Easily Remove 3D Printed Supports | 5 Methods for Clean Results
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- I walk you through my favorite techniques for removing 3D printed supports easily and safely. Whether you're dealing with intricate miniatures or larger prints, these methods, including heat guns, pliers, and a bit of water, will make your post-processing a breeze. Join me as I demonstrate how to handle different supports effectively, ensuring your prints come out clean and your hands stay safe. Don't forget to check out the tools and tips I use to protect my workspace and myself!
Gear I use:
⚠️ SAFETY ⚠️
Safety Glasses:
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Cut Resistant Gloves
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Respirator
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Respirator Filters
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Method 1
Screwdrivers
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Steel Prying Tools
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Snips
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Deburring Tool
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Xacto Knife
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Method 2
Needle Nose Pliers
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Plier Set
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Deburring Tool
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Xacto Knife
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Snips
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Method 3
Soldering Iron
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Soldering Iron Set I got
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Snips
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Method 4
Heatgun
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Snips
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Method 5
Snips
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Water.... :)
Models I used:
Louie from Pixel and Plastic
thangs.com/des...
Storm Trooper Planter:
www.thingivers...
Skeleton Minis
lostadventures...
DISCLAIMER: This video is not sponsored. Some of the links are affiliate links in which I will receive a small commission.
00:00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:46:08 - -Disclaimer
00:01:36:12 - Safety
00:05:53:11 - Method 1
00:14:01:08 - Method 2
00:19:07:11 - Method 3
00:22:00:04 - Method 4
00:31:18:03 - Method 5
00:39:32:21 - Final Tips
00:40:24:03 - Conclusion
thank you so much, i needed this after i almost blinded myself and ruined my latest print. subscribed.
00:05:53:11 - Method 1
00:14:01:08 - Method 2
00:19:07:11 - Method 3
00:22:00:04 - Method 4
00:31:18:03 - Method 5
00:39:32:21 - Final Tips
00:40:24:03 - Conclusion
Thank you 😂
Thank you. Couldn’t bear all the waffle.
Thanks you. This Should have been a 5 min video.
THANK YOU!!!!!!
I just did my first 3-D prints and the supports killed me. Being a neophyte, I did not have any idea about these techniques or these tools. I tore up my hands and gave up on some of my minis as the supports seem to be welded to the print. I just ordered gloves and I’m going to try this with these tools. Thank you so much.
Came here off the back of your Cura support settings video and honestly, you have taught me so much! The amount of models that I ruined because I A, didn't calibrate my slicer and B, couldn't remove the supports was crazy before I found these few videos! Thank you!
I got my 3D Printer (Elegoo Neptune 3 pro) a little over 6 months ago and am pretty much obsessed with 3D printing at this point. When I first got my printer I pretty much binge watched every TH-cam video I could find on how to do it properly and just went for it. And yours were probably the first ones I watched and they were the beginning of my education on 3D printing. And now a little over six months later, although I'm of course nowhere even close to being an expert and am still learning daily (especially now that I'm using CAD more and more to create my own designs,) thanks to you and other like you, I feel at least somewhat more proficient at least. The rest will come with experience, learning through my successes and my possibly even more important through my failures. So, I just want to say thank you for being a part of me finding and putting me on the road to learning my new passion and love of 3D printing. Keep up the great work.
Hey! That’s so awesome I’m glad I could help you get further down the road on your printing journey! I’ve been 3D printing for over 10 years now and I’m still learning. I just try to be that resource I wish I had back when I got started cause there is so much to this amazing hobby. Thanks a lot for the support and I hope I keep helping you in the future. I wish you luck on your projects!
Even more so if you learn to 3d model, then possibilities are limitless.
Good that you enjoy it Tom, i've been at it for 10 years and love it more and more:)
These tips are great! Safety, safety, safety, totally agree. I've never heard the soldering gun trick, that's brilliant! Thanks for always sharing your knowledge with us. -Courtney
Hey Courtney! Love your channel I just check and I realized I’ve never subbed 😔. Apparently you’re just in my feed all the time.
Safety is absolutely the most important. I feel it’s never addressed enough by us creators. I’m glad I could give you another technique you haven’t tried.
Thanks for the comment!
Subscribed, your content is really clean and super helpful for people joining the hobby.
Awesome, thank you!
Just love all your videos. Learning so much from you. Thanks. I've got my support settings so out of wack now from trying to fix them. Could you possibly share your Cura settings for the tree supporrts. I just need a starting point. I know that they will be differrent on my machine. My supports stick to the model so hard.
You get my subscribe for your fine work, but you get my love for your magnificent mustache.
Its true… loo
Ha ha. Well thank you on both fronts. 😂
Never considered using a soldering iron or water! Always learning something new from you!
I’m always glad to hear I can keep teaching you something. 😁
Thanks! I need this for the Doom Slayer toy I’m printing! The auto generated support on it is absolutely crazy looking, so this tutorial will come in handy!
You know, if you set your Top Z Height in your support settings, to .26. It will make life so much easier. You will not have to suit up to remove supports.
How does that work. Could you go into more detail please. Sorry im new to this
@@genises200 You are decreasing the contact slightly. Just enough to make it the supports easy to remove without effecting the print quality. It makes a big difference.
I gotta try this removing supports is like gouging out a weld 😂
i do .275
Thank you!!! This is why i was here... not a safety tutorial
Thanks Chris for another great video!
You’re very welcome hope you got some good tips to help you.
Finally the video I have been waiting for! Thanks a ton for making this. Do you make any adjustments to bottom and top Z distance on the slicer? One issue I have is when I have supports that are connected at both ends to the model the bottom of the support fuses to the model and causes gnarly scarring.
Honestly I rarely adjust my settings i typically do more adjustments on where my supports are placed and the angle of the model to reduce my supports. I covered that in the previous videos I show at the end of the video. Orientation is one of the most important things when it comes to supports. One model might need a ton of support rotated one way and barely any if rotated another. I do have plans for a future video where I go over the setting I do change when I change them.
@@ItsMeaDMaDe thanks for the response. I will go and re-watch the other video.
so just got into 3d printing im getting the hang of it but the one area i seem to be having trouble with is the supports causing defects/deforms where they come into contact with the 3d print and im not sure where im going wrong i using orca sliver for a creality k1 max
nice vids, although my main question, which you never spoke towards are the "actual" settings in the slicers? by that i mean distances from the part on x,y, & z, etc... i use orca slicer, which is almost the same as bamboo, of which i saw you do a supports vid on. i think explaining the different variables could help a lot.
That's what I was looking for aswell
Will there be an updated support settings video? And which slicer has the best results, for easy to remove supports?
That’s a great idea for a video. I honestly never thought about comparing slicers when it comes to supports. I’ll start doing to tests. Could be a good slicer comparison video. Giving them grades on ease of printing and removal of supports. Thanks for the idea!
@@ItsMeaDMaDe Looking forward to seeing the video and the results. Would a bed slinger, core xy or delta printer have any effect on supports?And what about printers with Klipper?
@@CaptainBipto another great thought. I’ve personally never seen any difference between xy core and bed slinger but I’ll test that too. And klipper I haven’t seen any differences with that the only differences I’ve seen between marlin and klipper is time printing. Thanks for the thoughts and input!
Amazing video! Can you also do an updated video for support setting recommendations?
It’s in my list to do!
I would like to know this.... In my Slicer settings, I have the option for how close will the supports print to my part. Or how far away from my part. What is your setting/amount. That makes a huge difference with how ease it is to remove supports. I am just leaning how to remove supports from a Ball shape.
Great video. Could include how to remove supports from a slot both square or rounded. Thanks.
Love the options. My only question especially with the hot water have you tried like PVA support material that dissolves in hot water?
I haven’t tried it yet, but I have used the Bambu Labs PLA Support material which many times comes off very clean.
Yes I have I got good results too. I didn’t put it in this video because I was trying to keep it generic to everyone that 3D prints knowing not everyone has an ams. But I’m planning on doing a video in the future showing those methods.
I too was hoping for some settings and type of plastic you are using. Especially for the more delicate ones. Possibly layer height and nozzle size. Good 👍 video a couple of ideas I have not tried.
Harbor Freight has plastic body panel pry bars for removing modern car panels that are plastic
works great without risk of scaring the print
Thanks for the video! Would you suggest making more light supports and hitting with hot water after?
I'm trying to print models with lots of textures/patterns, and trying to avoid leaving scars on smooth surfaces and interruptions in the patterns.
I’m very honestly found any type of tree support works you can use strong and water still works. The key is your tree supports have 1 wall.
For the small model again it would be so nice to use water soluble supports. But we need cheep support material.
Great video
*Safety Squints engaged*
Great video thank you!
Hey I have been trying to find your video on using the cut tool in bamboo studio. I want to make the crystal dragon larger so need to cut to make larger pieces fit on the plate and print separately. Where can I find it please?
Glad you liked it. I do believe this is the one. Bambu Studio 101 | Beginners Guide to Bambu Slicer Software | Top Tool Bar
th-cam.com/video/VylxMnjShbs/w-d-xo.html
Don't forget to watch his CURA video on printing better supports that make it easier to remove! Lifesaver!
Hey! Thanks for the support. Glad you found it helpful
Heres an additional way that works well...Get a small desktop electric heater. point it facing across your work surface and at the model. Turn the model in front of it and at the same time take needle nose pliers to bend and remove the supports. Just make sure to keep the model moving
That’s another great option for sure. Thanks for sharing.
@@ItsMeaDMaDe Sure thing! 🙂
Great tips, but the best tip I've ever tried was changing the support interface spacing to something small between .08 and .16 and the supports come off really easy
Will this work with all prints?
@@genises200 I have noticed in tight areas it doesn't work so well so maybe going in the opposite direction it could work better by increasing the spacing. But it's worked pretty good so far.
Are thses all fdm or are the small minatures resin prints Also very infromative video
Please, can you share your supports config? Very good video!!!
I have a top tool for getting support out of tight holes, Lock picks. Get a sharp barbed one and they work a treat, Super skinny tough steel tool.
Do you have a link on where to get these tools or keywords to search for them? Newbie at 3D printing. Thanks.
Also what people including myself don't always realize is sanding and cutting plastic. Cutting plastic as with most other material heats up the material and therefore heats up the plastic. Not as much as hand sawing but defiantly if you cut plastic with a Dermal tool. I wish water soluble support material would be as cheep per roll as cheep PLA. Then in hard to reach or you know in that area it is going to be a pain to remove we could use water soluble for that area and other material like PLA for easier to remove supports areas.
Could I please get a link for that hoodie?
Deburring tool is a must-have. I get much better results with it compared to an Exacto knife.
Just a note. Body panel removal tools are much better than screwdrivers.
They come in different sizes and shapes. Would not leave marks or scratches.
I get mine at Harbor Freight.
Just a note these are for interior panels.
Are those TMNT statues behind you 3D printed??
Hey I like your coffee cup
Yeah! I gotta have my coffee. ☕️
Someone should design a model to look like it’s wrapped in tree support and watch them destroy it thinking they are removing support when it is actually the model itself
dont waste your time watching this shit
Non mentioned techniques should be:
No supports is easiest removal of them where one can get by without :)
Custom supports that are less connected to part then stock generated ones.
There is also water soluble support material like PVA.
And using different filament that sticks less to main one (eg. petg to pva).
Yeah good stuff I actually covered a good bit of what you mentioned in my previous videos. My last vids were me on my soapbox explaining how to get the right orientation to reduce as many supports as possible. Thanks for the comment.
If pieces go flying you better get your vacuum cleaner ready as well. As you don’t want any of those pieces end up in your feet. And if you use soldering iron, use it outside so you don’t create toxic fumes inside your house and probably don’t even have to worry about the respirator.
Set Top Z Height to 2x the layer width
You must be really rough on your nippers. I have like 5 of those blue ones and they fine, some are 4 years old. I do have a fancy pair but they work just as well as the free ones.
Got some shopping to do, have used a chisel to .
And a vacuum makes a mess on the floor
Like the hot water method
Bro! Just say where gloves and eye protection. Don't take 15 minutes to explain what they are
I use scrapper or cloth gloves
Video starts at 7:18 (yes it's an abhorrent amount of time wastage if you don't skip)
Please dispense with the waffle.
I thought this was going to be about setting
Omg I came to this video bñeeding
dont use hot water. use a hair dryer and a little carton box
Pla isnt all that toxic. Just make sure you're in a well ventilated area since their still an itritant muck like the fumes of alcohol. I had to clean somethingat work and when i reach down and because i had to sick my head in to reach that far i got a reallybgood wiff of it and it wanst a oleasnt experience and the rest of it still took hors and i had to take breaks because we were using it hu the gallon. For other plastics like abs and nylon definitely wear a resporator. And be sure to shave. Beards do let the fums in.
The printer I have is a non resin one so why would I need the mask?
Use of white plastic and poor exposure settings killed the utility of most of this. Much better at the end
Plus you can then just chuck out the water directly. Score.
So far.
Ive never cut myself.
Ive spent 37 years in the oil and fuel testing industry. I dont have girly soft hands.
I generally try to snap supports off.
If that doesn't happen with no effort. I start cutting.
No point in making it difficult for no reason.
This video abolutely did not nee to be 20 minutes, man i appreciate the tips but my god write a script or something because you ramble way too much.
I can't find the reference handy, and I have been meaning to say something for months now, but I wanted to make the suggestion you reconsider your signature opening move.
I took public speaking for training since I lead classroom instructions in IT, and one of the things they taught us was to not gesture towards the audience with palms down. It can come across to some people as pushing them down or away and has a totally different vibe than doing a similar gesture palms up which is considered more open/welcoming. I know I am not doing the explanation justice at all but consider your hand movements especially as a part of a greeting should be as welcoming as possible.
Also when you do that hand gesture you kind of lean in/almost lunge at the camera. When you combine it with the downward palm hand gesture it can come across as really off-putting, and I feel like pulling back from you when you do it. Maybe it's just me and the training I have had, like once you know about it you can't help but see it every time. Anyway, I am trying to make a helpful suggestion, so your video openings are more engaging with the audience versus them feeling like they have to pull back from you.
Beyond that, your video was full of content, for example I hadn't considered using a heat gun to loosen up the supports before.
half of the items you recommend are completely useless
😂 speak about making a vid just to make a video.....
What an N95 mask doesn't create a complete seal around your face... You must be some kind of "conspiracy theorists"
Good video for people new to it especially. I've done several konshu statues and that was way too much support lol.
That I definitely was targeting beginners to help them. And for the konshu you are 100% correct. That was really a test I did with some settings and it was ridiculous with the supports.😅
Someone should design a model to look like it’s wrapped in tree support and watch them destroy it thinking they are removing support when it is actually the model itself