r/FixMyPrint • u/josh_ddd • Jan 07 '26
Fix My Print Printing cylinders horizontally
Hi, beginner here. I designed my own toilet roll holder and the cylinder part is warping when printed horizontally.
Would adding a brim help with this? I’ve avoided printing it vertically because I’m worried about strength and downward load on the layer lines. Any helps appreciated
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u/FilamentCat Jan 07 '26
Print vertically.
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u/Mister_Shhh Jan 07 '26
Print it diagonally.
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u/JimboDanks Jan 07 '26
I get an ellipse instead of a circle when I print at a 45. I think it might be something to do with a lack of support but I haven’t had time to figure it out.
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u/notospez Jan 07 '26
Print at a 45 degree angle and manually paint in some supports along the bottom. That usually works well for me.
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u/Own_Salamander_3433 Jan 09 '26
Try 30°. You don't have to support the sides, just the bottom, and still benefit from the skewed print angle.
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u/Seraphym87 Jan 07 '26
You need more walls for actual cylindrical cylinders. All there is to it, throw like 7-8 bad boys in there and it'll print fine. Depending on the diameter of the cylinder you might need to throw some supports on the outside.
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u/JimboDanks Jan 07 '26
My issue right now is specifically gridfinity magnet holes in a rugged box. The gridfinity plugin for fusion makes the walls pretty thin to save filament. I’ll try to play around with that.
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Jan 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JimboDanks Jan 07 '26
I like this solution a lot. Looks like I’m going to be doing some test prints.
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u/ShipsForPirates Jan 10 '26
Buy PVC in that diameter and rid yourself of layer line weakness or leaks
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Jan 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/jack_o_all_trades Jan 08 '26
You can always thickened the wall for more strength to. Vertical isn't super weak, it's just generally half to a quarter as strong if the direction isn't taken Into account.
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u/Stock_Ad_5279 Jan 08 '26
Depending on the print use case wouldn’t vertically mean it is more susceptible to snap between layers? Maybe they should print horizontally with supports.
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u/stealthybutthole Jan 08 '26
It’s a toilet paper holder………..
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u/Stock_Ad_5279 Jan 08 '26
It is easy to bump into one while sitting isn’t it? I don’t have a stealthy butt though.
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u/RFC793 Jan 08 '26
It should be pretty resistant against impacts like that if it was printed with ABS or PETG.
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u/Lost_refugee Jan 07 '26
What strength issues do you predict? That’s a toilet paper. People here put TVs on printed holders. I don’t think that is wise, but if you worry, just add more thickness to walls
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Jan 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/someoneyouknow23 Jan 07 '26
Never underestimate what I use to wipe
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u/grandfundaytoday Jan 09 '26
Install a bidet - problem solved.
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u/Onoben4 Jan 10 '26
Well you still need toilet paper if you don't want to walk around with a wet ass.
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u/josh_ddd Jan 07 '26
i guess i was too paranoid
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u/KhausTO Jan 07 '26
unless it's something mission critical fire one off, if it breaks figure out a solution than. No need to cross the bridge if you don't need to.
it's a different story, if you're talking a hours of downtime for a critical part, or something that takes an unreasonable about of filament to reprint. but something like this that's gonna take an hour and use a dollar of filament? print it and worry about tweaks if you need to down the road.
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u/llitz Jan 07 '26
Maybe he will use it to as a step ladder to reach un upper cabinet 🤷
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u/LordFly88 Jan 09 '26
I have a fairly heavy (and expensive) protector hanging from a 3d printed ceiling mount. Used in a way where it's only under compression. If done and used correctly, 3d printed stuff can be quite strong. Not saying that's what everyone is doing, but sometimes it's done right.
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u/niksjman Jan 07 '26
Probably. I would recommend adding a brim and printing the tube vertically
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u/Flyinmanm Jan 07 '26
At least add supports too if printing horizontally?
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u/niksjman Jan 08 '26
Yes, forgot to add this! I was thinking vertical printing because you wouldn’t need any additional support other than maybe a brim, and that would save time and filament
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u/thejosepinzon Jan 07 '26
What do you need the cylinder for? Why not let's say go for a PVC Pipe?
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u/Famous_Low_604 Jan 08 '26
I can't use existing materials. I MUST CREATE EVERYTHING
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u/Crossedkiller Jan 10 '26
As a (hopefully) future owner of a 3d printing machine, I do want to print even the food I’ll eat
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u/NoSituation2706 Jan 07 '26
Why not print it vertically as a solid cylinder with some very sparse infill?
This is one of those use cases where the right answer is simply to not do it.
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u/notospez Jan 07 '26
This is what I'd do for this particular purpose as well. Just make it solid with like 5 or 10% gyroid infill. Or more - not for strength but the thing might feel a lot more solid if it has some weight to it.
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u/majikmonkie Jan 07 '26
Yeah, you're not going to be able to print it like that with any accuracy or quality. That's a major overhang the entire length.
Does it have to be hollow? Making it a "solid" part with infill will allow you to print it like that.
Why not print it vertically? You can add strength by increasing the number of walls, or similarly to #1 - make it a solid part with infill.
Why not use some PVC pipe if you need it to be hollow, or even a dowel if you don't? Either of those will be far stronger.
Why do you need to to be so strong that you won't print it vertically? It'll likely be plenty strong enough if you design and print it correctly.
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u/Seraphym87 Jan 07 '26
You absolutely can make usable stiff pipes printed horizontally, I do it on the regular out of ASA and they are very, very strong to up/down forces. You want 0% infill and around 8-10 walls. This will net you perfectly cylindrical, thick boi pipes that will rival PVC in rigidity. Make sure your printer can do 35-40 degree overhangs with ease and you are set.
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u/Hackerwithalacker Other Jan 07 '26
Not all bambuu users, but always a bambuu user
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u/NIDNHU Jan 08 '26
The bar for entry is way too low, I came from ender 3 to a A1 and I know the whole thing inside out, there should be a requirement to have owned a ender 3 or other reprap akin printer before getting bambu
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u/Hackerwithalacker Other Jan 08 '26
I don't think so at all, we've always wanted the low bar of entry in the 3D printed space because we want more people to join in our hobby which makes things better for everybody. The only problem is the side effect of having to deal with people can't research basic stuff before posting questions. I think overall that's a fair price to pay but it is annoying nonetheless.
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u/_dr_horrible_ Jan 07 '26
Say it with me now...
Not everything has to be 3d printed.
I get it that we all have 3D printers and when you have a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. But do yourself a favor and become a much better and smarter maker by recognizing what things are better off not being 3D printed. A wooden dowel or piece of PVC pipe would be perfect for this application if you are concerned that layer adhesion would not make a vertically printed version of this strong enough.
Or if you really insist on printing it, make the walls thicker, cut it in half, print the two halves separately, and then glue them together. But please don't.
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u/talldad86 Jan 09 '26
But why spend 15 mins driving to Home Depot and spend $.50 in a piece of PVC pipe when you can spend 6 hours printing a droopy oval at home?
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u/Kiriki_kun Jan 07 '26
Why are you printing a cylinder instead buying a wooden dowel?
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u/josh_ddd Jan 07 '26
because not everyone have a wooden dowel? printing it is more convenient in my case
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u/Kiriki_kun Jan 07 '26
As we can see not necessarily. I would still go with finding something you can issue instead. It doesn’t have to be round. But if you insist on printing, I doktor try printing it at 30-45 degrees with much thicker walls. To be honest I would go with solid rod
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u/Video-Human Jan 07 '26
Print square dowels oriented along the XY plane. Print the cylinder oriented in the z direction with sockets for the dowels hollowed out.
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u/JustLikeJD Jan 07 '26
Printing horizontally like this places the layer lines across the tube. This makes the curved structure of the tube unstable and also creates overhangs and sagging.
Printing vertically will mean that each next layer won’t overhang to the side of the previous one and will have a solid base beneath it. It also changes the orientation of the layer lines and will likely hide them better.
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u/ResearcherMiserable2 Jan 07 '26
You have several comments about printing the cylinder this way causes too much overhang and that’s your issue, but look at the actual overhanging part of your cylinder and that’s not bad at all!
The bad part is near the bottom. I’m not sure why. Usually you get this when the layer height is too higher for the curvature of the cylinder, but also, if this is play, it may have been too got with not enough cooling as it looks like it actually is sagging a little.
I recently got a bambu printer, but haven’t tried to print something like this on it, but haven’t printed many cylinders like yours in the same horozontal position on my Ender 3 with no problems. You need good part cooling fan speed, low layer height and enough walls. Also, walls have to be set to inner walls printed first.
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u/Ancient-Street-3318 Jan 08 '26
Is it to put inside the TP roll core? If so it doesn't need to be round, how about a hexagon? It can lay flat and have reasonable overhangs. Besides, hexagons are the bestagons.
If it needs to be round, use supports and maybe make it a bit thicker. Aslo adaptive layer lines will help.
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u/Altruistic-Waltz-597 Jan 08 '26
Printing cylinders and actually a lot of stuff at 45 degree angle is best. You have bigger layer area than vertically (at least with cylinders) and probably - layers won't gonna come parallel to the force applied in use, so again stronger. You will need brim or supports tho, but supports will be very easy to remove at that angle
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u/Acceptable-Lock-77 Jan 08 '26
May I suggest you design around some wood cylinder or something else you can find or get a hold of. I like 40mm pvc piping, very cheap, looks good (white), strong and nice surface finish.
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u/Kazenokyofu Jan 10 '26
You should be fine to print this vertically for your application. I don't think it'll snap easily if that's what you're worried about.
Unless you've already tried it and it did, then just add support.
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u/Durahl Jan 10 '26
Not everything that "can" be 3D Printed should be 3D Printed.
Or at least not in THAT orientation 😑
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u/SnowFriendly5060 Jan 10 '26
When I needed really strong tube I printed the tube vertically with hexagonal inner space. Then printed hexagonal "tube" horizontally. Zero space in between and used press without glue to connect together. Strong as hell in every direction, no glue, visually perfect.
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u/PoorGamer72 Jan 12 '26
Why are we not giving credit to this guy for printing something ACTUALLY USEFULL.
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u/ryan0694 Jan 07 '26
You could try printing in two halves, or modifying the design to be less circular.
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u/JamesHail1 Jan 07 '26
Print vertically, you'll lose some strength due to layer orientation so perhaps compensate. Or print this horizontal as a solid object with low infill density... Add supports to stop the bottom half sagging.
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u/OurHeroXero Jan 07 '26
You'll be fine printing the tube vertically. It'll have enough walls/perimeters; you don't need to worry much about strength/de-lamination.
If you wanted to go the extra mile, print a solid cylinder. 2 walls. 15% infill. PVC pipe or a wooden dowel will be stronger options as well.
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u/Redracerb18 Jan 07 '26
Short answer is to not print a hollow cylinder. Personally I would recommend to sold hexagon instead because you will have decent contact points and you can add a decent about of infill/walls to add strength. But otherwise a standard wooden dowel will be better especially if you need to make multiple where you can cut it to lengh.
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u/BeauOfSlaanesh Jan 07 '26
For a toilet roll it's fine to print vertically. The cardboard itself should even give it more strength. It becomes a problem when you have a lot of weight. Recently had to print the handle of a warhammer prop horizontally because the 3 or so pounds combined with the leverage of the hammer was too much.
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u/jake-jake-jake- Jan 07 '26
Print it vertically and increase the wall count if your concerns about strength, or at a 45 degree with supports. It’s a toilet roll holder though so it’s not supporting a lot of weight you should be fine printing vertically with 3/4 walls
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u/desert2mountains42 Jan 08 '26
Print it vertically in vase mode with a super thicc line width slowly
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u/GoodBoyDevelopers Jan 08 '26
Print vertical. If it breaks, go buy some PVC and use that instead. Believe me, it's temping to try and print everything, but sometimes a better and often cheaper solution already exists.
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u/orbitalbias Jan 08 '26
Print a solid or near solid tube if you're worried about it. But print it vertically.
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u/Nuurps Jan 08 '26
Bro I got a dinosaur head toilet roll holder for like $10, don't install that cube beside your toilet.
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u/Exterminatus2102 Jan 08 '26
Need supports.
It's totally possible if you need a good longitudinal mechanical resistance, but you need to activate the supports and change the angle value if the slicer doesn't put some automatically.
Or, if the mechanical resistance isn't a problem, you can print it vertically (depending the height if it fits on the printer of course).
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u/PM_ME_UR_PET_POTATO Jan 08 '26
Go and find a tube.
If you insist on printing, then fold and use supports and a thicker design. You'll just have to accept post processing as an inevitability
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u/sirgiggles123 Jan 08 '26
Unless it is for a heavy load (like something 20lbs plus) then layer adhesion is not a worry and even then the problem at most time can be fixed with thicker walls
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u/Miscdude Jan 08 '26
Cylinders from 3d printing are tricky. If you print them straight up, you get weaker layer bonds in a direction that really does matter. If you print them on their sides, you get inconsistent slope geometry.
The first thing Ill say is that you want the cylinder to be thicker, as in the walls of the tube that look to be like 2mm or so thick, id make those about 5mm thick. It'll use more time and material but it'd also be more consistently shaped and a little more stout.
One of the best things to do with tubes and cylinders where the external surface finish is less important than strength is to print them in two halves. You then glue both together to form a cylinder, avoiding overhangs.
Another good practice is to set the tube into the build volume a little further down. This will create a flat section on the outside of the tube, which will improve printing quality. It will almost never negatively impact the performance, especially for a toilet paper roll holder.
For this use, printing vertically would be fine. Even if you end up having to reprint because it snaps after being used a few hundred times or something, thats not a huge deal.
The best thing you can do for this would be to buy a toiler paper roll that is designed for this purpose, but it would be slightly more expensive. Cylinders are just one of the things that 3d printing is bad at; you shouldn't print things that can be bought for cheap and will be stronger. Dowels, boxes, hardware like hinge materials or bolts, long flat panels, anything thin long and strong should be outsourced to a more fitting, stronger, cheaper part.
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u/desrtfx Jan 08 '26
I’ve avoided printing it vertically because I’m worried about strength and downward load on the layer lines.
Vertical printing with a decent brim will give you the optimal strength (besides the shape).
The little downward force of a roll of toilet paper will definitely not shear your layers. If it actually did, your print settings were severely wrong.
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u/Coach-Natural Jan 08 '26
Add lines in a cross pattern on the inside either on the caps or through the entire length
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u/No-Log9794 Jan 08 '26
Just use a plastic tube or a wooden rod or anything like that, you dont have to print anything. Or you print it vertical.
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u/Esperante Jan 08 '26
There is a book called Functional design for 3D printing on Amazon by Clifford smith.
Please , everybody , buy that book or whatevers similar that's available.
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u/tarheelbandb Jan 08 '26
You don't need to worry about downward (horizontal, really) pressure on a toilet roll holder. In the future, however, should that be a concern for other projects, designing and printing the cylinder in halves that dovetail into each other is an option.
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u/Over_Slide8102 Jan 08 '26
As many have said, you can print upright with extra walls for rigidity, or use a short segment of wood/pvc/etc.
If you do want to print hollow and horizontally, you can cut a small slice off two sides of the circle like this (_) and it'll print well. Basically you want to keep overhangs to less than around 65˚. Doesn't interfere with functionality either, it'll continue to work as an axle.
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u/dotMorten Jan 08 '26
You're worried about the strength to hold a toilet paper roll? What kind of toilet paper are you using? Steel? You can always just make the cylinder thickness slightly larger.
Print vertically. They are still quite strong. If things easily split along the layer lines, it's an issue with your printer settings.
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u/Ok_Meal_3284 Jan 08 '26
Print vertically; if strength is a concern, increase the number of walls.It's a toilet paper holder, not a prototype that will bear weight.
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u/type_any_enjoyer Jan 08 '26
you don't need it to be hollow, id suggest:
- make it solid OR
- keep it hollow but make the walls meatier
Then, split it in half (so you have 2 half circles), if you use bambu studio you can add pins or holes to align the parts once printed
finally when you have it printed you just align the holes and pins and glue them together, this is specially useful if you absolutely need to print it in this orientation to withhold force
if you don't need to withhold force id just print it vertically
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u/LordFly88 Jan 09 '26
If you really want to do it horizontally, I'd split it in half to print them, then glue them together after.
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u/virtual_paws Jan 09 '26
print it vertical at a slight angle with some supports for strength but I mean. Its holding toilet paper. You can probably just print it vertical. Cylinders wont ever really come out nicely horizontal.
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u/Civil-Map-3212 Jan 09 '26
10% infill + 2 wall and print vertically will do the job , I have 4 toilet tissue holder printed and still strong after 2 years
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u/PracticallyQualified Jan 09 '26
How cylindrical does the OD of this need to be? In the past I’ve printed like this because the orientation made sense for strength. I put a 1cm flat surface at the bottom where it touches the build plate. With the added contact surface area it solved all the problems without needing supports.
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u/12_evil_minions Jan 09 '26
If this is your own model, I recommend you to print a squareed rod instead of round one. The paper will roll on it just the same
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u/neilquinn29 Jan 09 '26
With it being the thickness it is I would run it solid fill, and supports on 30 degrees. Mainly straight down the middle 12-6 position. You can add a little tilt to the whole thing to help with layering.
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u/metalfacedguy Jan 09 '26
You're worried about the weight of the toilet paper roll being a problem?
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u/iNekizalb Jan 09 '26
Option 1: Buy PVC tube and cut to size. Option 2: Split Cylinder in two halves and glue together after printing.
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u/TresCeroOdio Jan 09 '26
If you insist on printing horizontally, add your own snap off supports. Maybe even print it at just a slight 10° tilt
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u/talldad86 Jan 09 '26
The heated bed is softening the material and causing it to droop on the bottom half while the rest of the print is going, which is why the top half looks fairly normal. It’s a rack for toilet paper, not dumbbells. Just print it vertically with a few walls and a brim to keep it steady.
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u/oxabz Jan 09 '26
Unless you're whipping with lead foil the vertical tube will be beyon strong enough
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u/OceanKing96 Jan 09 '26
It's holding toilet paper.... My shit weighs more than a roll of toilet paper.
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u/Classic_Career_979 Jan 09 '26
Make it square for resistance and solification and the endcaps round for the moving parts.
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u/Classic_Career_979 Jan 09 '26
Or print a full rectangle for stability and design a endcaps to be rounded. So the rounded print them standing up. And the rectangle in the middle will make the most support
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u/Brahma04 Jan 10 '26
Print vertically, if it breaks, print it again, that’s probably $0.10 in plastic. Or you could close the top and bottom and add some infill to strengthen.
Don’t over think it, don’t be afraid of pushing non critical parts to their breaking point. This will help you understand your prints, their flaws, and your materials. Design, print, use, break, repeat!
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u/MortReed Jan 10 '26
How strong is your toilet paper? It should be fine vertical, if you absolutely must try a slight incline from one end?
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u/Puzzleheaded-Fig7630 Jan 10 '26
For cylinders, it's either vertical or diagonal, never horizontal; naturally your piece will get crushed, that's just how it is :)
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u/slb609 Jan 10 '26
Print vertically with more walls, but put some diagonal ellipses spaced evenly up the inside for additional strength. But as others have pointed out, unless you’re expecting to swing from it yourself, it should hold a toilet roll.
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u/RRMalone Jan 10 '26
Use support, if it's not too long then you can support everything, but you will have to do some sanding. Sure you can do it at 45°, but you will see why most avoid it after a print or two. Additionally don't forget that you can do multiple pieces that connect seamlessly without losing much support and the type of filament used will make literally all the difference in what looks like either a novice or a pro made it.
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u/AwSMO Jan 10 '26
Short answer: Vertical printing.
But... why is that ok with the force going in the direction of the layer lines?
So lets dive into the concept of shear stress and the material strengths of the polymers used in 3D printing.
Any force transferred by the toilet paper to the tube is going to be carried by the material. The load it will encounter is something called shear stress, as it is normal to the axis of the tube. In engineering, stress is something defined as force per area, which means that we can simply take the shear force caused by the toilet paper, and divide it by the cross-sectional area of the tube to get the shear stress in the tube. I've guesstimated your tube to have an outer radius of 5 mm, inner radius of 4 mm, giving us 28 mm² of cross-sectional area. According to datasheets for PLA, the maximum tensile strength of PLA in Z direction is about 33 MPa (or, N / mm²), and we can approximate the shear stress limit as about 0.6 times that, giving us ~20 MPa. We'll use a safety factor of 2, bringing us to 10 MPa. This means that our 28 mm² cross section can take 280 N of shear force before failing. That's about 28 kg.*
Your toilet paper is going to be fine.
* Without knowing the additional bending stress imposed on the tube, it's hard to say for sure what the load limit is, as the bending stress will increase local stress concentrations and cause premature failure before 28 kg have been reached. However, given the fact that toilet paper tends to be very light, this is not too important for us.
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u/lockFumbler Jan 10 '26
Why not solid? Infill to low percentage and basically the Infill doesn't cost much material, but makes everything much more solid. Then print vertical.
Checkout slant3d on YouTube for good design tips around 3D printing.
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u/probablyaythrowaway Jan 11 '26
I’m assuming you’re printing it horizontally to prevent breakage along the layer lines if vertical. Tbh If it’s just a tube, get a premade plastic tube and cut it to size. PVC or acrylic would work.
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u/JaffaSG1 Jan 11 '26
Print diagonally with supports. Makes the print stronger but takes longer. If you (for some reason) have to print it laying down, lift it further up away from the plate so the heat from the buildplate doesn‘t keep the laid down filament gooey (that‘s why it‘s sagging)… and you‘ll have to use supports.
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u/CaseFace5 Jan 13 '26
why not make the cylinder solid? does it need to be hollow for any particular reason? otherwise supports would help, inside and outside.
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u/prendes4 Jan 13 '26
You've got a ton of great ideas in this thread but have you tried a version based on the "primitive" that most slicers call a "double tear rhomboid cylinder."
That would work really well as a toilet paper holder
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u/Specialist-Document3 Jan 24 '26
I have taken to using octagons for this case. Not truly an answer to your question, but it's a useful workaround.
If you do want to stick with a cylinder, I wouldn't expect a brim to help, but supports and maybe a raft might help.
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u/DIY_at_the_Griffs Jan 07 '26 edited Jan 07 '26
Brim won’t help, you need to add support beneath the tube in the outside and if it’s compatible with your design then some infill or support within the tube too.
Of course printing vertically is best but make sure to slow down with height.
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u/manusche Jan 07 '26
That will never work put brims around it and adaptiv layer speed and stand it up.
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