3d printing first helmet, looking for advice

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TechnoPallidin

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I have been 3d printing various things for years now. As such I finally just broke down and bought a larger 3d printer so I don't have to cut things into a bazzillion pieces to print them. With that came the ability to finally print somethings in one whole piece. The first thing I was planning to start on was the helmet for my Infinite armor set. I have the 3d files and when loaded into cura I was happy to see that it said I could print the whole thing in one go! Then the reality set in... it sad in the default orientation that it would take 13 days and 2.5 rolls of filament... Due to my ability to keep this running that long, as in not gonna, I guess I'm back to cutting this thing up...

So I was looking for some advice if any on maybe the best way to turn this into a multi part print that won't be painful to deal with later. I'm not used to cutting up detailed models in 3d builder... Really looking to cut down on time and filament since a LOT was for support material. Anyway, just looking for some general advice since this will be the first time I have printed something this big and a helmet to boot.
 
13 days does seem like a lot. The longest my MK6 would have taken was about 3 if I did it in one go..

A few things that might speed things up would be your print settings and the orientation of the helmet.

Printing the helmet with the opening facing the print bed will generate a ton of support structures. Experimenting with custom supports or printing the helmet from the top down could help save time. This will leave more sanding to be done on the surface.
As well, high infill percent and smaller layer height will drastically increase print time.
 
I personally haven't used them yet, but I've heard good things from other members here about tree supports, so maybe slice it with those enabled and see how they go?
 
I had the same issues with print time when i first started out. like s225 said the orientation and how many support structures it generates has a big impact on print time. what slicer program are you using. i have been using older versions of cura, simply updating to the latest version has dropped my print times as the new version works the print path more efficiently around printitng the exterior walls vs the inside. other tips to drop print time.

1. the quality setting as much as i want to print in super i print most things in standard to save time.
2. the infill % i started at 20% infill but now use 12% saves time and material
3. print speed. cura default is for 55mm/s but i use 57-58mm/s you could go higher but i dont like to risk the print quality printing at fast speeds
4. i use support blockers to stop support being made where it is not needed

i normally slice and fix my models in meshmixer which is free and pretty easy to use, then move them to cura to work out print orientation
 
Like others have said, play around with the rotation. My ODST bucket took 7 days. (18 if you count the down time for the printer breaking mid way through. We also put it at about 5 or so deg to the side with the opening up. This reduced the over all supports by a lot. Though from other prints, I kind of prefer now slicing things at least in half. But to each their own.
 
If you look in Cura at the underside of the model all the places that are red are where it thinks supports need to be generated. Rotate the helmet so you have the least amount of red. you can also use support blockers to block the support generation on the dome as it should self support. I've also had good success with cutting the jaw off and printing the helmet upside down which generates just a small amount of support. change out the nozle to a .6 or .8 mm to get more filament out faster. Lastly, I'd recommend an Ender 5+ as you can safely print at 100mm/s with good results.
 
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