Trouble printing tube on side.

[Phil]

Not sure I am missing something or this is a problem w Cura. 4.7.1

I'm trying to print a tube round side on the bed only because it didn't print well going vertical. To get it to stick I had to use a raft.

I used Tinkercad and got the final result here.



I exported to Cure 4.7.1 and it looks fine and comparable.


Supports above as expected.

Below is the same view in Cura preview


Above Cura seems to have added this strange support to all 4 sides of the tube.

The actual print shown below.



Not sure why this element was added.

I have Cura set to "Support Overhand Angle" at 55° and the supports underneath and internal are as expected. Not sure how or why this got added.

[Ender5r]

You could try not using supports. In any case, this is a difficult print to do horizontally. It literally begs to be printed vertically. What was the issue when you tried that?

[Phil]

ty, I tried going vertical and using a brim (outside) but it fell over near the top.

[Geit]

The model should be printed vertical. Don´t use a raft. Better use a brim, which is faster and utilized less material. Cura also has an option to create "brim on the inside", which would close the pipe on the bed side, so you get a big close circle as print surface.

You can set the brim size to 16mm if your bed adhesion is that bad, but I would suggest to check why the prints don´t stick well. Also did it just started to wobble or got it kicked by the print head? You can overcome some printer issues, but you will always loose quality, time and plastic, so finding and fixing your printers problems should be done, before starting to print complex or in this case tall object with a low foot print.

Such a pipe should print without any problem on any printer. Even without support. Using a brim is not a big deal and the used plastic is minimal compared to a failed print, while a raft is a waste of material and time.

Printing it on the side, will cause the internals to fill, which will hard to be removed properly, depending on your print quality. However, printing on the side causes a tremendous amount of support. You could limit support to "only over build plate", but the pipe will not look good.

The external support gets created by Cura to kind of support holes. You get this on every wall with an opening, too. In many cases this minor supports and the print succeeds. I actually have no clue which option is responsible for that.

[Phil]

ty. I tried vertical with brim on the outside.I'm trying again vertical using a raft and at 8o% right now it's looking good.

Brim on the inside too is a good idea i didn't consider.

As far the the events of the failure. I noticed it wobbling and physically held the tube steady since it was near completion but the printer head appeared to be pushing it over. I had to stop the print since it was starting to print away from the existing print for some reason.

As far as Cura supports, i don't know why it created the supports on the outside where it did and it created 4 holes in the tube that were not in the original. design. If a support was needed why didn't it go all along the side at the same angle to the base?

[Alan]

I'm missing the Cura problem, the print and print preview look the same(!?).

You should be able to print vertically, using a brim (or worse case raft). Printer? Material? Temps? Speeds? If the part is failing to stick to the bed (as suggested by the use of a raft), check the the first layer sticks well and that the frame is square. Looks like there are some blobs on the print too!?

FYI: You can have multiple instances of Cura installed (I have 4). Just don't delete the old one when prompted!

Cheers!

[Phil]

ty, You're right the final print does look like the Cura preview but i don't understand why Cura added this element to my "straight" design? It added 4 holes to my design. The printed tube has 4 holes 180° opposite each other and at equal distance at both ends. If this support was necessary, why not carry it across the entire length of the tube? Any why the hole in the design if this is support material?

I expected and got support at the more horizontal levels and on the inside to support the top. But here it very specifically placed holes/supports at these points in the design so it doesn't appear to be consistent and does appear to be unpredictable.

I need to review the video about sectioning off supports in Cura and think about its use in the next go round. Right now it is printing well vertically with a raft.

[Alan]

It does seem odd. Can you post your support settings and link to the STL/Tinkercad file? I can throw it in 4.8 and see if I see anything odd.

Cheers

[Phil]

ty for responding so quickly.
I think there may be some corruption in either Tinkercad or Cura.
Based on recommendations here I tried again vertical.
below are images from Cura. the tube is hollow. the first is in prepare mode, the second in preview.
There is a gap for some reason in preview mode.

I went back to the original .stl I down loaded and opened directly in Cura and there was no gap. I made the same modification to this original .stl but adding 2 holes representing the size of the ball bearings housing and grouped. (essentially making the holes on both ends slightly bigger.)
Opening that in Cura you see the results in the attachments. (sorry, I couldn't get the images in line with this text for some reason.)

[Ender5r]

Looks like you're making progress.

[Phil]

Here's the likely corrupted file. Not sure if it is exporting incorrectly from Tinkercad or importing improperly into Cura.

[Geit]

I had no time to look into the file, but are you sure the wall isn´t getting to small when the pipe gets thinner towards the middle. It could be that the that the issue and the additional support coming from there.

Cura by default removes walls which are thinner than the nozzle size, which in the result can create holes not visible in the model, but visible in the print.

These holes cura needs to stabilize with supports to print the stuff above.

You should disable supports (in preview line options) and check the preview layer by layer and take a look what happens when the pipe is getting smaller and how the layers are positioned on top of each other. There is also an option in cura to ensure to print thin walls, even if the result will cause a bigger print as planned in the model.

However, when this is the case, you need to fix your model in tinkercad, because it is "unprintable".

[Phil]

good idea. I will check it out. ty

[Alan]

I put the model in Cura (4.8, but version shouldn't matter) and it looks fine. 3 perimeter walls at certain points (seems a bit thin for load bearing). Looks like it's a slicer setting.

Printing the top then bottom parts as a test.

Cheers

[Ender5r]

Alan, have you checked whether your Cura has Print Thin Walls enabled?

[Phil]

Geit, I believe you were correct and Cura was doing the better thinking instead of me. The material was getting too thin in those areas.

I was able to thicken the walls in Tinkercad and seems to fix this issue. As well as printing vertically

I used the suggestions here to print vertically with brims inside and out. Using an Ender 5+ it was going great until the top and the nozzle started rocking the vertical structure and I had to cancel.

When I tried a raft I had to struggle to get the raft separated.

My next thought was to break in half and print as 2 pieces and glue or melt together. I always seem to have trouble with tall prints on this device. (diameter =24mm, height 130mm)

I'll try it out and let you all know.

Thank you all very much for your help.

[Alan]

Sorry, I was distracted.

Alan, have you checked whether your Cura has Print Thin Walls enabled?

"Print Thin Walls" is not enabled. 0.4 mm nozzle and 0.4 mm line width with a 0.2 mm layer height.

I printed both the top (using a -115mm offset in Cura) of the part and the bottom of the part (cancelled print) and the exteriors came out fine (first picture). Both the top and the bottom parts have interior lips (second and third pictures). The bottom lip did not print well (I should have used supports). I also noticed that the cylindrical shape used to cut the ends left visible flat segments (~24 segments in all), which I would increase for the final part.

Time to compare slicer settings! What line width and nozzle size are you using in Cura?

Cheers

[Alan]

Geit, I believe you were correct and Cura was doing the better thinking instead of me. The material was getting too thin in those areas.

I was able to thicken the walls in Tinkercad and seems to fix this issue. As well as printing vertically

I used the suggestions here to print vertically with brims inside and out. Using an Ender 5+ it was going great until the top and the nozzle started rocking the vertical structure and I had to cancel.

When I tried a raft I had to struggle to get the raft separated.

My next thought was to break in half and print as 2 pieces and glue or melt together. I always seem to have trouble with tall prints on this device. (diameter =24mm, height 130mm)

I'll try it out and let you all know.

Thank you all very much for your help.

Great! I'm surprised the Ender 5+ has trouble with 13 cm parts. It looks very sturdy. Maybe its the bed springs!?

Cheers