I wanted to hear some opinions/experiences on printing structural shapes. So far, I have simply skipped printing structural shapes. I used square posts for my dust collector model and...it looks good! I was surprised at how it looked when I got it assembled. I'm sticking with it. But I don't think I can skip it on the buildings I'll need to build.
I know there are extruded shapes but I need a style of column that I haven't found. I only know of Plastruct so maybe somebody knows of another company that makes columns for mills that support horizontal I beams for a crane. They have a cut out in them.
As far as FDM printers go, I tried printing a complete column vertically and that didn't go so well. After about 8", the column flexed too much and I ended printing an ugly helix (which was cool!). So I could try splitting the piece across the web and then gluing it together. I figure that would work.
I assume a resin printer can print a beautiful column because there's no physical contact. But I'm stuck in FDM land for the time being.
What have you guys tried?
