What are people using for dissolvable support material? Does anyone know of a good relatively inexpensive support available in the US?
Are you using a dual hotend setup? With what main material? I’m using E3D Scaffold (PVA based) for PLA and PETG. I think I got it from Matterhackers but they’re out of stock right now.
I thought ppl used HIPS for that
@George_Allen HIPS is best used for ABS because it prints at a similar temperature.
Oh
I used to recommend HIPS, but honestly, d-limonene is kind of a pain to work with… it’s non-toxic when fresh but once you dissolve plastic in it, you REALLY do not want to get it on your hands. And it weakens ABS, even if it doesn’t dissolve it.
The E3D dissolvable is a better way to go for most people.
@Adam_Steinmark I have the chimera, but I haven’t used both at the same time since I’ve never needed it.
Yeah but you still need materials of similar temps; you can’t print PVA and PETG you’ll wind up cross-linking the PVA. If you find a low temp PETG you may be able to get BVOH to work. But rule of thumb is BVOH or PVA for PLA and HIPS for ABS. HIPS does print at similar temps to PETG but PETG is soluble in limonene, the chemical used for dissolving HIPS so that doesn’t really work.
I’d use break-away support over dissolvable 99% of the time in any case. It’s rare you REALLY need dissolvable.
@Ryan_Carlyle I’ve been meaning to try that stuff, is it really that good?
@Adam_Steinmark I haven’t tried the E3D breakaway — just mean in general. Lots of material combos break away pretty well. (Including HIPS / ABS in fact if you don’t need print too hot. Limonene is only strictly necessary for removing HIPS from internal cavities.)
@Ryan_Carlyle I actually hear PLA works pretty well as breakaway supports for PETG. I remember a while back someone here printed the dual color traffic cone in PLA and PETG and the layers just separated from each other cleanly.
@Adam_Steinmark I usually(only) print ABS. Is HIPS then the only option I have? And if so what brand is the best? I’m in the US so any US supplier should work well.
With a Chimera hotend, yeah HIPS is likely to be your only option. I haven’t used many brands and certainly haven’t used it in a while but I think the stuff I sourced from the US was from MatterHackers.
Water soluble supports for high temp materials is the main reason I’m building an IDEX printer.
@Adam_Steinmark Why do you say HIPS would be the only option?
For Cyclops and other mixing/swapping hot ends, you have to match printing temps, and PVA-based filaments are damaged by ABS printing temps. For Chimera, you CAN do two different plastic types, but it is difficult to get good build plate / chamber temps that will work for both. To keep ABS from warping, PLA or PVA support will be very soft.
@Ryan_Carlyle beat me to it. It’s not just the ABS you have to worry about either, if the PVA stays too hot for too long it will crosslink and jam the hotend.
Thanks everyone!
@Ryan_Carlyle We had the same observation, that when we’d let an ABS part with HIPS support sit in the Limonene, the ABS developed cracks. Kind of similar to how Polycarbonate crazes when it is exposed to isopropyl alcohol.
We use PVA for supports for PLA. It builds at about 190 which is compatible with PLA.
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