3D Printing Beginner Tips

Let's be honest, 3D printing can be quite tricky. Home 3D printing technology is still immature and 3D printing beginners who just bought their first machine are faced with a multitude of challenges when it comes to getting reliable and repeatable 3D print results.

It is clear that a bit of expert guidance won't hurt! That's why we reached out to some of the top 3D printing experts and asked them the following question:

• First, make sure that you understand that 3D printing at home is still not yet "ready for the average Joe", despite the hype that many brands brag about. Understanding how it works is (still) a must, as much as a natural tendency to be curiosity and to like tinkering. Only a few reliable printers may work out of the box (kits are often tricky). And even if you are lucky and if it works out of the box, you will have to solve complex problems soon or later, that are time and nerve consuming. Be patient and inventive!

• Do not print with a badly calibrated printer! Some printers are even delivered while not properly tuned, and price is not always a safe indicator! Check that everything is square, that the pulleys or belts are not lose, that the bed is level. Keep it clean. Right now, the forums are filled with years of ideas, problem solving and interesting experiences. So 99% of your own are probably already discussed in length. The hard part is to recognize it in the first place, which is often not obvious! Experience and practice are a must, and you will eventually know enough that something goes wrong by the sound it makes!

• Never focus too much on one single issue. These machines are complex, and a trouble often arise from multiple reasons. A slipping filament may not only be caused by a "bad" hobbed bolt or driving system, but also by an obstructed nozzle, a wrong feed value, a too low (or too high) temperature...or a combination of all these! As a general rule, do not expect things to go better if you have to abuse any parameter (e.g. by raising the temperature or flow rate). Start printing with low temperature and low speed, and only then drift slightly around the settings so you learn the combined effects: each filament has its own best set of values. Knowing how to diagnose the printer is a huge win for a full experience.

• when you first get a 3D printer up and running, print out lots of 20mm cubes. It's quite a boring object, but it can help ensure you have a well setup and calibrated machine. You can print these solid to test for over extrusion and size calibration. You can also print hollow to test for accurate perimeter width settings in your slicing program. This will also ensure better and more accurate hole size, model features and improved strength of parts when you have the perimeter width setting and extruder flow rates correctly defined.
• My next tip, which really follows on from the above, would be to get comfortable with nozzle to print bed adjustment - This sounds obvious but it's still the main thing people don't spend enough time on when getting started. And it's so important for successful printing.

  Really don't ignore this aspect even if you have a 3D printer that automatically adjusts for a bed that's not vertically straight / level / tram / flat - these are all names used to describe a printing surface that is setup correctly. The more time you spend with your particular 3D printer, the more you will learn on how best to adjust it, and hopefully then keep it calibrated so you don't need to tweak it all the time.

The auto-level compensation in some 3D printers can add adjustments that make some prints look of a lower print quality or due to the compensation it may emphasize the layering especially on vertical surfaces.

So try to get everything vertically straight. The X,Y and Z axis should all be at a 90 degree angle to each other. This is actually still quite hard to do and prove. Printing cubes and testing them (measuring and checking it they are straight) after printing with a set square is still the best way to check it's all setup correctly.

Believe me, getting this setup and calibrated will save you so many print problems and adjustments later on.

• Then the same thing goes for print size calibration. When you print a 20mm cube, is it 20mm when measured? - if not check if it's a calibration issue with the machine. This can also be tricky to track down. Sometimes it may require an adjustment in the steps per millimeter settings in the firmware (more likely if you have built up a 3D printer yourself or from a kit) and very often it's just down to over extrusion of material causing an over-stuffed object. Experiment with extrusion rates, In my experience it's often better to be 10% under extruding than any level of over extruding. And a surprising amount of people are over-extruding without even realizing it.

• Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat. Your goal is to get a completed object off the print bed, not to have a magical machine that runs without human intervention. Use whatever tricks and cheats you can think of to make sure the print sticks to the bed. I've been known to pause the printer and super glue the first layer to make sure it doesn't go anywhere, especially on large, flat prints. A little post-processing with sandpaper, filler, and paint goes a long way towards making nice objects you'll be proud to show off.
• Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Don't try to print too many discrete objects at once. One little widget getting dragged around by your tool head will quickly ruin the rest of an extensive multi-part print. If you're designing a model from scratch, test-print the tricky bits first by carving them off the main model. Autodesk Meshmixer is great for slicing a complicated model up into pieces.
• In theory, theory and practice are the same but in practice, they're different. Digital models change when they're birthed into the analog world. Cooling plastic will shrink an otherwise perfectly designed dovetail joint. Your printer might lay down a slightly wider first layer, throwing off your design by a few microns. Your haste to pull a warm print off the bed might warp it into unusablity. Resist the temptation to print a scale model of a variable-speed transmission your first time out. Start with something simple and fast like Robber Rex instead until you gain experience with your printer's quirks and foibles. And please, for the love of whatever powers you hold dear, please don't print any more Yoda heads.