If you or your child just got a 3D printer and aren’t exactly sure what to do next – I offer, in a condensed format, the next steps that I would recommend to anybody embarking on this exciting new hobby!
The next steps you should take will be:
- Set up your 3D printer (not in you living quarters – but rather your garage or basement),
- Load your filament (PLA to start with),
- Calibrate & test your printer (Something simple – a model may have been provided with your printer)
- Get something FUN to print from Cults3D, Thingiverse or Pincushion, or check out some of my suggestions HERE.
- Prepare your model for printing by slicing it in Cura or the slicing software provided with your 3D printer.
- Print your 3D model. (this may take some time – depending on complexity and size)
- Finally, A big part of the thrill of 3D printing is designing your own objects – so don’t wait too long before trying out something like TinkerCAD to create your own object or model!
1) Setting up Your New 3D Printer
Determine The Printer’s Location (Oh, and it Should NOT Be in Your Living Quarters or Bedroom!)
3D printing can be an odiferous and/or noisy proposition. That, along with some of the health and safety concerns with regards to the fumes from the printing process, lead me to recommend that any 3D printer NOT be located in your actual living quarters!
I would recommend that the 3D printer be located in either the garage, or at least basement of your house and that there be direct ventilation accessible to the room the printer is located.
Likewise, depending on where you live and the moisture levels in your basement or garage, you might also want to consider having a dehumidifier to better control the humidity and moisture content of the air in your printer room.
Temperature and moisture levels will play a role in determining the print quality of 3D printed objects and also impact the shelf life of your PLA filament. So while locating the printer in the basement or garage may be good for health and noise considerations – it is not necessarily the ideal environment for printing or the storage of your filament.
If you are interested in learning more about the safety concerns surrounding the 3D printing process and some strategies to deal with such issues – you can read more in my post entitled “Is 3D Printing Safe for My Children?“
Assembly
A few years ago there was a significant price premium to purchase a 3D printer fully assembled. That premium has declined considerably over the years – and now fully assembled 3D printers are much more competitively priced when compared to the un-assembled rivals.
If your printer is un-assembled – you will obviously need to assemble it yourself. Usually all the tools that are required for assembly are included with the printer. If the instructions are poor or incomplete you can usually find a YouTube video to help you through the process and trouble shoot any problems for the printer model you have.
2) Load Your Filament (USE PLA)
The EASIEST filament to start 3D printing with if you are a beginner is PLA – or PolyLactic Acid. It has a relatively low melting point, is not prone to warping, adheres well to an unheated build plate, is non-toxic, and produces the fewest noxious fumes. This is the easiest material to succeed with and likely to cause you the fewest frustrations. So if you are just starting your 3D printing journey – the first filament type you should be using is PLA!
So put your filament spool on the spool holder and carefully load / feed the filament into the extruder.
3) Calibrate & Test Print
It’s understandable that many people want to skip this step and move right on to printing their first object, but calibrating and testing your new 3D printer is important as a means to establish a baseline for your printer. This baseline print will help you determine the abilities of the printer, identify any potential issues or problems, and become your reference point for future comparisons and trouble shooting.
This may take around 30 minutes or so to do – but it is time well spent! It is also a process you will want to become familiar with as you venture onto more complex models and use different types of filaments. Different filaments and more complex projects may require the calibration to be tweaked to yield the best result for those specific materials or models you are endeavoring to print.
Learning how to quickly ascertain how well the printer is set up & calibrated for a specific job and what tweaks may be required will greatly minimize your future frustrations as you move onto more complex projects and builds.
4) Get a 3D Model / Object to Print
There are many sites out there for sharing the files necessary to create some truly amazing 3D printed objects! There is an amazing array of 3D objects – so everyone can find something that will be of particular interest or value to them!
Many files can be downloaded for free – while others may have some nominal cost associated with them. You can search the databases or browse them by category (or collections). I would start by going to Cults3D, Thingiverse, YouMagine, Pinshape. Check out some of my suggestions HERE.
If you are just looking to print the object in a single color – you will want to download and use an .STL file. If you are looking to modify or customize the object, or print it in 2 colors or more – you will probably want to find and download .OBJ file formats.
As printers and 3D objects continue to get more sophisticated – you will probably see some migration away from .STL file to .OBJ or .PLY file formats – which contain more information about texture, color and other details about the object.
Please Note: There are online 3D converters that can convert files between the various file formats. So if you can only find the object or model you want as an .OBJ file, for instance, you can download it and convert at a site like the one here —> (online 3D converter)
5) Prep Your Model/ Object for Printing
Slicing – is the name of the game here! Slicing is the step that prepares your 3D model for actual printing on the 3D printer. So your slicing software becomes the liaison – or middleman, between between the 3D model and the 3D printer to create the tangible object. It basically sends the printing instructions, layer by layer to the printer.
Definition: Slicing is defined as the process of breaking the 3D object model into individual layers and generating the g-code (numerical control programming language) that is used in computer-aided manufacturing to control automated machine tools – such as 3D printers.
Cura seems to be the easiest to use and learn – and I like that for the beginner- it can hide some of the options and settings that would only be more appropriate for more intermediate or advanced users. It keeps it simple in the beginning – but can “grow” with you as you gain experience and knowledge and want more control over the slicing process!
I also like that Cura is opensource and is the engine that drives Octoprint – which we plan on implementing in the near future.
Octoprint can be installed on a Raspberry Pi (Octoprint + Raspberry Pi – = Octopi!) and allows you control and monitor every aspect of your 3D printer and the print jobs right from your web browser. You can start, stop your print job, monitor temperatures and even access the embedded webcam feed!
I like the idea of being able to have remote control of the printer and not tie up a PC for the duration of the printing process! We plan on setting up an Octopi to control and monitor our 3D printer, and also using the webcam feature to make time-lapse recordings of our printing projects.
For those of you that are NOT familiar with Raspberry Pi’s – they are credit card sized computers that are very inexpensive – think less than $50! I would recommend going with a kit – because you are going to need the accessories that come along with the kit. The following link is the one that I would recommend buying (click here). It is the most powerful Raspberry Pi currently offered and has the most (4 gb) of RAM. Still less than $115!
It makes a lot of sense to me to invest ~$100 to have the control and monitoring capabilities of a PC connected to our 3D printer – without actually having a PC tied up to do so. That is why we really like the idea of the Octopi!
6) Printing Your 3D Model!
This one is fairly obvious – but go ahead and enjoy the feeling of taking something from the virtual world and bringing it into the physical world! That’s what 3D printing is all about!
I always obtain a sense of satisfaction with stuff like this – because I typically just sit behind a desk and shuffle paper. Having that maker mentality and sense of satisfaction that comes from creating something is very fulfilling to me and many others So go ahead and print something!
7) Design Something in 3D to 3D Print!
I think designing your own 3D objects is a BIG part of the fun of 3D printing! So I would not wait too long before exploring some of the software that allows you to do so. Printing things that others designed is fun – but designing your own creating is even better!
TinkerCAD is one of my favorite 3D designing applications, and it is super easy to learn & use! It is a browser based package and requires no download or installation to use. Browser based means that you are able to use it right through your browser after navigating to the website.
TinkerCAD also requires no previous CAD (Computer Aided Design) experience – and you can literally be building something in minutes. Try it – and you will see for yourself!
Despite the ease of use – it is also quite powerful in its abilities. Sure, it can’t really compete with some of the more robust design software out there – but it is definitely a great first step!
Other alternatives to consider for the beginner are 3D Slash, Clara.io, and SketchUp.
Once you graduate from TinkerCAD (if you ever do), there are plenty more sophisticated software packages – many of which are free – like Blender, FreeCAD, LibreCAD, OpenSCAD, Sculptris and MeshMixer.
Conclusion
I hope this provided some useful guidance for those of you just getting started on your 3D printing journey.
3D printing is a fascinating hobby with many different aspects to it. Over the coming years I am certain what are now just hobby skills will become increasingly important as society sees 3D printing mature and become more integrated into our daily lives on a more practical basis!
What is just a hobby today may become a valuable job skill in the not-to-distant future.
Sincerely,
