3D Printing a Nifty Sphere Without Supports

[DaveMakesStuff] demonstrates a great technique for 3D printing a sphere; a troublesome shape for filament-based printers to handle. As a bonus, it uses a minimum of filament. His ideas can be applied to your own designs, but his Giant Spiralized Sphere would also just happen to make a fine ornament this holiday season.

Printing two interlocking parts and using vase mode ensures a support-free print that uses a minimum of filament.

The trick is mainly to print the sphere in two parts, but rather than just split the sphere right down the middle, [Dave] makes two hollow C-shaped sections, like a tennis ball. This structure allows the halves to be printed in vase mode, which minimizes filament use while also printing support-free.

Vase (or spiral) mode prints an object using a single, unbroken line of extruded filament. The resulting object has only one wall and zero infill, but itā€™s still plenty strong for an ornament. Despite its size, [Dave]ā€™s giant ball uses only 220 grams of filament.

A video (also embedded below) shows the design in better detail. If youā€™d like to experiment, weā€™ve previously covered how PETGā€™s transparency is best preserved when 3D printing by using vase mode, slightly overextruding, and printing at a higher temperature to ensure solid bonding between each layer.



from Blog ā€“ Hackaday https://ift.tt/ksnIlmA

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