Okay, so in the Hackaday article that got
me to do this series in the first place, one
of their first questions they want 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.
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Okay, so the thing the actual 3D printing
process starts out with is a 3D model.
Last week in episode 5 we looked at all the
different options there are to get models,
for this video I’ve got this battery bank
model that a friend is working on, I broke
the handle on it, so I’m going to be printing
him a new one.
So I’ll export just the handle as an .stl
file and take that over into the slicer.
Now, just like for models, I’ve already
covered all the basic functions of the slicer
in a previous video, episode 6.
For this model, because it’s 201mm wide,
I’ll be using the MK3, and I’ll make sure
it’s oriented correctly on the build plate
so that I get nice, strong, continuous layers
from the area where you’d grip this handle
to where it is attached.
Filament printers produce their strongest
parts when forces can stay within one layer
and don’t have to be transferred from one
layer to the next.
Because this model was designed with 3D printing
in mind, we don’t need support material
here, but I’ll head over to the print settings
and give it an extra shell just to stiffen
it up a bit and make it a bit stronger around
the hinge area.
That’s were that first part broke.
For filament, I’ll be using PLA, both PLA
and PETG would work, but since it’s a relatively
large part, it might be tricky with ABS, ASA
or polycarbonate.
PLA doesn’t have nearly the temperature
resistance of those materials, but this is
a part for basically a big ol battery in a
box, so I would probably worry more about
the lithium-ion cells than the PLA case if
temperature did end up becoming a problem.
And also, I only have the Ms. Pink color in
Prusament PLA.
So, I’ll be using that, which means I’ll
grab the PLA profile in the slicer.
Quick look at the print preview, this is looking
good, so I can save it over onto, in this
case, an SD card, other machines use USB drives,
safely remove it, and move on to the printer.
So on the printer, I’ll pop in the SD card.
The first thing I do is to check if there
is stuff from the last print left on the bed,
and if 
the last print had trouble sticking, I’ll
wipe it down real quick.
If the printer already had the right filament
loaded up, I could start printing at this
point, but we still need to swap in the pink
PLA, so I go to preheat, and choose the preheat
preset with the higher temperature out of
the filament that’s already in there and
the one I’m loading.
So this is PETG already in here, I’m loading
PLA, so I’ll use the hotter PETG preset.
When the hotend is at temperature, I can click
“unload”, and then load the new filament.
The old roll of PETG goes back into the drybox.
All that’s left now to do is to start the
print.
Usually I’ll just watch the first layer
and if that goes down without lifting, the
rest of the print is usually going to be fine,
too, but that’s just experience in being
able to judge which models are going to work
well and which won’t and trusting your machines
to not mess up.
This first layer looks good, so let’s keep
this printing.
Ah, this is taking too long.
So there it is.
The printer is cooled down, which means the
print should have released from the bed, if
not, a quick tap can usually break it free.
I like to use the print itself to go ahead
and scrape the skirt and priming line off
the bed right away so that the printer is
ready for the next print.
And that’s really it.
There’s the print, it’s ready to use right
away, again, because it’s been designed
specifically for 3D printing.
If you had printed something with support
material, now would be the time to remove
that, a combination of prying and snipping
tools like flat screwdrivers, pliers and a
flush cutter works well.
Or if you wanted to make the print look less
like a print, you could also go through a
full finishing process, for PLA, you can use
pretty much any technique, be it, filler,
prime and paint, or wet-sanding the parts,
or using whatever approach you like.
If it’s a part that’s intended for a functional
application, drilling holes to their final
size, tapping threads or adding threaded inserts
is something that’s easily doable with tools
made for metalwork as well.
So lastly, on the printer itself, if you’ve
got a moisture-sensitive filament loaded in
there and you know your ambient humidity is
not always super-low, it makes sense to unload
filaments that are sensitive to moisture,
like PETGs, Nylons, which you probably should
be printing straight from a drybox anyway,
ABS, all of those profit from being kept in
a sealed, dehumidified container.
Turn the printer off and that’s it!
Now, the process I showed is assuming that
your printer either came with good profile
that are already optimized for the different
filament types, or that you have gathered
or tuned profiles yourself that are ready
to go already.
If you don’t have profiles that you know
work for what you’re trying to do, with
the printer you’re trying to use, it might
be a bit of a back-and-forward between slicing
the part, checking how it prints, and going
back to the slicer and changing a handful
of things and then seeing if things are improved.
LIke I think I said before, having good, reliable
profiles is, I think, way more important that
what exact hardware you’re running these
days.
But anyway, I hope that helped shed some light
onto what it looks like actually 3D printing
something - it’s really pretty simple, and
most of the time, having to get up from your
desk is the hardest part.
So that’s it for this one, in the next video,
we’ll look at what the requirements on your
models, tools and environment is to even start
printing, until then, thank you for watching,
make sure to get subscribed, keep on making,
and I’ll see you later.
