7.1 KiB
Tuning Support Fins to your printer
Support Fins ships numbers tuned on PLA and PETG printed on one printer. Your printer, filament and slicer profile are different. Each test print below sets one setting: print it, find the best rung, and type that number into the site. Every rung is marked with its value raised on top (the angle, the gap in mm, the setting), so there's nothing to look up.
Print them with the slicer profile you normally use, with slicer supports off. The
supports are already in the file (and the angle test needs none). Download them from
the site's Calibrate menu, which also shows each one's print time and filament;
they're also in prototype/calibration/<name>/print/.
| Test | Sets | Where on printfins.com |
|---|---|---|
| Angle | which faces need support | Overhang slider (top bar) |
| Gap | how close walls stand to the part | Printer ▸ Edit ▸ Support gap |
| Grip | how many tines hold each wall | Tines ▸ Tine grip |
| Span | how wide a bare stretch your printer bridges (tells us, for now) | More settings ▸ Wide-face coverage (Auto) |
| Pad | how the bed pad lets go | More settings ▸ Bed pad ▸ Custom ▸ Pad gap |
| Cutouts | which holes your walls can have and still stand | Cutouts (below Tines) |
| Bore | whether holes pull clean (no setting: tells us) | — |
| Sampler | nothing: every hard shape at once, to see what you get | — |
Angle (angle/print/angle-coupon.stl) — print this first
Seven ramps, 10° to 40°, each with its angle in degrees written on top. The angle is measured up from the plate, so lower is harder: 0° would be a flat ceiling, 90° a straight wall. (Many overhang tests count from vertical instead; their 60° is our 30°.) Look at the undersides. The shallowest ramp that came out clean (no droop, no stringy curls) is your Overhang setting. Faces shallower than that get support. The slider stops at 30°: if a ramp below 30° came out clean, set 30 and tell us which ramp it was.
Gap (gap/print/gap-coupon.3mf)
Six ledges, each held by walls standing a whole number of empty layers below it: 0.2 = 1 layer, 0.4 = 2, 0.6 = 3 (each ledge says its gap in mm); the far side repeats the near side. A slicer can only leave whole layers there, so in-between gaps print the same. Print at 0.2 mm layers, 0.2 mm first layer, adaptive layer height off. Snap each wall off.
- Welded, tears the ledge's skin → gap too small.
- Ledge underside saggy or stringy → gap too big.
- Use the fewest layers that snap off clean, times 0.2, in Support gap (the field stops at 0.4 for now: if only 3 layers came clean, tell us).
Grip (grip/print/grip-coupon.3mf)
Four ramps, three walls under each, built at four Tine grip settings, each written on top of its ramp: OFF = Tines off, LIGHT = the slider all the way left (the default), MID = the middle, FIRM = all the way right. That's 0, 5, 7 and 11 tines on each wall. Before snapping anything off, check that every wall is still standing. Then snap the walls off and look at each ramp's underside.
- A wall leaned or came loose → too few tines for your printer: go one step right. If even the firm walls leaned, keep firm and tell us: that's more grip than the slider gives.
- Ramp marked or torn where the tines were → more grip than you need: go one step left.
- Use the lightest setting whose walls all held. If even Tines off held, your parts may not need tines on gentle slopes, but a tall or tippy part still does.
Span (span/print/span-coupon.3mf)
Five wide shelves, built at five Wide-face coverage slider positions, each written on top as a percentage (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%): all the way left, a quarter, the middle (the default), three quarters, all the way right. Snap the walls off and look at each shelf's underside between the walls, and tell us which shelves came out flat and which sagged.
Don't set the slider from this one yet. Today the slider doesn't always add walls as it moves right: on this shelf the middle position leaves a wider bare stretch (17 mm) than all the way left (12 mm). We're fixing that. Your result tells us how wide a bare stretch your printer can bridge.
Pad (pad/print/pad-coupon.3mf)
Six cubes standing on an edge. A pad is all that holds each one down. Each pad stands a different gap off its cube: 0, 0.08, 0.12, 0.16, 0.2, 0.3 mm, written on each cube.
- Cube came loose mid-print → gap too big.
- Pad won't peel, or tears the cube's edge → gap too small.
- Use the biggest gap whose cube stayed put. Set Bed pad to Custom, put it in Pad gap, and set the other three the way the test print had them: Pad thickness 0.2, Pad grip 0, Pad spread 4. Custom starts from whatever pad the part had before, which may not be those.
Cutouts (cutout/print/cutout-coupon.3mf)
Five tall ledges, each held by walls cut with one Cutouts style, written on top: NONE, DIAMOND, TRIANGLE, ARCH and LATTICE. Cutouts open the middle of a tall wall to save plastic; its top, foot and ends stay solid, and every hole has a pointed roof so it prints without bridging. Before snapping anything off, check every wall stood and every ledge printed flat. Then snap the walls off.
- A cut wall leaned, sagged at a hole or broke apart instead of snapping off whole → that style is too open for your printer.
- Use the most open style whose walls all held. On this coupon Diamond and Triangle use about 22 % less support plastic than solid walls, Arch and Lattice about a third less.
Bore (bore/print/bore-coupon.3mf)
A block with eight sideways holes in two sets of four, 3, 5, 8 and 12 mm across (the size is written at the front of each, the set's letter at the back). Set A's holes each have one wall running along the hole, the way the site supports them. Set X's have three walls running across the hole instead. Pull every wall out of an open end (an X wall slides out along the hole). Tell us which came out clean and which broke or stuck, and whether A or X left the smoother hole ceiling. That tells us how small a hole the tool should still support, and which way its walls should run.
Sampler (sampler/print/sampler-coupon.3mf)
One part with every hard shape at once, supported the way the site does it in Full coverage at the default settings: ramps (40°, 30°, 20°, written on top), a ball, a thin ledge far out, a flat table, a mushroom on a thin stem, a cave, sideways holes (3, 6, 12 mm, written above each) and an arch. It sets nothing. Print it last, once the others are tuned, to see what to expect from your own parts, then snap every wall off. It's two objects, part and supports: don't Arrange or move one without the other. Tell us which walls stuck or tore the part, and which undersides sagged. The flat table may sag between its walls: they run the same way the slicer bridges it for now.
Tell us what you got
These results are how the defaults get better. Open a calibration result issue with your printer, nozzle, filament and the best rung of each test. A photo of the undersides helps most.