• Gumby@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Caveat: I know nothing about 3D printing.

    That being said, couldn’t you just print it on its side?

    • petey@aussie.zoneOP
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      4 hours ago

      That’s a great idea and would require similar amounts of support, however there’s still going to be 90 degree overhangs that wouldn’t come out quite as nice as the orientation I used

      The model in question only has 1 flat side, its end (which is the top in the photo). Every other side requires supports if it’s on the build plate because of the recess in the cap, and the cap being wider than the rest of the model

    • Zangoose@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      It really depends on what you’re printing, how strong you need it to be, and/or what axis you don’t mind looking uglier because of layer lines.

      In this case OP might have been able to print it on a side with minimal supports, but the idea is that printing it at an angle turns things that would have been overhangs (which are hard for printers to do because of the melted plastic sagging) into upwards slopes. The alternative is adding support material that is intended to snap off (i.e. The block at the bottom of this picture), but those would be hard/impossible to remove in models like OP’s that would have supports inside the holes.