Originally shared by Joseph Larson
Disolvable supports on a home 3D printer may be possible
A 3D printing coworker with a Rigidbot got a hold of some of the fancy support material used in high end FDM 3D printers. What this stuff is we don’t know, but we know it dissolves in lye and ABS sticks to it in a 90 degree heated chamber. But will it work …
Yeah, what Matt said, there are already dissolvable filaments available for home hobbyists. There have been for quite a while, too.
I did some experiments with hips and ABS and while it works in some cases and doesn’t sick in small footprints like necessary for this sort of thing. If might work with PLA better, but I don’t know. A good test is to do just a 20mm sphere.
HIPS has trouble with fine detail and too much support. It solves at the beginning but as the concentration of hips to limonene shifts it tends to goop up and fall off, not dissolve away. I haven’t experimented with PVA yet, but everything I’ve read about it sounds challenging.
There’s definitely room for improvement in the makers market for dissolvable supports.