I wanted to try to breathe some life into the 3-D printing topic section here. I had a few thoughts and perhaps I’ll write some others but for now - in model supports.
Do you use them. I have explored some solutions with some success and some failures. If you have any thoughts please share
First to the successes. My PuzzleBank model - I wanted the dials of the cryptic to have a clicky / default position. The core around which they rotate has some tabs / fins that engage with the inside of the dials.
I was considering an Etsy venture with this model so wanted to keep the overall filament weight and print time down. Rather than use the tree supports of the slicer, i created little pillars that could be removed with snips. Shown here.
Reasonably simple to remove and seemed to provide a good enough support for a decent underside.
Another support I used on this project. A separately printed bridge insert.
These two highlighted parts are printed separately. The bottom one (in this orientation) is mostly for decoration although it does function as a support for the rear side of the coin entry slot. The second (higher of the two) is more important to the functionality. Slice generated supports here would have been impractical to remove.
I wanted the coins to have free movement so they could fall into the stacks in the core. Again this plate is pre-printed and inserted mid print with a pause. It supports most of the core structure.
One just has to ensure that they print fairly flat so they don’t impact the tool head when inserted.
There is also the benefit of switching up the colours, which if done during the main print with AMS (pre-tool changer for me) would have added lots of additional time.
Failures tomorrow perhaps.
To continue. A modelled support that did not work, perhaps not unsurprisingly.
In an unrelated post a users was doing some handcuffs for cosplay perhaps. I like the idea of doing a neck shackle and have been wanting to get more experience with print in place hinges.
The barrel hinge is quite useful in 3d printed objects but can be a bit tricky to print in place.
You can just see here I tried a number of ribs to support the overhangs / tolerance needed for hinged parts to slide over one another. Shown better here. Hoping i could force them apart and wear them down with movement.
Nope! Didn’t budge! 
I’m really impressed by the things you create, and I really enjoy your YouTube tutorials. I’m definitely going to try your flower tutorial!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and showing how you do things. I learn a lot from your videos and really appreciate it.
Here an other idea for modelled supports. I use wings support a lot and try to print most of my frames, boxes and other parts at 45 degrees.
Two reasons:
1 no overhang
2 the printed part looks much better, al sides have the same finish but the chamfer of 2 mm on the print plate
Have fun.
I tried this with the aim of printing the object in PLA and the supports in PETG. It was very hopeful.
On Snappy U1
PLA for 2 parts and PETG for support / separation layers.
1st go purge tower kept failing - so removed it. (Known issue in Orca with materials that don’t adhere well. There is a work around for this in Orca but it takes a bit of patience).
2nd attempt - support starts to print ok without purge tower but blows when it comes to lying down PETG on PLA. PETG won’t reliably stick to the PLA surface.
Back to the drawing board…
My mind is thinking to print the parts separately and pause to add the central pin.
But peeps want print in place with no fuss when downloading a model - so need to come up with a reliable way forward…
Could just do a threaded pin, but then the prisoner will easily slip their shackles.
Stuck with it and arrived at a reasonably workable solution.
Tapper on the overhangs so the they can print with minimal support. There is only a minor contact here which breaks reasonably easy. Hinge moves smoothly and feels reasonably strong.
Only small area of contact / support (highlighted for reference).
Timelapse
Solved?
Might be more useful if the hinge axis could be horizontal when printed.
More useful in like storage boxes- would like to do something for my gameboy advance carts.
Perhaps a bit more complex as much more overhang / suspended parts.
Will perhaps iterate down that route, perhaps start a new thread.
