Proper support material that breaks away cleanly! This opens up some incredibly cool opportunities.

Sanjay_Mortimer1 · February 13, 2014, 9:45am

This is ColorFabb XT with PLA support material. The XT and the PLA bond nicely but as you can see in the video it breaks away perfectly cleanly.

This was printed on a Kraken/Mendel90, sliced with Cura and printed on hairspray/blue tape.

Be aware that the print stopped at 80% or so due to an electrical failure, which is why the top surface of the femur is flat/open.

As a bit of shameless self promotion - we are now selling XT, PLA, and shipping Kraken BETA units next day if you want to get involved. http://www.e3d-online.com

Sanjay_Mortimer1 · February 13, 2014, 9:49am

Also just to point out that the pliers weren’t really needed. We removed 90% of the support by hand. Pliers just gave a better view for the video.

Matej_Rozman · February 13, 2014, 11:43am

Cool! One questione, have you manualy drawn support or was it generated with slicer?

Sanjay_Mortimer · February 13, 2014, 11:46am

Generated entirely automatically with Cura.

Liam_Jackson · February 13, 2014, 1:27pm

Can the XT be used for supporting normal coloured PLA or would it not break away so well?

Sanjay_Mortimer · February 13, 2014, 1:28pm

Yep, it works both ways around!

Joseph_Chiu · February 13, 2014, 1:57pm

Nice! I get similar results with our HIPS+ABS combination. It seems like the two materials like to separate more after they have cooled down a little bit. I like color matching the supports to the print so that any remnant of supports would blend right in.

Tim_Rastall · February 13, 2014, 7:38pm

So, when I could get it extruding without jamming (oval filament ) I found tglase and ABS were the same.

Billy · February 13, 2014, 8:23pm

Was the support printed solid or was it sparse like regular single material support?

Sanjay_Mortimer1 · February 14, 2014, 10:43am

@Billy The material was sparse - set at 25% in cura. Cura doesn’t support something like slic3rs “interface layers” between infill layers and the model.

I’ve made some changes to cura - changing the hardcoded overhang threshold to get some support where it was needed but not being generated, and it’s now reprinting. 30% support material density this time. Also not gaps between support and model. Trying to get better underside finish.

@Ashley_Webster We’re using this method/mount: http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/2014/01/4-extruder-printing-duet-kraken.html
Which is really well designed and documented in his post.