Superslicer (prusaslicer fork) has this fully featured where you can even set a detection angle and will auto generate the ears on corners that are under your definded angle, works really good!
Clever idea. I will definitely use this. One thing I do in a similar vein that I haven't seen anyone else do is this: when printing multiple objects at the same time I make sure the objects are close enough to each other that the brim connects the first layer of all the pieces I'm printing. This makes it so that each object shares some of the adhesion force of the other objects. It also makes the whole plate of objects come off as one piece which is nice. It also reduces the chance that a small error printing one of the objects could ruin the entire print. It does create a lot of brim mess to clean up though. I'll probably incorporate this brim tab idea to reduce that mess.
I do that as well, but have also had an issue because of it. You would of course need to be careful which parts are connected sometimes. I had one part lift a bit one time, and because it did, it ended up dragging everything else off too since they were connected by the brim. But it does come in handy when it works for sure.
If you print the part without ears and it lifts, In some cases you see a discoloration of part (when it not overly obvious it’s warped). The the size of discoloration is about the size of the mouse ear needs to be. Also when you put mouse ears in the part can still lift ie the mouse ear fails - so the mouse ear will looks like a cone. Where edges are held but part closest to part lifts with part . In this case do a mouse ear with 2 or 3 layers to allow more rigidity in the ear and counter the part warp.
At 05:47 you can see the lilly pads altering your main shape, this is something I don't like. You have nice results, maybe because of the textured pei sheet, but in Ideamaker this will make the lilly pads hard to remove. That's why I use a boolean operation on them to cut out the main shape. This way the pads follow the outer walls of your shape and can be removed just like a brim. I know my explanation is not the best 😅
@Bernard Bout super slicer has an automated function implemented. For prusa slicer the easiest way I found was to use prusa slicer 2.4 -> make copy of the main shape and position it on the same location so they fully overlap -> add cylinders just like in the video -> select all cylinders and the copy of the main shape and merge -> in the menu on the right select the copy of the main shape in the 'merged group' -> right click -> change type -> Negative Volume.
Very helpful tips. I do a bunch of large prints and slight lifting in corners is a damn nightmare when I need things precise. Definitely going to be giving this try.
I give my brim/ears a 0.08mm offset. When printed I find this gives me enough contact to the part to hold it down but creates a nice weak point, making removal a lot easier. The value may not work for everyone, but the principle is useful I think.
Even if the part does not lift from the bed, they can stil warp. When I print really big parts, they lift the whole PEI sheet from the magnetic base, and it's not a bad bed (Two Trees) Not perceptible to the eyes, but the parts are definitely warped on the corners. So in those cases, no matter the brims or the custom ones as you show, you will still get warping.
I've had the same thing on larger PETG parts, ended up with the stationary clips on the magnetic bed. Also found even quite a gentle air draft in the room will really encourage warping.
When I use to print with ABS all the time I often used mouse ears especially on things with sharp corners like boxes as they are more likely to warp, if the corners are rounded I found them less likely to warp.
Great beginner tip. Been doing that for years with long parts that don't dont have a lot of surface area on the build plate. A deburring tool is a great help to get rid of these mouse ears afterwards.
Love it! I have been using this technique for many of my longer prints with abs and Asa. They work great and haven’t failed me yet. Thanks for sharing how you do it. I was manually adding my own flat cylinder parts rather than the right click method but that is very slick also.
Great video as always 👍😀 I've not used taps in my print, but I can see the point of using them. I mostly use PETg, and there is is not a big deal with warping Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀
Thank you for this video. I am still an amateur and have unnecessary problems with warping. Usually I use a brim on the outside only but is most definitely going to use anti-warping tabs to see if I can save on wasted filament. I'll be using the words "anti-warping tabs" though I can see how "mouse ears" came about. My term immediately says what it is used for.
Very helpful info. I don't like to use any kind of supports if I don't have to, so I really like the minimal impact that these tabs have on the print. Thanks!
I'm very surprised that you have the need for mouse ears on your Voron Zero. I used to use them years back on unenclosed printers, but they certainly are not needed to print any Voron parts. This looks more like workaround rather than fixing the original issue. Since in the video you never showed Filament tab, it's hard to guess what extrusion temperature, bed temperature and cooling is set for the ABS profile. Also let the printer heat up for at least 30 min before printing! It's less pronounced on V0, but mandatory for 2.4/Trident to have successful prints. I do heat soak mine for 2hours and all ABS prints are excellent :)
I also use "mouse ears" on some ABS prints. The warping occurs at sharp convex angles like the corners of cubes, so I place them only at these corners. The shrinking stress caused by cooling ABS tends to be worst on these convex angles so I use mouse ears there. I've simply created a 10 mm flat disk in my CAD program (I favor OpenSCAD), generated the STL and just add them to prints in the slicer before generating the gcode.
9:07 That shape with 5 sides is called a pentagon, not a polygon. "Polygon" refers generically to all shapes made out of straight lines, including octagons, triangles, squares, etc.
I've been using this for our large massivit 1800 printer for probably 4 or 5 years now. They call them Mickey brims in the slicing software. Only helpful on sharp corners.
I still need to venture into SS. It took me so long to make the jump to PrusaSlicer. I think when I am done with the Switchwire I will use SS with it to give it a test run 😬
SS actually has a setting for brim ears built in, you can set the max angle that they get generated on. It defaults to 125° and I’ve had great results with ABS prints using it.
I use them in Cura fairly often. Not on every print, but on oddball shapes, or large pieces that want to curl off the bed. They work pretty well and are a lot less onerous to clean up after.
Great content. Thank you for this. I never thought to add another shape in the slicer. I've been having trouble with 'rounded' edges of square parts where the material has cooled and is pulling up from the bed. I've tried adding brim and it helps, but not enough. I'm going to try varying thicknesses of this technique in those corners to see if I can get some pristine parts.
Much less filament wasted on a brim and faster if you can target the locations of your print that will be prone to warping especially large print base and long thin models. I'll definitely be trying this out.
I've used these in the past but being in the v0.1 I don't need to virtually at all. That part should print perfectly fine without any additional bed adhesion methods providing your bed temp is good (about 105) and enclosed. I keep it in my toolkit for those troublesome prints.
I'd seen someone use the Cura plugin before, but since I use and prefer PrusaSlicer, I hadn't given it much thought since then. But I really like the idea just adding the one layer cylinder... It seems like it would work really good. As far as what to call them, I will be calling them 'tabs' over the other two choices.
interesting, ive been just adding basic shapes to slicres to help stop warping on prints for ever. i always took it as my own makeshift thing, never knew it was something others are doing too..... makes me fell a bit more like i know what im doing.
Cool. I'll definitely have to look into this plugin. I've been doing this via the "merge meshes" function in Cura and setting overlap to 0, which works (it cuts into the 2nd model you add to the print), but has some limitations.
I have used mouse ears before. But a multiple layer brim is the best. Not all slicers will have this option. MatterControl, Simplify and Prusa will do it.
I have been using Cura plugging for a while and find them a great insurance when heading into large 10 hr prints even if I think I will be ok. Very easy to clean up afterwards.
Wan thinking about using mini heat gun to blow hot air on the print level, to prevent somehow of a heat treatment to see if it reduces internal pressure and prevent wraps…
A better way to do this is to open the file up in cad. Draw a circle in a sketch but offset the boundary around 0.1mm away from the part. Then export this with the STL into the slicer. This way the lines wont go into the part and will act more like a brim preserving the line pattern of the first layer. I think PS even has an option for this now. Alas its not in Bambuslicer yet.
The first layer in prusaslice3r 2.4 has the mouse ears as the priority. The part will start and stop at the ear. In previous versions the mouse ears were secondary to the part so the part ran as normal and the ear was then made. Hopefully prusa fix as you get weird perimeters atm.
Grate Video How do you go about putting more than 1 item on your bed? like your priting out parts for your Voron and you got lots of small parts you have to print
Ty I have been considering this because I jus got Into petg that is suppose to not warp a lot but I have had my prints coming up around the edges .. I am printing on the creality coated glass which I love and never have Probs with pla . So these mouse ears might be jus my solution
Ive never found brims to be particularly useful. The are a small improvement and will not fix any significant issues. Controlling the environment has always proved to be a superior method
Adding brims is a slicer setting, controlling your environment can be a massive undertaking, often requiring a considerable monetary investment, multiple trips to a hardware store to obtain the materials to construct a suitable environment, and re-configuring sensitive electronics to enable that environment to function. Nobody is saying controlling the environment is inferior to brims. They're saying brims can sometimes make up for a poor environment with a cent or two of filament.
A curved hot bed can also cause the part to "unstick" from the side of the bed that's curved. I recently learned that placing tape between the naked hotbed and the plate can help making up for any curvature the hotbed may have.
Mouse ears are inferior to brim because they result in ugly perimeter once you remove them. BTW, this part is known to be hard to print because of the small surface area at its upper side.
DO NOT USE on CURA. There is a conflict between the addon and Cura. When you use them they can alter scaling, sizing, location, etc. The developer is aware of the issue and says it is a Cura problem that he cannot fix . It an issue from 4.4 and ongoing to 4.13.1. That beings said they work very well otherwise.
