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

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

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