10.5  Overhangs, bridges and holes

WarningUnder construction

A layer can only be laid on the one below it, or across a gap between two supports. That gives the printable overhang, the bridge, and the reason support material is avoided: it costs material and post-processing and leaves the worst surface and the worst tolerance on the part [1]. The design answers are geometric. Horizontal edges get chamfers, since a fillet begins with an overhang the printer cannot make; a horizontal hole gets a pointed or flat roof, as the printed bearing seats already do after Slant 3D [2]; an upside-down counterbore gets a sacrificial layer or the stacked-bridge trick; and a part that no orientation can print without support is split or turned 45° on the bed. Bridges laid on bridges give geometry that looks impossible without support, as in the OpenFlexure microscope. The chapter ends with a test coupon of overhang angles, bridge lengths and hole roofs that the cohort prints to find the limits of our machines.

References

[1]
Rahix. Design for 3D-printing 2025. https://blog.rahix.de/design-for-3d-printing/.
[2]
Slant 3D. Design better holes: Improve tolerances, reduce sagging 2023. https://youtu.be/Bd7Yyn61XWQ.