So you bought a 3D printer … now what?!

How?

A quick and simplistic overview of how 3D printing works is to think of it as a glue gun that is attached to a normal printer, then add the fact that you can stack layers of these prints on top of each other and that is how you print in 3D.

So, you heat the filament which is fed through a heated nozzle and move the print head around to lay it down in layers. The first layer(s) needs to bond to the print bed so the rest of the layers can be stuck to these first layers with exacting accuracy. At the end of the print you need to separate the print from the print bed and is why so much importance is placed on print beds. ie first you need your print to stick and stay firmly stuck for the duration of the print else your print will fail, then once completed you need your print to release from the print bed cleanly.

Note: we are mainly talking FDM printing here not resin.

Hardware

  • Filament – the stuff you feed into your printer to create prints, usually bought in reels, many different types, common ones include PETG, PLA, TPU, ABS …all have different properties and print requirements.
  • Print Head – collective term for all the parts involved in melting and delivering the filament to the print bed.
  • Nozzle – end of the print head where the melted filament is squeezed out – nozzles can be different sizes, often your printer will be delivered with a 0.4mm nozzle, but more people are switching to 0.6mm and 0.8mm nozzles to increase speed (often at the cost of lower print quality)
  • Hotend – the part of the print head that heats the filament, generally consist of a lower section that melts the filament with electronics to heat and control temperature, the upper part generally has cooling fins and a heat-break so that the filament is only melted once its down in the nozzle area else it would melt further back up the print head assembly and just cause blockages, and lots of problems in feeding.
  • Extruder – the motor that pushes the filament into the print head, these are generally of two types
    • Direct drive the extruder is mounted directly on or above the print head which is especially good for flexible filaments like tpu. It has the disadvantage that it adds weight to the print head and so can cause more strain and vibrations which may in turn reduce print quality.
    • Bowden (tube) – the motor is mounted remotely 20 cm or so away on the printer chassis, reducing print head and so theoretically improving print quality (see above). Bowden setups use a length of PTFE tube to help feed the filament from the extruder into the print head.
  • Print Bed – the plate onto which you place your melted filament and build your 3D print. Most print beds are heated to help with print adhesion (filaments such as PETG and ABS require heated print beds to adhere properly). For more info on different kinds of print beds see this article

Slicing

Slicing is the term used for preparing an object and telling your printer how to print it.

So considering the how as explained in the opening paragraph of this article, each layer is printed on top of the last. In order to do that a process known as slicing is undertaken using slicing software. This essentially takes a solid object and cuts it into small horizontal slices one layer thick … or the thickness of the filament you plan to lay down. You can change variables to control how this slicing is done including things like layer heights (dependant on nozzle size and the speed capabilities of your print head / printer), the amount of solid perimeters and top or bottom layers you require, and the percentage infill and so how solid you want your print to be (reducing infill saves a lot of time and filament, but in turn will reduce structural strength).

The most commonly used slicing software IS FREE and includes Prusa Slicer and Ultimaker Cura.

There are loads of articles online and help for these tools, so during this article I will not go into detail on either of them except to say I tend to use Prusa Slicer, I started out with Cura but for various historical reasons I switched to Prusa Slicer, learning to control that and building a bunch of bespoke print profiles and since then have not found a reason to revert back.

3D Models and modelling

Thingiverse provided by Ultimaker has for a long time been one of the main places for sharing and downloading models that you might want to print. Prusa more recently joined the scene with their own sharing space Printables, and there are many other sites offering prints.

Word of advice, not all 3D creators are as good as you might hope – I have learnt the hard way that just because its on a site like this does not mean that its actually any good. You have been warned.

Despite there being many reasons for using newer file types, stl files are the most common way of sharing 3d models, simply download, slice and send to print – you don’t need to know how to design in 3D software, only how to set your printer up, download a file and start printing.

I recommend Fusion 360 for personal use its free, intuitive and super powerful with loads of tutorials and online support forums etc … and did I mention its free for personal use!?!

Remote control

Octoprint is the way to go. Get a Raspberry Pi 3 or later plus a webcam and you can control your printer remotely, upload and control prints over wifi, and monitor them in real time or create time lapse videos of your creations. On a safety note, it also means you can stop and shut down prints if anything goes wrong. Similarly, I recommend a smart plug to be able to completely kill the power remotely – being in the same room as your printer is of course the safest way however not always logistically possible, especially when longer prints can last many, many hours.

Just get me printing

So … from getting your printer to printing in its simplest form will be

  • Build your printer
  • Install some slicing software on your computer and use some default printer profiles to set up up your printer and type of filament you wish to use with it. (with a 0.4mm nozzle and smaller prints, I’d suggest starting with a print profile of 0.2mm layer height)
  • Download and slice a 3d model you wish to print (manufacturers also usually provide a load on an SD card or for download from their site)
  • Copy the output to an sd card, put this in your printer, load up some filament and press “Go!!”.

…then go do more research about 3d printing or figure out more about what you just got in to whilst you wait several hours for your 3D creation to appear on your shiny new printer’s print bed.

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