This is just sharing what worked for me in order to complete the really cool eyeglass holder make from Steve-J (Many thanks!), as remixed by Mr_Tantrum, and as finally printed through inspiration from andy_spoo. LOL, such controversy over such a simple thing :). While the main piece, the stand itself, is easy to print, that darned little hook on top is not! After many fails, I am sharing what worked for me in the hopes that it helps others.
So, when I first read all the back and forth on Steve-J's original make, I was mad at the haters (you guys should be nicer, actually). But....they have a point. While the hook is elegantly designed, for many of us (many must get lucky, or aren't picky) it is a surprising challenge to even slice, much less print. What I learned failing about 6 times:
- I very much like the shorter, unannotated version from Mr_Tantrum (thanks!)
- There is no getting around support--as Steve-J made very clear (don't complain unless you RTFM).
- Defaults plus support fail miserably for me (PrusaSlicer 2.0.0). Melted blob of plastic on the extruder.
- I finally got the original hook to print in PLA (was originally in PETG), but one whole half looked like crap due to all the support (and tight spacing) required to get it to print at all.
- Turns out you can see the problem easily in the slicer, that little tip gets printed in thin air, for some reason the support isn't generated under it.
- I tried many combinations of parameters from layer thicknesses to support parameters, and it simply would not slice to something printable.
- Finally I discovered another remix--just of the hook--by andy_spoo. While this hook was completely redesigned, I actually liked the original design better. But--andy_spoo discovered the secret of printing this hook: rotate it (thanks!)
- So this remix is just the original hook rotated so that it will slice and print correctly with default settings and supports
- In the photos, you can see my final two successful prints, PETG (black) and PLA (silver), along with comparisons of the 3 hooks (the rough looking silver one is the original rotation).
I hope this helps the next person skip a bunch of iterations, happy printing!
biermeister
