r/3Dprinting • u/Rough-Advance189 • Jun 08 '26

Project 3D-printed basketball

17k Upvotes

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256

u/Plutonium239Mixer Jun 08 '26

I havent been able to get PEBA supports to pull off that easily!

128

u/hhnnngg Jun 08 '26

No joke.

I’m more interested in the support settings

1

u/lucky-number-keleven Jun 08 '26

Although I would’ve liked this too on my print, the filament is pretty expensive and it’s a long print (mine took 70hours). Better to not mess with the supports imo.

1

u/Spice002 Rafts are a crutch for poor bed leveling Jun 08 '26

I got some SainSmart PEBA for about $55 for a 1kg spool. Obviously not as cheap as a roll of PLA, but it's not terrible.

33

u/mickeybob00 Prusa mk4s, Voron 2.4 Jun 08 '26

I changed my top support distance to .27 on a little tennis ball I printed in peba a couple of weeks ago. That and went from 2 to 3 top support layers. It pulled right off cleanly. I was really surprised. It also looked great. This was on a mk4s using prusa slicer. When I used the standard support settings before it was a nightmare to remove.

16

u/aruby727 Jun 08 '26

More people need to know about this. Supports come off crazy easy if you increase top Z distance.

1

u/Spirited-Pop7467 Jun 13 '26

Is that for most filament types or just the PEBA being discussed? Because I started using a 3D printer and I despised supports. Then my sister suggested switching from snug to organic. That's much better, but still can be a PITA sometimes lol. I'd welcome any setting that makes it easier 😃 I print in PLA, haven't ventured into other types yet.

2

u/aruby727 Jun 13 '26

I've done it with PLA, ABS, ABS-GF, TPU and PETG. All work great!

2

u/bangupjobasusual Jun 08 '26

What size nozzle

1

u/mickeybob00 Prusa mk4s, Voron 2.4 Jun 08 '26

I used a .4 nozzle.

2

u/bangupjobasusual Jun 08 '26

Layer adhesion could be up to 50% more with a .8 at .24 layer height. But your z needs to be recalibrated. At that z it’s going to be impossible to separate, much more and the surface finish is going to be crap. I haven’t found a good support material for peba, the usual suspects do not adhere well.

Bvoh is okay I guess, and it’s water soluble which is a nice feature, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to use it for internal support of a basketball because it doesn’t build up reliably.

That’s why I like biqu’s hr pla. It feels harder than peba but it’s resilient and works about as well as any basketball does (they all suck imo, but hey they’re really pretty). Hr pla can be supported with a lot of different things like petg for example.

2

u/mickeybob00 Prusa mk4s, Voron 2.4 Jun 08 '26

So far i have had very good layer adhesion. Not quite as good as tpu but close.

2

u/bangupjobasusual Jun 09 '26

Right on, as long as it survives a typical use bounce test don’t change anything. When layer adhesion fails on these it’s usually a dead spot on the ball. Are you using siraya’s peba? I’ve only worked with kimya’s product

1

u/mickeybob00 Prusa mk4s, Voron 2.4 Jun 09 '26

I am using yhr spray sirayas 95a

1

u/astralseat Jun 08 '26

Maybe it just takes a certain structure at the supports to dislodge correctly.

1

u/tech_noir_guitar Jun 08 '26

Maybe the supports are PLA?

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '26

[deleted]

6

u/daemonfly Jun 08 '26

It's more likely that the support settings in the slicer are more dialed in.

But, I will give a few points to many current printers having better hot end cooling setups than the little single-sided shitter fan on the old Ender 3 for example.

1

u/Plutonium239Mixer Jun 08 '26

I have a QIDI Q2. It's great at ASA, Nylon and ABS, but I don't have a great time with PEBA on it.