Hi there.
My name is Nils with LRN2DIY.
Now, whether you're thinking about buying
your first 3D printer or maybe you've gotten
one recently and are trying to figure it out,
or perhaps you've been at this for a while,
but over the next several minutes I'm going
to show you 13 things about 3D printing that
I wish I knew when I got started that hopefully
will save you some time.
A little bit of background here.
About five or six years ago, a friend of mine
recommended a book called Makers by Chris
Anderson.
So, Makers is all about people who want to
make things and create things, and use different
technologies to do them, and one of the explanations
he gave in this book was that in the future,
almost everybody would have a 3D printer in
their house and could basically manufacture
whatever they wanted.
And I thought that sounds pretty incredible,
but pricing for 3D printers at the time was
through the roof.
It was pretty crazy and it's come down so
much just in the last few years.
A couple of years ago I was able to buy the
PrintrBot Simple Metal for about $700.
It was my first 3D printer, I was very excited
about it, and I just loved digging into it
and feeling like I could create anything I
wanted to right in my own house.
I quickly realized, however, that it was not
so easy to start 3D printing.
I had to tweak and adjust and modify.
I threw away so many prints that had failed.
There were just so many things I didn't get
and it took me quite a while to understand
some of those things.
So fast forward even further, just a little
while ago, I picked up a Tevo Tornado from
GearBest.
Now, this printer is night and day compared
to my first printer.
While this is still a great printer, there
are several things that you get with a more
modern printer nowadays.
Not to mention the price.
This printer costs $340 while this one was
about $700.
So less than half the price, I was able to
get some features like a heated bed on here,
a huge volume.
I can print about 300 millimeters square by
400 millimeters tall.
So that's about 12 by 12 by 15, and imagine
printing a Darth Vader helmet all in one go,
or a ukulele, a football helmet; anything
like that you could print all at once because
of the huge build volume that you have access
to with this.
It's got a great interface.
I can make a lot of adjustments and controls
right here on the printer, and pretty killer.
So, let's jump into these 13 things that I
think will save you a lot of time.
I've actually polled a bunch of my buddies
who have 3D printers and even an online community
of people who 3D print to try to find out
what kinds of things took them a while to
get used to.
So let's take a look at what they are now.
The number one on this list, and probably
number one most important is bed leveling
and that first layer squish.
What I mean by that is first, let's start
with bed leveling for just a moment here.
Bed leveling is making sure the bed or the
area that gets printed on is actually nice
and flat, and it's all equally distant from
where the actual print head or the hot end
is going to go.
So if you've got, for example, your print
head, or sorry, your hot end is close to the
bed right here, but on the other side it's
a quarter inch away or even an eighth of an
inch away, then you're going to have problems
and your print is not going to stick as it
gets further away from the hot end.
So you want to make sure that your bed is
nice and level.
Let's take a look real quick at how to do
that.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to use
a piece of paper.
Make sure it's just a standard piece of paper
and not something super thin or super thick.
You want to move your hot end to each corner
of your bed.
Starting in the first corner, you're going
to put it in that corner and then slide your
paper underneath.
Ideally, the paper should fit snugly underneath
the hot end, in between the hot end and the
bed, and actually have some pole or some resistance
when you try to move it around.
If it doesn't fit under there at all, your
hot end is too close to your bed.
If it fits in there easily and can move easily,
your hot end is too far away.
You want to find that happy medium where it's
tugging on the paper, but it's actually still
able to slide under there and fit okay.
Your piece of paper is usually going to be
a pretty good gauge of a level bed.
Proceed to do that on each of the remaining
three corners and then you've got a level
bed.
I also recommend that after you do all four
corners that you move back to the first corner
to make sure your other three adjustments
for example, didn't mess with that first one.
So, maybe go through it a couple times real
quick and you're in good shape.
Many printers today actually come with bed
levelers or you can attach or by a third party
bed leveler to attach, and that will actually
do a lot of the work for you in getting it
to just the right spot.
But if you have to do it manually, it's really
not a big deal.
It just takes a couple minutes and you don't
have to do it every time, just whenever things
start to get out of whack, which happens over
time.
Now, the bed leveling has everything to do
with that first layer of squish I mentioned.
That first layer squish, what I mean by that
is making sure that that first bead that goes
around that first layer of whatever it is
you're printing adheres really well to the
bed itself.
And the distance that you have between your
hot end and your bed is what makes the actual
first layer of squish occur properly or not
occur properly, resulting in a failed print
most likely.
The gist of it is, like you see in this quick
illustration here, you want your bead of your
first layer, what's coming out of the hot
end to squish down onto the bed just a little
bit, so that it creates a semi-circle rather
than a full circle, and certainly not a flattened
pancake.
If you have to err on one side of the other,
err on the side of making it a little bit
too squished because then you're going to
get good adhesion and it's not going to go
anywhere.
But if you do it too round and too high off
the bed, it's just not going to grab onto
the bed and then you'll likely have a failed
print.
That's my number one tip and probably the
reason for most failed prints with 3D printing.
Tip number two, print on glass.
Different printers are going to come with
different printing surfaces and a lot of them
have different attributes.
Some are really great, some are not so great,
but I think it really makes a big difference
to keep things consistent and print on glass
for a few reasons.
Number one, glass is very dense, very hard
and very flat.
That makes things a lot easier when you're
printing.
Because of the density, it spreads the heat
out really evenly.
It does a really good job with that.
Because of the hardness and because of that
nice flat surface, you can scrape things off
of it really well, and a lot of times it cools
down really well, making it easy to pop a
print off rather than have to really pry at
it and work at it.
So printing on glass just in my opinion, makes
things so much easier.
On my Tevo Tornado for example, that actually
came with these two printing pad surfaces
and they tend to have some issues over time,
like most pads do.
There can be bubbling because of the adhesive
underneath.
Different things can go wrong with it.
So, what I did was I actually went to the
store and bought a six pack of 12 by 12 mirror
tiles for 10 bucks.
So for 10 bucks, I was able to upgrade it.
I've got lots of extras if I need them, and
now I've got that really nice surface.
And the mirror part is cool, just to see that
reflection as it's printing and everything,
and then that is so much easier to work with.
So I definitely recommend using glass if you
can, or a mirror tile of some sort.
A lot of times you can get your glass cut
specifically at the hardware store, or cutting
glass is super easy.
You just need a little bit of glass cutting
oil and a glass cutter that cost a couple
bucks.
You use your line along a straight edge, make
your slice basically with a glass cutter and
then snap it off, and you're good to go.
It's actually a lot easier than most people
think.
So definitely, print on glass.
One other nice thing about printing on glass
is that you can go to the dollar store and
get a six pack of these handy little razors
with straight edges, and you can use those
to pry things off, to clean your bed off,
to get under the brims that you print and
we'll talk about that in a minute.
And it just makes it really easy to clean
things off.
Your glass is just a perfectly hard smooth
surface.
It's difficult to scratch or to damage, so
using a little razor blade with that is perfect
and it gets you exactly what you want in a
3D printing situation.
Another cool thing about the Tevo Tornado
is that it actually has a glass bed underneath
the adhesive and the pad that comes with it.
So if you want to spend about an hour and
a half or so, you can actually remove that
pad, clean off all that adhesive, and then
you're printing right on that glass that comes
with it.
And that's what I would recommend doing.
I've been a little lazy and haven't actually
gotten to doing that on mine.
I just threw that tile on top and it's doing
the job, but it's got glass.
You may as well use it, so I'll probably get
to that pretty soon and save myself from having
that extra weight on top.
Now tip number three, you've got to get it
sticky.
You've got to make that bed, whether it's
glass or something else, you've got to make
sure it's nice and sticky.
There are a hundred different recipes for
doing this and lots of ways that people have
suggested.
I've tried all kinds of stuff and found some
that work really well.
One of my best friends, Aquanet Hairspray.
Aquanet actually sprays really sticky stuff
onto the surface and I can't imagine putting
that stuff in your hair, but I guess it works.
But it's actually, almost like spring 3M adhesive
onto your thing and it helps things stick
really well.
That's what I use for almost all of my prints.
I have tried other things, and another one
is to use glue sticks, just your standard
school-supplied glue sticks, and those work
excellent.
The downside to those is they leave a mess
and you have to scrape that up between prints
and you get this white flaky stuff all over,
so not my favorite.
But if you're having problems with the adhesion
on your bed, glue sticks are a great way to
go.
Another thing that a lot of people try is
just using painters tape or masking tape on
the bed, putting a new fresh layer every few
prints or whenever it gets damaged, and that
gives a nice texture, kind of a tactile surface
for it to grab onto when you're doing that
first layer.
Now, those types of things work great for
PLA or for TPU or for different printing materials
like that, but if you're doing ABS, which
is a little bit different beast, then with
that, what you're going to want to do is take
some acetone and create a tiny puddle of it
and then use some more ABS, maybe a failed
print or a little spool, a little round bit
of ABS, and actually spread that around.
The acetone is going to break down the ABS
a little bit and leave the sediment on there,
which causes it to have a nice sticky surface
and it's basically you're sticking ABS to
other ABS, which makes for a good printing
surface.
So whatever method you choose, you just got
to make sure you've got a nice sticky surface
for that first layer to adhere to so that
everything else can build properly on top
of that.
All right.
Tip number four is rafts, brims, and skirts.
What this is is the bed adhesion.
It's basically almost as important as that
first layer, but not quite.
But what it does is it says, how do you want
to enhance how this object actually sticks
to the bed?
So let's talk about those three.
Let's start with a skirt.
A skirt is what I use on most prints.
All the skirt does is it actually goes around
and outlines your print, whatever it is, with
a few layers, and it doesn't actually contact
the print itself.
It's mostly just to get that material flowing
out of the hot end right at first, and gives
you a few minutes or maybe a minute to try
it and check and make sure that everything
looks good, and that your first layer is going
to work out okay.
I always recommend doing at least a skirt
if you're not going to do the others.
Next up, brims.
What a brim is just think of it like the brim
of a hat.
It's attached to the hat itself or attached
to the model in this case, and it's a nice
flat area that sticks down to the bed, and
usually you can actually set the width of
that or how many times it goes around and
that just gives you more adhesion, more area
to stick to the bed to help your model stay
in place.
I recommend brims for most prints if you just
want to add that little extra bit of adhesion.
It also serves the same purpose as a skirt,
which is, allows you to see that everything
is coming out okay, clean out that hot end
a little bit in case you switched filaments
for example.
But it also is not ideal for really big prints
where it's going to take up let's say 50%
or more of your surface.
For something that's actually quite big, you
might want to use a raft.
Now, a raft is just what it sounds like.
If you think of a raft as something that you
put in the water and build and put in the
water, it's something that goes underneath
that you stand on top of or sit on top of.
This is the same thing.
So it's actually going to create a nice little
raft underneath with a solid surface basically
that sits underneath and acts as a buffer
between the bed and the print itself.
So it gives great adhesion.
One downside of the raft is that you actually
don't get as clean of a bottom surface on
your print as you would if you printed directly
onto the bed itself.
So those are your three types.
The general rules are, if you're not worried
about it sticking and you're having a good
sticky experience with your bed, things are
working out good there, then go with a skirt.
That way you just have a test.
You'd make sure everything looks good, and
then it goes.
It doesn't use too much filament either.
If you know you're going to need some extra
adhesion and your print is less than, let's
say, 25% or less than 50% the size of your
bed, then in that case you'd want to use a
brim.
And if it's going to be a larger print that's
going to take up more than half of your bed,
maybe go with a raft in that case.
Tip number five, understanding support.
Support is really essential in a lot of different
prints.
On some prints, the design of it is such that
you're going to have to have some support.
What support does is builds up a removable
temporary column basically, or a pattern that
will support the new print that's going to
actually be part of the model that needs to
sit on top of that.
So for example, if you imagine printing the
letter C, then the bottom of it is probably
going to print okay, but anything that comes
up and hangs over the bottom, so that whole
top part of the C needs support, your 3D printer
has to have something to print on.
You can't just print on thin air and expect
that to work out.
It has to have something underneath it.
Or if it's a more moderate angle, nothing
too severe, then it can overhang a little
bit.
Most printers can print anywhere from 30 to
45 degrees of overhang, if you're lucky.
If you go anything past 30 for example, you
might be a little bit risky as far as making
sure that angle comes out okay.
So it depends on the printer, it depends on
the model, it depends on the material that
you use.
If you're unsure, try printing with support.
Another thing with support is that you can
actually really modify using a slicer like
Cura, some software that will slice up and
get your model ready.
You can really modify what the support does.
You can determine how thick it is, how far
apart each line or grid is.
You can determine how much of it to lay down.
You can determine where to put it.
There's all these different settings that
you can tweak, but out of the box, something
like Cura as a slicer, is it going to let
you say supports on or supports off?
And then you're also going to have the option
for supports everywhere versus supports directly
from the bed only.
What that means is, for example, if I've got
a letter V and I want to just do anything
that's attached to the bed or it goes up right
off the bed, it's going to do my supports
underneath that letter V.
If I had something that wanted to print on
top of that, like an O for example, then I
would need to actually have support everywhere
so that it can support the top of the O, so
it's not printing onto nothing.
So, that's why it's important that you understand
the distinction between supporting everywhere
and just supporting from the bed, and all
of the different options that you have with
support.
Like anything else, that's something that
you're going to want to play around with and
experiment to make sure you have a good understanding
of what your printer is capable of.
One last thing with supports is a lot of models
don't actually need them.
Sometimes you can do some pretty crazy stuff
like this ukulele here for example, requires
zero support because the angles are not severe
enough in any one location for it to have
to do that.
A few parts are a little risky or a little
tricky I guess, like these holes that are
cut out up here.
They actually don't use support, but you can
see it doesn't do a perfect job.
In this case, it's not a big deal because
I can use a standard drill bit and just mill
those out to clean them up.
But that's something you're going to want
to be aware of.
So if you can get away without using support,
that's ideal and you're going to have a lot
less to clean up.
Number six is Octopi.
I love Octopi.
What it is is if you've ever heard of a Raspberry
Pi, it's a little $35 computer that you can
buy, and it has built-in wifi and it has Bluetooth
and it uses micro USB to power it.
It's got HDMI and USBs and then IO ports,
all this cool stuff.
Really awesome little package for 35 bucks,
or you can even buy a little bit older one
for even less if you want.
With the Raspberry Pi, you can load an image
or an operating system onto it called Octopi.
With Octopi, you can keep that plugged into
your 3D printer all the time and that acts
as a dedicated computer basically for your
3D printer.
And that gives you some really cool options.
I'm going to tell you the first couple and
then I'm going to move into my next tip, which
will cover the last one.
First thing it gives you is remote access
to it.
You can actually cancel a print, pause a print,
start a print, keep an eye on the temperature.
You can even keep an eye on the actual layers
that it's building.
You can even preview the layers and see exactly
how it's going to build something as it goes
using Octopi, which is super cool.
You can do all kinds of neat things.
It will also load all of your old prints.
So if you just want to leave your bed ready
for printing whatever, you can scroll through,
grab a print that you've done in the past,
start it up and let it run.
One of my very favorite things that Octopi
lets you do is visually keep an eye on your
print as it goes, and that takes us into tip
number seven, which is keeping an eye on things.
You'll notice on my setup here, I have this
rigged get up here, but it does the job.
What I've got is a webcam that actually costs
$8, $7.99 I got on Amazon.
I'll put a link in the description if you
want to pick one of these up.
And with that, what it gives you is the ability
to keep an eye on your print from anywhere
because it's hooked up to Octopi.
I didn't have to setup drivers, do anything.
I just plugged it right into Octopi, into
my Raspberry Pi, and it immediately just works.
One of the things that Octopi gives you is
the ability to do time lapses and real time
monitoring.
The real time monitoring is essential because
a lot of times I'll start a print right before
I go to work, I know I'm going to be there
for eight or nine hours, and that way I can
keep an eye on it from work and make sure
everything is okay.
If it's not working, then I remote into my
Octopi and I can actually cancel the print
to not waste a bunch of filament or make a
big mess, which is pretty great.
In fact, not too long ago I was trying to
print a ukulele and it's a three and a half
day print.
And about two days into it I was in California,
I was in another state.
I happen to check on it and I saw that it
had blown up and things were getting pretty
messy and the print had failed, and so I was
able to remote in and cancel the print.
And yes, I wasted a little bit of filament,
but it would have been so much worse if I
let it run for the next day and a half spitting
out filaments and making even more of a mess.
This is why I tell you there are going to
be some ups and downs.
You cannot expect things to be perfect all
the time, but with Octopi, I was able to minimize
the damage that occurred and the waste that
occurred.
This little camera is only $8.
You can definitely buy a nicer, higher end
one if you want to do higher quality time
lapses and things like that.
One of the things I love about Octopi is you
can actually do what's called a Z access trigger.
So you can actually say every time you go
up to the next layer, then I want you to take
a picture and then compile that into a time
lapse, and then you end up with something
like this, where you're just watching the
thing just build right up and you're not doing
anything.
I just hit download of that video as soon
as I'm done and it's already ready for me
and the settings are all right there.
It's pretty rad.
All right, tip number eight.
Tip number eight is materials matter.
There are lots of different materials that
you can choose from when you're doing 3D printing
and depending on your printer, you may have
access to a wider range of materials.
If you've got, for example, a heated bed,
that's going to help you out a lot with certain
materials.
So, the first and probably most common material
that you're going to use is PLA.
PLA is basically a plastic that seems to be
engineered.
I don't know if it was engineered specifically
for 3D printers, but it's definitely the most
popular.
It comes in all kinds of colors and there
are also, this is one of the things I wanted
to cover, there's different qualities of PLA.
I've actually used some junk PLA before in
some of my printing and it's clogged my nozzle
on a regular basis because it's just not a
very cleaned out or filtered material.
And so you want to stay away from things like
that, so you want to go with brand names that
you trust.
For example, Hatchbox is a really popular
filament creator.
Their brand basically is respected because
it's going to give you something that's clean
and good.
Again, I'll put links in the description if
you want to check out some recommendations
that I have for good filaments that I've used
and that I trust that I'm not going to have
to worry about.
Now, filament typically cost somewhere in
the neighborhood of anywhere from 20$ to $30,
or let's say 15$ to $30 for a one kilogram
spool.
These are the spools that they come in.
One kilogram is about 2.2 pounds and typically,
that's going to be about 300 meters of filament.
One cool thing with your slicer software,
like Cura for example, is it's actually going
to show you as soon as you're ready to prepare
a model, it'll show you how much filament
it's going to take in meters.
So if you think I've got this one and it says
it's going to take 50 meters, you know that
you can do about six of those approximately
in one spool, so that's helpful to know.
Now another thing that you can try out is
using TPU.
TPU, you've probably heard of it because of
phone cases.
TPU is a soft material that's actually quite
flexible, and I love that you can actually
3D print with this.
Here's a phone case I printed for example
that's actually got TPU.
It's white, it's flexible and it's got that
movement to it, but I just did it right here
on my 3D printer.
I did print this one with supports and I will
say the supports are more difficult to remove
when you're using TPU.
But for a case where you need something that's
flexible and not hard like PLA, TPU is the
way to go.
Now, just like with PLA, you want to make
sure that you go with TPU that you can trust,
something that's been well-reviewed.
I'll put a link to this TPU that I'm using
down in the description, and there's actually
just lots of possibilities when you consider
that you can print something that's flexible.
You print it out into one shape, but it's
flexible, have some movement, has some give.
Obviously, phone cases or iPad cases is a
go-to suggestion for something that you can
print, but you can print handles with this.
You can print replacement parts that need
a little flex, all kinds of cool stuff, so
you can go to town with TPU.
Another material that's really cool and popular
is ABS.
ABS is different than PLA in the sense that
it's a lot more finicky to work with.
It's also stronger.
It's actually able to be used outdoors.
You can leave this outside and it's going
to be pretty strong and resilient to the sun
and to the natural conditions, but it's also
more difficult to work with.
You definitely need a heated bed.
And in most cases, I'd recommend actually
an enclosure around your 3D printer in order
to use ABS.
The reason is as it's printing, it's very
sensitive to movements in temperature, changes
in temperature to breezes, anything like that.
So by creating a very consistent environment
inside your 3D printer, you're going to have
the best luck.
And most of the time what happens with ABS
is it starts to warp on the bed.
You're going to do that first layer and it's
going to go okay, but then eventually it's
just going to start to warp and tweak on the
bed and that's going to ruin the rest of your
print.
So, that's why while very capable and has
certain applications, it's not one of the
easiest things to work with.
So you're going to want to keep that in mind.
Probably not what you're going to want to
do for your first print or your second print.
Get started with PLA and then work your way
into ABS.
The last material I want to talk about is
wood filament.
There are other materials, I'm just going
to cover these for here, but wood filament
is super cool.
It actually is a mixture of actual wood with
the PLA plastic, so it's considered PLA.
I'm not sure what the ratio of maybe sawdust
or wood or whatever it is they put into it
to PLA is, it ends up looking mostly like
just standard PLA, kind of a brown or beige
PLA.
But the cool thing is this stuff, you can
actually sand it and you can stain it and
you can treat it like wood, especially if
you print a little bit more of a solid piece
or you have a thicker shell on the outside
for sanding and that sort of thing.
So this is pretty cool.
You can see here I've printed my Learn to
DIY logo, my logo mark using this wood PLA
and it came out really cool.
Here's one of my obligatory prints for wood
PLA.
You got to print a Groot with your wood PLA.
It's just your rite of passage essentially
as a test print for your PLA.
So here's Dancing Groot.
I haven't even put it together yet, but you
can see this texture that it has and it has
this really cool look to it.
And Groot seems like a natural selection for
something that you would print with wood PLA.
Number nine on the list is also a really important
one.
Have a little help from your friends.
What I mean by this is you want to make sure
that you've got support from other people
who are experiencing 3D printing, who have
experienced it, maybe who even have the same
printer as you.
So for example, one of the places I really
like spending some time on and getting some
help is on a Facebook group called Tevo Tornado
owners, and so I'll put a link to that in
the description so you can hop on there too.
It's a private group, but you can get invited
in, no problem.
And what this does is it allows you to really
talk to other people who have that exact same
printer as you and get some help.
There are hundreds of people on the Tevo Tornado
Facebook group for example, and so there are
new posts all the time.
There's people asking questions that are the
same questions that I've had, especially getting
started.
And then there's people showing you different
hardware upgrades, different printed upgrades
that you can do for addressing some of the
issues that have been found with that specific
printer or with 3D printing in general, covering
all the bases, and it really is helpful to
help you get to understand some of the issues
that other people are going through so you
don't have to go through them yourself.
In addition to these social media groups,
which I think are super helpful, there's also
forums, usually for 3D printing or even for
specific printers or different materials even
and different things like that.
You can also go to different websites.
Some people have blogs, and of course YouTube
is always ... I'm a little biased I guess,
but always a great resource for finding tips
and different ways to be a better 3D printer.
Number 10, this one is a lot less known I've
discovered amongst the people I've talked
to with 3D printing, but it is ironing.
Ironing is just what it sounds like.
If you imagine you're ironing your clothes,
what you're doing is using heat to get something
smooth, right?
So with ironing, that's actually an option
and Cura and most slicing software where what
it does is on the top layer, and obviously
this will only work for the top layer, but
on the top layer of whatever you print, it's
actually going to run your heated hot end
over the top of that surface without extruding
any material.
So all it's doing is melting nice and smooth,
everything on the top.
And this makes a night and day difference.
It basically makes the top of your material
look like it was printed on glass, just perfectly
smooth and really good looking and it even
glosses it over.
It's actually really great.
Maybe it's not something that you want to
use for all applications.
Sometimes you like that texture that you come
out with with a standard print.
But if you want a nice, smooth, glossy top
on yours, iron it.
Just enable that ironing setting and that's
in Cura, you can go into the different settings,
do a quick search for iron and you're going
to find that right there.
Enable that on your prints and you're good
to go.
One caveat with this is, as you would imagine,
it does add to the print time.
So for example, on my Learn to DIY logo here
that I printed, this is a pretty big print.
It's an 11 inch disc that I created here,
and it was going to add four hours to actually
do all the ironing on this one.
And I decided I don't want to do that because
I was going to sand it and stain it and everything
anyway, but that gives you an idea that it
can take quite a while to do the ironing on
something.
But if that's what you want, then it's going
to give you a really cool look.
Tip number 11 is print profiles.
In your slicing software, a lot of times it
will come preloaded with some different profiles.
So for example, you may be able to select
PLA and coarse, and what that's going to do
is auto fill in all of your settings for you.
You can customize them in there, but what
I found is really helpful is getting to know
my printer and how things come out well.
I'll actually go in and tweak a bunch of things
like the speed, the travel speed.
I'll tweak the actual resolution, the layer
height.
I'll tweak the temperatures a little bit.
Maybe the first layer of temperature will
be a little bit different.
And depending on the material and the quality
that I'm after, I'm going to use different
settings.
So once I get all those settings dialed in,
I'll go in and save that as a profile, a printing
profile.
And what that allows me to do is either use
that exact same profile on another print later,
or at least use that as a starting point and
then make my tweaks from there.
That way I don't have to try to remember,
what was it that I did for that one print
that came out this way?
I can actually just go in and load up that
profile.
If you name it with a descriptive name, it's
going to make it a lot easier and then you
can save those and you're not going to have
to do so much redundant tweaking of settings
in your slicer.
Now, speaking of slicers, slicing matters.
That's tip number 12.
There are a lot of settings in here.
It can be really daunting and overwhelming
to look at all these different things.
And then in most of your slicing software,
you can actually enable a bunch of additional
settings or you can hide them.
I've got quite a few on here, but not as many
as some people I'm sure.
But even looking at these a lot of times I
think, "Oh my goodness, is this where I wanted
it to be, or was this something that I accidentally
adjusted at some point?
Is this going to actually work for what I'm
doing?"
So there are all kinds of different settings
in there and I will say a few things.
One, you want to check out your retraction
and that's when it actually pulls the material
up as it leaves, as it moves around, as it
travels so that it doesn't leave strings and
that kind of thing.
If you're getting strings, then check out
your retraction settings.
Your speed is going to be really a big deal.
If you're finding that your levels, or sorry,
your layers are adjusting or you're having
issues with things like that or that it's
just doing a sloppy job, that your edges aren't
very smooth, then consider slowing down the
speed to something a little bit more manageable.
And that just is common sense to think that
if you're trying to draw a picture for example,
and you're going as fast as you can, you're
not going to be very accurate.
3D printers are amazingly accurate at high
speeds, but the higher the speed, the greater
the chance that you're going to have a failure
in there somewhere, or at least some inaccuracy.
Also, you want to make sure to play around
with the settings for your temperature for
both the bed and the hot end, and make sure
that you're doing those according to what
your material that you're using is.
Now, I've done some research and found that
people say they will swear by having a 180
degree hot end on for PLA for their prints,
and then the next guy will swear by having
230 and say that's all he uses, it works perfect
and anything else messes up.
That's a 50 degrees Celsius difference.
And so there is no right answer necessarily
for this, but typically for PLA, if you're
going to keep this in the 220 range and maybe
your bed around 60, maybe 70, then usually
that's a good starting point and then you
can adjust from there.
Now my final tip, tip number 13 is that this
is a hobby.
When I was getting really frustrated with
3D printing and all of the different settings,
and things just not working and I felt like
every print was failing and I just couldn't
get that first layer right, and I get the
first layer right and then it would move over
and the layer would adjust and mess up the
whole print after four hours of a print.
Or like that ukulele, two and a half days,
two days.
It can be really frustrating if you let it.
So my coworker, the guy in the office next
to me actually has a 3D printer and he's new
to it.
And he said, I'm approaching this like it's
a hobby.
I know things are going to go wrong, but I'm
going to learn how to get good at it and I'm
just going to enjoy the ride and the process,
and see if I can print out some cool stuff.
But he helped me understand that you can actually
do this and have those errors and have those
mistakes, and be okay with it, and realize
that you're experimenting, you're learning.
And like any hobby, it's going to take time
to get good at it.
So that's my last tip and I think definitely
one of the important ones is to make sure
that you're actually treating this like a
hobby.
Try to have fun with it and not just expecting
that it's like a Xerox printer or a printer
that you print your paper on.
You expect it to just work and be consistent
and do the same thing every time.
I hate printers by the way, regular printers,
but I don't have that same attitude with 3D
printers because I've realized that it's just
something you have to tweak and play with
and get good at.
You're going to have failures and that's just
part of the learning process.
So if you go into it with that attitude, you're
going to have a good time, you're going to
create some really cool stuff, and I think
you're going to enjoy 3D printing.
Now in the comments, I would love to hear
all of the things I missed.
I'm sure there are a lot of tips that I missed
with these 13.
These are just what I consider the most common
13 based on the people I've talked to and
in my own experience.
So if you've got a comment, a tip for someone
who's doing 3D printing, something that you've
learned that really helps, let's hear it.
Let's start that discussion and get that going
in the comments below.
Do you have any questions?
Leave those there too.
Maybe we can get some help here from other
3D printers, the people who are using 3D printing,
and I'd love to hear what everybody has to
say and what they have to offer on this.
Now a few quick things to wrap up here.
If you want to get a Tevo Tornado, I've actually
got a coupon code, Tornado US, with a capital
T and a capital US, that you can use to get
a discount on it where it will actually always
be at a fixed price of $329.
That's a pretty killer deal for such a large
printer, a very capable printer and one that
I trust and I've been using for a while and
really enjoying.
The other cool thing about the Tevo Tornado
is the support that you get with it, being
able to get all these answers to the different
questions that you have and knowing that there
are so many other users out there.
So a very cool deal.
Be sure to check that out.
In order to get that though, there is a link
in the description that you're going to want
to use.
It helps me out by letting Gearbest keep track
of the sales that I generate from this video.
So definitely if you would, use the link in
the video to check out the Tevo Tornado.
I'll put another link to all of their other
printers that they've got as well.
So if you do end up buying something, I would
definitely appreciate it if you used that
link.
Also, I mentioned the book, Makers.
If you're into Audible or want to get into
some audio books, then Audible is a great
way to go.
You can use the link in the description, yes,
I know, lots of links in the description,
to get a free trial that will actually give
you not one but two free audio books.
So check that out if you're into audio books
or wanting to give that a try.
It's a trial.
You don't have to keep it, but you can see
if you like it.
I'm pretty sure you will.
Lastly, if you want to follow me on social
media or on my website, I'm on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram, and I post there all the time.
I've also got a whole slew of articles on
my website at learntodiy.com.
You can find an article about this very topic,
13 tips for 3D printing, and I've got a whole
right up there that you can check out.
And if you're into DIY, home improvement,
things like that, then please consider subscribing
to my YouTube channel.
I've got dozens and dozens of videos, and
on there I'm doing everything from building
a clubhouse to hiding your TV wires, to adjusting
the links on your watch, to 3D printing.
So all kinds of maker, DIY sort of things.
That's what I enjoy doing and that's what
I share on YouTube.
So consider subscribing there if that's of
interest to you.
Thanks so much for watching and we'll catch
you guys on the next one.
