issues, the video fails to make a compelling argument that these resin supports outperform standard FDM slicer supports. In fact, he provided no real support for his argument—no side-by-side proof—and to a trained eye, the results suggest the exact opposite. The prints were just ugly.
He claims expertise in resin printing and has made money selling pre-engineered resin supports. I’ll take that at face value. But before calling himself an expert in FDM, he needs to prove it. I don’t claim expertise in resin printing, nor would I try, but this guy presents this as an “Ah-ha” moment when it looks more like “WTF.”
I should have emphasized that I was very impressed with the idea of using the column SLA supports over tree supports. Especially with the ease of removal and putting them on specific points.
There have been times with some of my prints these types of supports would have been so much nicer than the current support options. And not just for printing miniatures.
Actually, I have experimented quite a bit with supports. There’s a lot more to support settings that are often overlooked. If you search here, I’ve posted several replies about creative uses of supports—too many to list. Experimenting with tree support width and spacing, for example, can yield some pretty radical results. Using standard supports with tighter spacing is another method. In a pinch, I design breakaway supports directly into the model in CAD. I have a couple of posts here on that.
However, none of my approaches use the spindly little supports shown in the video. Why? Because my experimentation shows they don’t work, which is why I was so interested in the video. I’m always looking for a trick I haven’t learned yet. That’s also why I was so disappointed. I think the topic was bullshit from a naïve YouTuber looking for content. I see too much of that on YouTube, which has become my primary source of tips and tricks and I find it annoying when really bad advice like this is dispensed to unsuspecting users. Then people mistakenly believe it’s true. All this guy had to do was do a side by side with standard setting. I’ll wager he did but did not put that in the video because it would destroy his whole hype.
I have been a SLA printer since 2015. I own a Form3, at the moment.
SLA supports work beautifully for SLA because of the way SLA is “printed”. There’s no “lateral” loads on the support column when a new layer is being laid down. There are no forces to deflect it.
A FDM printer would struggle with this type of support because as the plastic is being extruded and the print head is in motion, the extrusion will “drag” the top of the column, deflecting and ruining it. Which is why for tall spindly FDM prints, you have to slow way down.
FDM Tree supports are the best “emulation” of SLA lattice supports. The trees print at much bigger diameters except for the very “tip” of each branch instead of starting out at the small diameter, because that’s required for stability or the trees self destruct.
Found some more videos which were interesting using SLA supports in FDM.
I find it interesting that people are having success with this concept. Granted there is print quality is different from Resin and FDM. But the fact they are getting some questionable overhangs to print in FDM is intriguing.
