Such a handy trick! Sacrificial bridges are like the secret sauce of designing for 3D Printing... once you know about them it really unlocks a tonne of design potential.
This should really come as a feature in the slicer itself. Feels like a pretty simple thing to check for while slicing, it’s basically just extending straight lines or checking for where a plane intersects. If done in the slicer the thickness of the sacrificial layer could also be reduced by reducing the flow rate while it’s ”bridging”, making it easy to remove even if you print very thick layers.
I do this in some of my prints. It helps when you have a part that you can't bridge normally. Think of the overhang part being the corner of a cube. Nowhere for the bridge to go. Uses way less filament than normal supports as well.
You don't need CAD file for this if you use PrusaSlicer. It allows you to add primitives (cylinder, box ...). Make it 1 layer high and place it where the supporting bridge should be. Although I have to admit that doing this in CAD is much easier. But in vast majority of cases you just don't have access to the source file (yes, I'm looking at you, Thingiverse)
I know, it's been a while since you published this. Just stumbled over it. It took me a while to fully understand the ingenuity of this. I tried it with a similar part I just designed in F360 and this not only saved filament but also time. And the results are great. Amazing!
Yeah I think I first saw the idea from Angus (Makers Muse), but you make a good point about it is actually faster to use sacrificial layers, since you aren't doing additional perimeters.
I still like this option in a lot of cases since the glue has the potential to add some strength and for structural components it can be advantageous to print portions in different orientation to avoid bond strength issues.
There is a easily missable standard Setting in prusaslicer that makes Supports EXTREMELY easy to remove. Just change the Z Distance from 0.1 to 0.2 in the Supports tab
I picked this tip up from Angus (Maker's Muse), and often use this on parts that I downloaded. Usually I only have the STL and I'm not experienced in modifying meshes like this, so I add these 1-layer covers to the holes in PrusaSlicer. Doing it in the slicer (even for my own designs) also allows me to choose at the slicing stage what layer height I want to use and then add the hole covers at the correct thickness then. Especially useful now that I'm using adaptive layer heights, I can find out the right thickness after I've applied the adaptive layer height tool. For counter bored holes smaller than I can fit my deburring tool into (like for M2 hardware) an appropriately sized drill bit makes easy work of cleaning the finished holes. (For example, 2mm drill bit for for an M2 hole.)
Not sure if it was your accent or not, but it sounded like you called that tool a "burrowing tool". Its actually a de-burring tool, for removing burs. But works a treat on 3d printed parts, also good for trimming any elephants foot effect on bases of parts.
Cool little trick, I already know at least two projects I'm working on where I wish I knew about this before. Both parts require supports to print, but at the same time they're very difficult to print with supports, this will simplify things a lot.
This video should rename to "How to be a good design engineer and how to love maintenance folks". Joke aside, learnt something new today and definitely will try this out in my design!
this is always helpful, and it keeps on being a good tip. i first watched tips about sacrificial layers for bridging from makers muse videos, it is so handy and it should have more people doing videos about it. it was great showing the perspective of making several parts. also bringing things up in the reference of making several parts, clean up and time becomes prohibitive. good video. thx!
Gosh I learn something new with each of your videos! I had seen this technique from Angus but it didn't sink in how useful it was or easy to implement, yes will be trying it out next opportunity.
I sometimes place the support a small distance from the part. You can see it when zoomed in on the slicer or CAD, but it does the job and is easily removable. If it is too far to bridge or outside the object, I might create a shelf. 2mm lower than what needs to be supported. That shelf is supported by small structure branched from a point on the main part. If your example had to be printed upside down, I would make a partial Cone sloping 45° and 0.2mm larger radius than the part.
I usually add a support of some sort up to about 0.1mm (or 1 layer height) from the overhang. It works, takes very little filament and falls off when I lift the print off the bed. No "removing" needed.
Interest solution, thanks for explaining it. BTW, when your head lines up just perfectly with the pillow on your chair it looks like you have little horns sticking out each side. It was kind of cracking me up.
This is genius. Thank you for sharing. I simply don't want to use supports so it limits/complicates my designs. With this trick I have more options. I have to try this at some point.
Nice tip. Notice that, in the first piece, since you're already adding a support part in the design (the sacrificial layer), you could also make an inner ring to sacrifice as well, whose outer wall would be exactly the diameter of the piece innermost ring or just barely shorter (enough to let the cutter blade slip in between later on and as tall as the sacrificial layer, so you'd be still bridging to make the "balcony" bottom layer, but the bridging distance would shorten so it'd be more firm, and you may even increase the piece size.
Seen a few videos about sacrificial layers and honestly, I don't understand why such a feature isn't mainstream in just about every slicer. Sure, adding a simple shape in Cura, such as a cylinder, and making it one layer thick would work. But man, it's 2023 and automation is a thing.
nice .... and actually the size of the bridge doesnt matter ....because you could print pillars inside and they would just be removed with the sacrificial layer ... good idea ;-)
Pretty great idea If you needed to do a large area you could still use a support wall also a minimum thickness at the mid point of the widest point of the sacrifice layer its faster and cheaper to do your way of this thank you now I have a new tool in my box
Awesome video! I do use sacrifical layers but mostly for small screw holes, hadn't thought about using it for other things! Also, the mural looks so awesome!
If the hole in the donut is too big for bridging, maybe you could support the sacrificial layer with an added cylinder that only touches the sacrificial layer. It could actually be quite a bit smaller than the hole, and it could also be a donut rather than a cylinder. Actually, come to think of it.. no need to print the middle of the sacrificial layer either. As of late I've been experimenting with tree supports - the do seem to work quite well, and separate more cleanly.
0.2 works only if you are exactly on the layer and have 0.2 layers. I do this in prusa slicer so I can swap to the layer view and make sure it's in the right spot
Nice tip. Well explained. Thanks. Sometimes supports are, in fact evil, and other times they come off easily, and hardly leave a mark. It is hard to know what settings to tweak with supports to improve them. More testing needed, I guess! :)
There is a much easier and econimical way of doing this nowadays using Cura 5 with pre-model. Just create a 1mm tube component under the overhang just inboard of your inside wall radius edge to the base. Export it as a mesh. Go into Cura and import your project stl and then import the 1mm tube stl, goto Cura pre model and make your 1mm tube a "Support Mesh"... Now it will support the bridge, it will snap off without any other cleaning and you will only use a tiny bit of material. I use this method when I create threads also. I create my thread and insert a tube the length of the thread half way between the root and crest of the thread, convert the tube as a support mesh and then when you are done the support strips out in one long ribbon with no extra cleaning.
Sweet trick, dude! I was thinking also that you could have discs and squares on the ready to bring into your slicer to throw in such places as they present themselves with models you didn't design for a quick solution. Cheers!
I do this, but in this case I'd have added a sacrificial cylinder the same size as the inner diameter. The bridging is then shorter and only the cylinder needs to be removed.
Me: Jesus, is that you? Sacrificial Layer: Yes son, I died for your prints I made a tush-remix which just wouldn't adhere to the bed due to the many holes. Added a sacrificial layer on the bottom and boom! it worked. Thanks a lot for the tipps m8
Can you please do a video on bridging? How to set up a printer/software to do it. I have a Prusa3 and can't get it to print good at all, let alone use bridging. Thanks!
Such a handy trick! Sacrificial bridges are like the secret sauce of designing for 3D Printing... once you know about them it really unlocks a tonne of design potential.
Yep, I’ve been experimenting endlessly with them now haha
Same as compliant holes! thank you! =D
Thank you for using Metric ;-)
www.google.com/search?q=ton+vs+tonne
I know I am quite off topic but does anybody know of a good place to stream new movies online?
This should really come as a feature in the slicer itself. Feels like a pretty simple thing to check for while slicing, it’s basically just extending straight lines or checking for where a plane intersects. If done in the slicer the thickness of the sacrificial layer could also be reduced by reducing the flow rate while it’s ”bridging”, making it easy to remove even if you print very thick layers.
Could easily be implemented in a slicer. Yes, supports are evil. Cheers!
You can use also sacrificial thin cross walls to support bridging parts to improve the finish quality :-)
?? What are they?
@@KieranShort thin vertical walls that support the sacrificial layer in more points
ummm so basically regular supports?
@@nipunagunarathne4882 no, more more less material is needed for the thin walls
I do this in some of my prints. It helps when you have a part that you can't bridge normally. Think of the overhang part being the corner of a cube. Nowhere for the bridge to go. Uses way less filament than normal supports as well.
I normally use 45 degree chamfers everywhere, but this is so much better. Thanks, will totally be using this technique.
You don't need CAD file for this if you use PrusaSlicer. It allows you to add primitives (cylinder, box ...). Make it 1 layer high and place it where the supporting bridge should be. Although I have to admit that doing this in CAD is much easier. But in vast majority of cases you just don't have access to the source file (yes, I'm looking at you, Thingiverse)
I know, it's been a while since you published this. Just stumbled over it. It took me a while to fully understand the ingenuity of this. I tried it with a similar part I just designed in F360 and this not only saved filament but also time. And the results are great. Amazing!
Great idea for harder materials such as TPE, PetG and Tglass as those materials are difficult to remove supports.
Yeah I think I first saw the idea from Angus (Makers Muse), but you make a good point about it is actually faster to use sacrificial layers, since you aren't doing additional perimeters.
Great tip. In the past I've resorted to splitting some items in two in CAD, printing, and glueing back together.
I still like this option in a lot of cases since the glue has the potential to add some strength and for structural components it can be advantageous to print portions in different orientation to avoid bond strength issues.
There is a easily missable standard Setting in prusaslicer that makes Supports EXTREMELY easy to remove. Just change the Z Distance from 0.1 to 0.2 in the Supports tab
Expected it to be a tip I already knew, got pleasantly surprised!
this def should be done with one sketch and a revolve
I picked this tip up from Angus (Maker's Muse), and often use this on parts that I downloaded. Usually I only have the STL and I'm not experienced in modifying meshes like this, so I add these 1-layer covers to the holes in PrusaSlicer. Doing it in the slicer (even for my own designs) also allows me to choose at the slicing stage what layer height I want to use and then add the hole covers at the correct thickness then. Especially useful now that I'm using adaptive layer heights, I can find out the right thickness after I've applied the adaptive layer height tool. For counter bored holes smaller than I can fit my deburring tool into (like for M2 hardware) an appropriately sized drill bit makes easy work of cleaning the finished holes. (For example, 2mm drill bit for for an M2 hole.)
Not sure if it was your accent or not, but it sounded like you called that tool a "burrowing tool". Its actually a de-burring tool, for removing burs. But works a treat on 3d printed parts, also good for trimming any elephants foot effect on bases of parts.
ozcanison LOL I literally just came to the comments to say the same thing. Glad I wasn’t the only one
@@stephentrenta3514 yeah it could just be his accent saying a long rrrr sound, but not sure.
I occasionally modeled supports in my designs, but I never had the Idea to make use of bridging. Thx!
same here, great idea!!
Cool little trick, I already know at least two projects I'm working on where I wish I knew about this before. Both parts require supports to print, but at the same time they're very difficult to print with supports, this will simplify things a lot.
This is indeed very smart and simple. Great tip!
This video should rename to "How to be a good design engineer and how to love maintenance folks". Joke aside, learnt something new today and definitely will try this out in my design!
Such a neat trick to avoid support
this is always helpful, and it keeps on being a good tip. i first watched tips about sacrificial layers for bridging from makers muse videos, it is so handy and it should have more people doing videos about it. it was great showing the perspective of making several parts. also bringing things up in the reference of making several parts, clean up and time becomes prohibitive. good video. thx!
Gosh I learn something new with each of your videos! I had seen this technique from Angus but it didn't sink in how useful it was or easy to implement, yes will be trying it out next opportunity.
I sometimes place the support a small distance from the part. You can see it when zoomed in on the slicer or CAD, but it does the job and is easily removable. If it is too far to bridge or outside the object, I might create a shelf. 2mm lower than what needs to be supported. That shelf is supported by small structure branched from a point on the main part. If your example had to be printed upside down, I would make a partial Cone sloping 45° and 0.2mm larger radius than the part.
I usually add a support of some sort up to about 0.1mm (or 1 layer height) from the overhang. It works, takes very little filament and falls off when I lift the print off the bed. No "removing" needed.
Great tutorial Joe. I've been using sacrificial supports for some time with 100% success .... so far.
Interest solution, thanks for explaining it.
BTW, when your head lines up just perfectly with the pillow on your chair it looks like you have little horns sticking out each side. It was kind of cracking me up.
that's my devilish side popping out ;)
This is genius. Thank you for sharing. I simply don't want to use supports so it limits/complicates my designs. With this trick I have more options. I have to try this at some point.
This channel is a goldmine. Thank you!
Good info, since I was having this exact issue with some PETG that I like and didn't want to use supports for the design. Thanks for the great tip!
Wow, how have I not thought of this before!? Thank you!
Thanks for this trick. Is a must for less waste. Continue the good work.
This just shows how much Slicer can be improved in the future (i.e. slicers could support this automatically).
i use this all the time. love it
Nice video! I did this in my designs for years not only on horizontal layers, but also on vertical shells, works great as well 😉
This blows my mind.
Thank you for the great tip. I will definitely be trying this out. Cheers 👍😎🇦🇺
Excellent. I while back I did the same while printing parts for a Bontech extruder. Worked great as you stated. Thanks
Excellent. I didn't know that thin a layer would be enough support.
Nice tip. Notice that, in the first piece, since you're already adding a support part in the design (the sacrificial layer), you could also make an inner ring to sacrifice as well, whose outer wall would be exactly the diameter of the piece innermost ring or just barely shorter (enough to let the cutter blade slip in between later on and as tall as the sacrificial layer, so you'd be still bridging to make the "balcony" bottom layer, but the bridging distance would shorten so it'd be more firm, and you may even increase the piece size.
Great tip. I often forget about this.
Never thought about this ... thanks
Excellent idea. Thanks for sharing
Its not only about support
Its about support time and your work.
You can save material, print time and your time :)
Great video very interesting. also great to see the mural up and running in a video 👍
Thanks for the advice. The community is good!
Thanks for this video. A very good solution to avoid plastic lost.
I've seen clips on Facebook of near bed-width bridging on the Ender 3.
so simple and yet brilliant . thanks .
Thanks for the tip. Tried it and it worked a treat for what I was doing.
Seen a few videos about sacrificial layers and honestly, I don't understand why such a feature isn't mainstream in just about every slicer. Sure, adding a simple shape in Cura, such as a cylinder, and making it one layer thick would work. But man, it's 2023 and automation is a thing.
nice .... and actually the size of the bridge doesnt matter ....because you could print pillars inside and they would just be removed with the sacrificial layer ... good idea ;-)
Cool trick! I'll definitely try this out.
Pretty great idea If you needed to do a large area you could still use a support wall also a minimum thickness at the mid point of the widest point of the sacrifice layer its faster and cheaper to do your way of this thank you now I have a new tool in my box
I always try to model in support on the model like Angus from Maker's Muse.
Great Tip. Thanks Bud.
Cool! Very interesting trick. Thank you!
Very practical and easy idea! Thanks for sharing.
Awesome Tip ..... thx. I have had a problem with a current knob design that this will help.
Awesome video! I do use sacrifical layers but mostly for small screw holes, hadn't thought about using it for other things!
Also, the mural looks so awesome!
If the hole in the donut is too big for bridging, maybe you could support the sacrificial layer with an added cylinder that only touches the sacrificial layer. It could actually be quite a bit smaller than the hole, and it could also be a donut rather than a cylinder. Actually, come to think of it.. no need to print the middle of the sacrificial layer either.
As of late I've been experimenting with tree supports - the do seem to work quite well, and separate more cleanly.
neat trick, will be very helpfull for many prints
Great trick! 1st I've seen this from Angus. But this explanation and the reminder are pretty good! Thanx.
0.2 works only if you are exactly on the layer and have 0.2 layers. I do this in prusa slicer so I can swap to the layer view and make sure it's in the right spot
Amazing, with id known aboutthis before my last print. 18x 19mm bearing inserts to clean out......
This is a very neat trick, will definitely be doing this in future.
NIce video. It heled me lot and also reduce the amount of support needed in my current project.
For the screw inserts, you could also use a champher and not need supports or a sacrificial layer, depending on the screw head.
Great stuff Joe, mentally stored for later use. Cheers, JAYTEE
Had to look up what a borrowing tool was, thanks for the link.
Nice tip. Well explained. Thanks. Sometimes supports are, in fact evil, and other times they come off easily, and hardly leave a mark. It is hard to know what settings to tweak with supports to improve them. More testing needed, I guess! :)
There is a much easier and econimical way of doing this nowadays using Cura 5 with pre-model. Just create a 1mm tube component under the overhang just inboard of your inside wall radius edge to the base. Export it as a mesh. Go into Cura and import your project stl and then import the 1mm tube stl, goto Cura pre model and make your 1mm tube a "Support Mesh"... Now it will support the bridge, it will snap off without any other cleaning and you will only use a tiny bit of material. I use this method when I create threads also. I create my thread and insert a tube the length of the thread half way between the root and crest of the thread, convert the tube as a support mesh and then when you are done the support strips out in one long ribbon with no extra cleaning.
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Super trick and advice!
Sweet trick, dude! I was thinking also that you could have discs and squares on the ready to bring into your slicer to throw in such places as they present themselves with models you didn't design for a quick solution. Cheers!
Instead of extruding and then extruded cut you should do extrude at offset.
A revolve would only take 1 sketch and 1 Revolve operation.
Your earned the trifecta... sub, alert, comment...... You are a print ninja.... keep them coming
Thank you :)
I do this, but in this case I'd have added a sacrificial cylinder the same size as the inner diameter. The bridging is then shorter and only the cylinder needs to be removed.
O Kakaroto é um gênio.
Very neat, I love learning new things.
Good thinking! This should be somehow included in slicers..
Very helpful and useful tip for designs and printing. Thanks!
Support in cura, enable the support interface and roof settings. It creates a brim ontop of the support making it easier to remove.
All slicers have that feature
@@3DMakerNoob just using Cura, don't think many ppl use it as it's a gold when it comes to removing support
This is an ancient technique, but is always welcome the reminder
Me: Jesus, is that you?
Sacrificial Layer: Yes son, I died for your prints
I made a tush-remix which just wouldn't adhere to the bed due to the many holes. Added a sacrificial layer on the bottom and boom! it worked. Thanks a lot for the tipps m8
awesome!! i'll try it!
Great! Many thanks for the idea. I gonna try it with my next print
Great tip thanks
Thank you, great idea
Thanks :)
thank you so much! so easy and so effective.
Damn! I thought I had seen everything. But this is great! Cheers, mate!
this is actually big brain stuff. very cool!!
I generally add the supports in the design so that I use less material in the support, but this gives me another option to use.
back on form joe ..fantastic video well be trying that
Can you please do a video on bridging? How to set up a printer/software to do it. I have a Prusa3 and can't get it to print good at all, let alone use bridging. Thanks!
Will try
Omg, dude! thank alot!
Cool trick!
I just avoid sharp angles unless the design require it.
Just make the sides slope a bit and no waste.
: )
Хорошая идея! спасибо
Amazing information Joe!
Thanks buddy
This is something I could have used several times in the past if I had only known. I absolutely agree, supports are evil!! Thanks Joe!