Show HN: 3D print Z reinforcement via injected loops Commodity FDM print strength is limited by poor Z-axis layer bonding. Parts crack along Z under stress. MAGMA tries to fix this in software that works on any FDM 3D printer. It's a fork of OrcaSlicer with a new infill type that creates paired U-shaped vertical channels inside the print, plus G-code that injects molten plastic into those channels to bridge Z layer interfaces with continuous plastic. Big caveat: I have a junky Ender 3 and haven't gotten a clean physical print yet. Don't expect this to work out of the box! After months of tinkering, I'm releasing the software so the 3DP community can experiment with nozzles, multi-material, weird hardware, and other print parameters I can't. There's around 40 MAGMA-specific settings to fiddle with, plus some general quality-of-life features (e.g. printing thin infill sections as solid, and a "dual infill shell" feature that applies MAGMA only to the outer shell to save print time). THIS CODE IS ALPHA. Around 50 prints old. The injection G-code is novel. Some printer firmware won't like extruding without movement. In extreme cases it could damage your printer or start a fire. DON'T WALK AWAY WHILE PRINTING. Why MAGMA? "Lava tubes" is a misnomer. Molten rock is magma underground, lava only after it surfaces. The injected tubes are buried inside the print, so "magma tubes" is the correct term. https://mgunlogson.github.io/magma/ June 9, 2026 at 06:17AM
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