Over the past year I took the leap into 3d printing. I went from knowing little to making some very useful and very accurate objects. In example, I have made electrical conduit boxes for the shop, gears for my lathe, toys and jewelry for my kids, and some really neat cutaways of, well, interesting things.
I also have designed and printed a lot of 3d printer parts to increase efficiency and accuracy.
I frequently get asked questions about 3d Printing and how to start. I realized that I have not shared enough here and thought that this would be a good place to contribute.
Reality of 3d printing:
From my experience 3d printing is amazing in general. But, it is NOT plug and play. Most of them hardly print out of the box at all. Even really expensive ones require a fair amount of knowledge to get them to run right. That's also not even getting into the filament types and the pros and cons there. You will be printing for about $500.00 or less. Then prepare to tinker on and off for months.
Important to mention:
1. This is not StarTrek, No, we do not have the technology; you will not instantly get objects. Printing takes time. Minutes, hours, days even. Depends on size, complexity and what you are asking the printer to do. However, this is very much out weighted by the fact that its faster than shipping, it can be custom designed by you, and you can make as many as you want, including the value of proto-typing to make objects even better.
2. You mostly print in plastic in hobby FFT 3d Printing, but there are a ton of amazing plastics to work with that have incredible durability with different strengths and heat properties. You can also turn plastic objects into metal through casting.
3. It is not practical to mass manufacture this way.
Once you start to get used to that, you need to learn how to 3d model to turn your ideas into objects. (Or repair bad objects) Not just objects either, objects that are printable. You need to know some 3d modeling minimally because you need to understand ideal models (Manifold objects) and you need to understand meshes (Structure of a 3d object) and how STL files (3d printable files) are created. There are many free resources to learn 3d modeling. Youtube is fantastic for this.
Closing:
There is a learning curve and it is not small, but it is no longer finically impossible nor resource impossible to be 3d Printing at home. It is extremely rewarding and useful. You will soon be printing so many things and spending so much on filament you will want bigger machines before you know it. Warning, It is a gateway drug! Anything around the house or in general life will be a project. You no longer will have a “If only they made this…” thought. You will just redirect time to go make it.
If you are asking, do I need this? Consider that this is another step towards self reliance. I strongly believe that where this is mostly underground geek stuff now, very soon of our children’s and especially our grandchildren’s future, this will absolutely be common place. As said by many, it’s like when computers were just a thing that some folks were doing or the internet was a thing we heard about.
It is time to get started now so you are ahead of the game when it shows up. More importantly, it is time to teach our kids or grandkids. If you learn how to do all of the below and make your own filament, you will have the power to make anything, anytime, anywhere, whenever you want to. It is an incredible undeniable use of resource, knowledge and force multiplication…be creative and imagine the use!
If anyone has any questions please let me know and I will knowledge dump as much as I can.
Communities and knowledge: Check out MakersMuse, 3d printing nerd, and 3d printing professor on YouTube. (Among many others)
https://www.3dprintingforum.org/,
http://3dprintboard.com/,
http://www.3dprintforums.com/ Watch a lot videos, read the 3d printing forums, and then make a choice.
Printers: There are a huge amount of affordable FFT 3d printers on eBay and Amazon. CR10, Flashforge, CTC 3D, TEVO DELTA...ext. There are many others, but this is a good start. For under $500.00. Do your research and read reviews and forums on modifications.
Filament: 1.75mm or 3mm PLA, ABS, PETG, PVA, Nylon…(Lots to learn here, don’t buy too cheap and research all you can)
STL sites: STLfinder.com and Thingiverse.com, many, many others out there.
Mesh Repair: MeshMixer or if your brave, Blender
Slicers: CURA and Simplify 3d (Pay program, but well worth it IMO)
3d Modeling: Fusion 360(The most powerful free CAD AND CAM program available), Tinkercad.com (Free and exceptionally useful for electrical and CAD), Microsoft 3d (Free and good for quick simple stuff.)
Casting Plastic to metal: Research PLA Casting on youtube.
Sticking to build plate: PLA’s use Purple Elmers Glue stick with minor plate heat. ABS, use heated plate and or ABS Slurry.