3D Printer Demo

Currently Printing

center

It's Benchy! Benchy is used for "benchmarking" printers.

All the benchys

What is 3D Printing?

  • It's CNC, Computer Numeric Control
  • CNC speaks "gcode". For example,
    • G1 X5 Y5 E.05
    • Move the print head to (5, 5) and extrude 0.5mm of wire
  • Physical precision determines how close we get to our model

What's it good for?

  • Custom mounts
  • Hard to find parts
  • Custom games
  • Toys/Minifigs
  • Prototyping products

What to buy?

  • A printer (duh)
    • Anywhere from $250 to $5k+!
    • You get what you pay for, but $300 is ok
  • Filament
    • PLA in multiple colors
    • PETG
    • ABS
  • Accessories
    • Tools to modify/fix printer
    • 90% isopropyl
    • Filament dryer

Printer models

  • Prusa
    • Mini+ is cheap, but quite small ($500ish)
    • MK3S+ is a gold standard printer ($800ish)
    • Deprtment has a MK3S+, MK4 is coming to market
  • Creality
    • Ender-3 is very popular ($300-500, deals possible)
    • Demo printer is an Ender-3 S1, and it's very approachable
  • Public printers are often very nice
    • Libraries often have them
    • IUS library has one
    • May have issues with print time allotments

Side note

  • We are looking at FDM (fillament)
  • Resin can provide much higher resolution, but is more expensive and dangerous
  • The Prusa SL1S and Curing chamber kit is $2600

Types of filament

  • PLA
    • Cheap & strong
    • Brittle & does not handle temperature swings
    • Corn plastic
  • PETG
    • More robust than PLA, a bit harder to use
    • Can leave "strings"

Types of filament

  • ABS
    • Flexible, but much harder to print with
    • Needs direct drive printer
    • Fume extraction necessary
  • Many more combinations of food safety, metalics, colors, etc. available.

Setup

  • Leveling
    • The most important step to good prints
    • Auto or "ABL" only finishes leveling the mesh
    • Looking for <0.2mm difference across surface, but preferably <0.1mm
    • That's ~4-8 thousands of an inch
  • Load "dry" filament
  • Cleaning with isopropyl

Octoprint leveling visualization

  • Note: this height is
    [-0.5mm, 0.5mm]
  • Total variance of ~0.1mm
  • While it might look like a taco, this bed is "level"

Slicing

  • Software
    • Prusa Slicer
    • Utilimaker Cura
    • Slic3r
    • Many more

Infill options

  • 15-20% is very normal, sometimes 100% needed for small objects
  • Many geometries for different strength characteristics

Support options

  • Anything overhanging likely needs support
  • Many support types result in more support or ease of removal
  • Can leave unsightly marks

Rotation & positioning

  • Fewer supports are better, so orient your print carefully
  • Haing a good "base" keeps your print from falling over
  • Printers usually print "best" in the center

When things go wrong

And they will.

When things go wrong

So very wrong it could cost (some) money!

Free Models

Usually, I like Printables, but Thingiverse is also popular. Never pay for models without checking these sites. Some folks do sell models, but some also just illegally resell open source models.

Examples with QR codes incoming!

Gravity Broom Holder

Cthulhu Tower

Playable Ocarina

Benchy

Nature's Helicopter

IU Keychains

My models

Q/A, Link to this presentation