Hackaday · Creativity & design

3D Printing Supports Reimagined with Fins

A new approach to 3D printing supports, called 'fins', aims to reduce material waste and post-processing compared to traditional methods.

Matthew Trahan developed fins as an alternative to grid and tree supports, which can be material-intensive and leave marks on prints.

These fins are designed to use minimal material and detach cleanly from the printed object.

The tool for generating fins can be run locally or accessed online via printfins.com.

Currently, fins are integrated directly into the STL model, but a slicer plugin may be developed later.

The concept was initially proposed by Slant3D, who manually added fin supports using CAD software.

Fins provide the primary support base, with optional tines for reinforcement, though these can make removal less clean.

Further weight reduction of fins is possible by adding gaps, but this might increase print time.

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