After chatting with Dave Durrant on the MakerGear IRC channel I decided to give Skeinforge support material a shot. The cat in these photos was my first attempt and I was using a rather ancient version of skeinforge. I've since printed it again using the latest skeinforge (31) and the results are better - as in more support options and less support material that is easier to remove.
Once you get the hang of it, removing support material is pretty quick and easy. Higher rez images are available here and here.
This was printed using our new Compact Stepper Plastruder using 1.75mm ABS filament.
The post on the MAKE blog mentions that lower temps were used for the support material. I'm not sure where that came from. In the old version of skeinforge used for this print, I pretty much had the option to turn on support. The latest skeinforge has more options including the ability to turn down the flow rate (so less plastic is deposited) for the support material so that it is thinner and easier to remove. I'm still experimenting with various settings and getting it dialed-in...
…and thanks for the reference and congrats on being blogged by MAKE!!
Interesting about the support temperature.. I wonder if other FDM machines that use the object material for support just alter the feed/flow rates or if they mess with temperature, too.
You can poke the temps that support structures (and “supported” parts) are printed at but I don’t think skeinforge gets feedback from the machine on this – it probably orbits around until it thinks the temperature is probably right so getting the Heating/Cooling Rates in the Temperature module are key..