3D Printing

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Introduction

This page is a member's notes and understanding of 3D printing at Hackspace.

Initial page to capture know how about 3D printing (the bit that comes after 3D Design. At time of creation, content has been lifted from the Ultimaker FDM 3D Printer page since that tool has been deprecated.

There is a lot of out of date information regarding 3D printers on the Hackspace wiki. Historically the 3D printers were located elsewhere in the space. Now (2024) they are located in a poorly ventilated shared space with electronics. I haven't experienced it myself but I have spoken to members who have found the electronics area unusable due to IPA/resin fumes. While the printers are in this sub-optimal space the use of chemicals or filaments (eg. IPA for resin prints or ABS filament) which would be harmful to others is not permitted.

Again, historically 3D printers were regarded as hackable/improvable and good for experimentation (eg. with different filaments). Today, people have contributed money towards printers like the Bambu which they want to be a reliable printer rather than broken by someone's broken ad hoc experiments. All 3D printers in the space are DO NOT HACK items and please DO NOT BREAK. If you want printers for experimentation: Shout out and (if enough members share your passion) make that a facility at the space with printers acquired for the purpose.

Unattended Prints and Long Prints

3D Filament printers are a recognized fire risk. In consideration of rule 0: Without fire suppression a filament print must not be left unattended.

Some prints can take a long time (especially on the Ender 3). If your model is going to take so long you need to leave it unattended then let Rule 0 be your guide -- your model is not suitable for printing at Hackspace. Please explore options for multi-part printing of your model or other alternatives.

Printable Designs

See 3D Design

Preparing Designs for Print

General

Prior to printing you should check any models that you download or produce. The reason for this is that STL models need to be perfect meshes that define a solid, water-tight body. If this is not the case, they won't slice properly. There are several freely available tools that can fix STL files including; Netfabb & Meshmixer. Some modern slicers such a Bambu Studio and Prusa slicer have prompts that will attempt to fix problems with a mesh.

The Bambu printer is the closest we have to a "turn up and just print" experience. Even then there are configurable print details which can have a make or break effect on a print. It is often worth a small trial run to test setting changes for different print speeds or filament types and at different times of year (Hackspace is cold in winter and this makes 3D printing more challenging).

Its also important to check the dimensions of models you intend to print. You may find that models you download from the internet do not meet the size requirements for your project perfectly. In this case it is possible to scale the STL models in one or more dimension this can normally be done in the slicer software.

Design Specifics

Fusion 360

Fusion 360 can export models for printing in M3F and STL format. M3F is a zip file which contains an STL file and more. The default Fusion 360 export options for M3F and STL files are poor. At time of writing higher resolution STL files can be created, but not when part of an M3F export. In the "Save as Mesh" window: Select "Format == STL (ASCII)"; then under "Refinement Settings" slide the "Surface Deviation" and "Norman Deviation" sliders to minimum. I leave the "Maximum Edge Length" and "Aspect Ratio" as they are. One of these (not investigated which) will vastly increase the complexity (and load time) of the generated files if minimized.

Target Printers

Bambu Lab A1 mini

The Bambu printer is the closest we have to a "turn up and just print" experience. It is much faster than the Ender 3.

Specifics for this 3D printer are on the printer page.
There is a beginners guide to this printer here: Howto: Bambu A1 Mini

Creality Ender 3D Printers

Specifics for this 3D printer are on the printer page.

These printers are still perfectly usable but they are slow and have a much more manual hand on process than the Bambu printers. They definitely need more time dedicated to learning how to get the best from them.

Anycubic Photon

Specifics for this 3D printer are on the printer page.

Ultimaker FDM 3D Printer (Deprecated)

Specifics for this 3D printer are on the printer page.

Materials

Where to buy Filament

Sources of filament are;-

Members have had good success with [1] brand filament in the past and occasionally organized bulk buys at a discount. Always worth asking.

Where to buy Resin

Sources of resin are;-

Exotic Filaments

Please check the individual filament, build bed and printer pages details.

If a printer doesn't have the appropriate nozzle and build plate DO NOT print that filament on that printer.

Commonly printed material are "standard" PLA and "standard" PETG filament. Anything not "standard" PLA and "standard" PETG should be treated as exotic. Some investigation will be required to ensure it can be printed safely and successfully on Hackspace printers. Bambu labs has essential information on this on each of their filament pages.

  • ABS is known to release noxious fumes on printing. Now the 3D printers are in a poorly ventilated shared space, ABS and other fume emitting filaments must not be printed in Hackspace.
  • PLA and PETG are both available with different dyes, fillers and carbon fiber reinforcement to create different print effects. Although commonly available these should be treated as exotic materials because they often need a hardened nozzle or a nozzle size unavailable on Hackspace printers.
  • TPU is a flexible printable plastic but it needs careful treatment of the build bed or a different build bed to get successful prints. Some filaments will weld themselves to the wrong build bed, destroying it.
  • For some filaments like polycarbonate (PC) it is recommended to only print on an enclosed 3D printer.

Exotic Resins

There are generally 2 classes of resin: Water washable and not-water washable (needs isopropyl alcohol (IPA) for washing). As noted here only water washable resins should be used in the space.

WARNING: There is a lot of interesting research being done towards 3D printable resins with interesting properties. These include, for example, polyurethane resins with different additive mixes for printable shaped radio-absorbers and radio lenses. They sound both amazing and easy to make with many of the additives (eg. carbon nanotubes) available from Amazon and AliExpress (or similar). What is lacking in the research papers is the detailed description of toxicity of and safe handling procedures for the additives. In summary: Hackspace is not your chemistry lab. If you want to experiment with these kinds of things do it elsewhere.


Slicing the Model and Preparing the Bed

Bambu Lab A1 mini

Specifics for this 3D printer are on the printer page.

Creality Ender 3D Printers

Specifics for this 3D printer should be on the printer page.

Anycubic Photon

Specifics for this 3D printer are on the printer page.

Measure your Material

Both Bambu Studio and Cura are able to give an estimate of the amount of filament needed for a print. Always worth checking you have enough. For details on loading new filament part way through a print please consult the individual printer pages.

3D Printer Videos

Some videos which explain the basics of 3D printing and getting started

Element 14 videos (required login)

3D Safety

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