Hello, I'm trying to modify the FED design to make it a little easier to print. I haven't printed any FEDs myself but the person I'm helping has, and says the chute is one of the tricky areas. I've tried to tweak the design to print the chute without support (and use support for the rest of the print as normal). The main change is to fill in the three holes that I think are there to provide access to the chute for support removal.
If anyone sees any problems or has any ideas about this please let me know. Including which parts of the model are tricky to print.
In the below screenshot from Cura it shows the bottom third of the FED, focusing on one of these holes (the lowest one of the three). The blue arrows show some tricky overhangs that would be a problem without support. The bottom screenshot is the modified design which removes that hole and so removes the tricky overhangs.
Tricky overhangs in chute holes.PNG
I also removed the other two holes in the chute. I also changed some
bits other than the chute to make overhangs less overhangy. For
example, in the hopper I made the "Max fill" part less overhangy. I
didn't change any of the overhangs where support can be directly
connected to the build plate.
I haven't printed and tested it yet, so please bear that in mind if anyone tries it.
Here's a tinkercad link. I'll share the fusion360 file at some point, it's too big to attach here.