Using Support Material

Today, some students wanted to print a helmet from a design they downloaded on SketchUp (the printing of which is of questionably copyright-legality, but I digress).  This print gave us the opportunity to learn about acceleration, which "allows Replicator users to speed up their prints from the previous 40/55 mm/s default extrusion and travel speeds to a much snappier 80/150 mm/s." (source) After a failed test print, we noticed that the model was balanced on a single point.  This, of course, made it impossible to print the way we have been printing.

This gave us the chance to learn about support material.


















And, here is the finished product, (1) embedded in its support material:

 (2) Removing the support material:








(3) Final helmet with discarded support material:










Now it is time to scale up.  It's gonna be a big one!