Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
Show HN: 3D print Z reinforcement via injected loops (mgunlogson.github.io)
12 points by mgunlogson 5 days ago
Commodity FDM print strength is limited by poor Z-axis layer bonding. Parts crack along Z under stress. MAGMA tries to fix this in software that works on any FDM 3D printer.

It's a fork of OrcaSlicer with a new infill type that creates paired U-shaped vertical channels inside the print, plus G-code that injects molten plastic into those channels to bridge Z layer interfaces with continuous plastic.

Big caveat: I have a junky Ender 3 and haven't gotten a clean physical print yet. Don't expect this to work out of the box! After months of tinkering, I'm releasing the software so the 3DP community can experiment with nozzles, multi-material, weird hardware, and other print parameters I can't. There's around 40 MAGMA-specific settings to fiddle with, plus some general quality-of-life features (e.g. printing thin infill sections as solid, and a "dual infill shell" feature that applies MAGMA only to the outer shell to save print time).

THIS CODE IS ALPHA. Around 50 prints old. The injection G-code is novel. Some printer firmware won't like extruding without movement. In extreme cases it could damage your printer or start a fire. DON'T WALK AWAY WHILE PRINTING.

Why MAGMA? "Lava tubes" is a misnomer. Molten rock is magma underground, lava only after it surfaces. The injected tubes are buried inside the print, so "magma tubes" is the correct term.

4 comments

Instead of one large channel throughout the whole print, why not multiple small 2-4 layer bridges?
Why do you think this is better than the old practice of filling straight holes a few layers deep?
Here for any questions about how it all works :).
Do you have a photos of objects you build with this? A video?
No, unfortunately. I've printed a ton of objects but nothing clean enough to be interesting.

The top of cells always melt as I'm using the same material for injection and the rest of the print. Someone with a dual nozzle printer could try something like PLA injection in a polycarbonate part. I added support but don't have a printer capable of that.

It's also possible that different print settings would work. I'm releasing the features to the community as I've run out of patience with doing a hundred hours of test prints.

We need to crowd test the best settings and nozzles, materials, etc to make this work well