Printer & filament used:
- Printer model used = Bambu Lab P1S
- Type of filament used = Bambu Lab PLA Basic
Problem description
I have a doll of 15 cm high that has raised arms. Since the arms are ‘floating in the air’, I have activated support in Bambu Studio. First I used default tree supports, but when the printer was getting to the top of the supports, just under the hands of the doll, the supports came loose (both supports under the left and under the right hand).
First I thought it was the filament (Bambu PLA Basic), maybe already too moist. So I put it in my oven for 8 hours at 50 C. After that the print looked cleaner (so the drying did something), but the supports still came loose.
Then I decided to change the Support Style from ‘Default’ to ‘Tree strong’. This works much better, but obviously instead of several trees, the whole support has become one structure in this case.
Although this looked like the solution, still something goes wrong. The bottom parts of both hands, still snap away.
The model with missing parts of the hands, while still printing the doll:
Two screenshots of the doll model in Bambu Studio:
Slicer settings used:
- Temperature nozzle = 220 C
- Temperature Bed = 55 C
- Fan = I think is 100% according to the Bambu PLA Basic defaults
Others/observations:
Now sitting next to printer while printing, I notice a kind of cracking noise. It can be heard twice or so per minute. Like the filament in the printed part of the object is cracking. (Is it shrinking?)
Question:
- Does anyone recognise this?
- What should I do to solve this?
I am far from an expert on supports but some of your support structure doesn’t look right.
The legs of the model itself almost look like they don’t contact the build plate or have very little contact that can’t be seen.
What does the sliced model look like from underneath the plate. Maybe a raft is needed for the legs?
You can also experiment with painting supports. I have had to use that tool occasionally because Bambu Studio would not generate supports where there needed to be supports
@Wsquared58: Thanks for your thoughts!
The sliced model without support structure looks like this from the bottom:
The sliced model with support structure looks like this from the bottom:
What do you think?
What infill type did you configure? With grid infill you always have overlaps in the intersections and this could cause the noise. And maybe that’s enough impact to knock off the support connection? I would consider gyroid for this. Also you can draw sections where the slicer should add support. So maybe increasing the support in the arms helps as well (edit: just read that @Wsquared58 already wrote this tip with drawing supports.Sorry for double posting)
I found a model very similar to yours (Stay Puft from Ghostbusters 1) and fiddled with it to maybe give you some ideas.
This is Stay Puft, imported to my build plate in Studio.
From there, I enabled Supports and selected Supports Painting.
The checkerboard pattern is what Studio defined as requiring support. BUT…that is dependent on the slider bar for Highlight overhang areas. Looking at your first picture, the location and size of the tree support seems too small. I’m assuming the blue in crotch area, hands, arm are support locations.
With supports
Thnx @GumbyMan & @Wsquared58 !
- Infill type: until now I tried Rectilinear and Archimedean Chords. Both didn’t work. So I will change that to Gyroid.
- Feet and build plate contact: I think that the feet are touching the base plate. After printing and removing the doll, the PEI plates structure can be clearly seen in the bottom surface of the feet.
Question
I haven’t used the ‘Supports Painting’ function before. So, if I might check with you.
- Is it correct that I first paint the areas to be supported in the ‘Prepare’ section, and then make the settings for support in the ‘Support’ Tab?
- What kind of settings did you use there? Auto Tree / Default style?
- What is your setting for ‘Threshold angle’? 30?
- Any other settings that are important here?
Consideration
What I still don’t get …
The bottom side of the hand gets snapped away. That’s the part below the red line in the picture left, and on the other picture seen from the backside (the 2nd picture shows the hand part as it should be).
What I don’t understand is that this part of the hand is about 3 mm above the top of the support structure. So why does this part of the object also snap away?
To me, it looks like there is not enough support. Based on the small amount of blue at hands and crotch.
Enable supports, select (click on) Support Paint tool, and look at model from directly below. There should be a checkerboard pattern visible. You have to select the Paint Support tool to un-hide that checkerboard.
Everything gets done in the Prepare tab. Preview is like a chance to look over the things you did in the Prepare tab.
Workflow is Prepare–>Slice–>Preview–>Print Plate
Be mindful that you can toggle back to Prepare and change settings/slice as many times as you want before sending to printer
- Is it correct that I first paint the areas to be supported in the ‘Prepare’ section, and then make the settings for support in the ‘Support’ Tab?
No, enable support first.
- What kind of settings did you use there? Auto Tree / Default style?
Yes Tree (Auto) and Default
- What is your setting for ‘Threshold angle’? 30?
I generally leave at 30 but the larger the number the more expansive the support will be.
Support Painting Guide
The hands on your doll seem to be configures to hold something based on the slot in both.
