Wow, we’re already at the last video of this series… I’ve produced these over the course of almost two months, and yeah, it has been crazy. I’ve got to get used to a routine again that isn’t “eat, sleep, produce, repeat”, and you’re probably wondering what should be the next steps for you. Do you really need to buy your own machine? How should you go about starting to use it productively instead of getting stuck in “novelty” phase? Yeah, let’s looks at that today! So where do you goContinue reading

3D printing doesn’t always work perfectly. I hate to say it, but, you know, when even commodity inkjet printers still need a bit of help every now and then, I think 3D printers are actually pretty good on that front today. But, still, there are things that can go wrong due to user error, the manufacturer not doing their homework, or because of bad materials. We’re going to look at some of the most common hiccups you can run into and where to start when fixing them. I gotta tellContinue reading

In this video, we’ll look at the things you should consider when thinking about 3D printing something – can you even print the part you want to make, what should your environment look like where you print stuff and what do you need for equipment and tools to work with the machine and the final prints.  What can you print? Okay, let’s get right into it and start with the models themselves. Over the years, 3D printers have become a lot better when it comes to what they can andContinue reading

Okay, so in the Hackaday article that got me to do this series in the first place, one of their first questions they want to be answered is “What does the actual workflow of 3D printing look like? What happens from beginning to end?” So that’s what we’re going to look at today – the full process of going from wanting to print something to having a physical, usable part. 3D Model The thing the actual 3D printing process starts out with is a 3D model. Last week in episodeContinue reading

The slicer. A mythical piece of software that decides the fate of your every 3D print. To tame it, you must first learn its language and appease the demons that live within. Today we’re going to go over the common settings you might want to adjust to get better prints out of your filament printers! So for this video, I’m going to be using Prusa Slicer, even though the name doesn’t suggest it, it actually works for any filament printer that accepts standard g-code, which means basically every relevant machine.Continue reading

Ok, so you want to print something. Where or how do you get the designs and the files? If you don’t want to just download stuff, but instead print your own parts and creations, where would you start with that? That’s the type of questions we’re going to answer today. Design sharing websites Let’s start with my approach to using 3D printers. For testing and show pieces and simpler stuff that somebody else is probably going to have designed somewhere already, the best way to go about that is toContinue reading

If you want a 3D printer, the two fundamentally different options, at least if you want to spend less than a few grand, are filament printers, aka FDM or FFF, and resin printers, aka SLA or MSLA. Last video we covered filament printers and what you should be looking for in one of those, today we’re going to go over when you would want to go for a resin printer instead and what to consider when getting one. Resin Prints vs. Filament Prints When you look at the prints thatContinue reading

I know I’ve been using terminology for all the printer parts in the other basics videos without stopping to explain them, so in this video, let’s go over all the weird and unique parts, what they’re called and what they do. Also, while we’re at it, let’s look at what sort of maintenance and care these machines and their components need. Extruder and Hotend Okay, let’s start with the core of any filament printer: The extruder and hotend. To feed filament, it first gets grabbed by the extruder and thenContinue reading

Alright, so want a 3D printer, but – which one to choose? In this video, I want to help you plot out what your use case is, what that requires in a machine, and what to generally look for, and what to avoid in a 3D printer. The “Perfect” Printer So first of all, there is no “best” or “perfect” 3D printer. Even when you find someone that claims that this one machine is the best 3D printer ever, it might be, but just for them, and it’s just forContinue reading