Hi there.
My name is Nils with the 3d Printing Zone and today we'll be covering seven must
have accessories for 3d printing.
These seven items are in no particular order,
and they're just things that will help you get better prints,
will help you monitor your prints better,
or just generally help with 3d printing.
First on our list is isopropyl alcohol.
This also works if you're using denatured alcohol.
And basically the idea is something that evaporates quickly and will clean
through any oils or anything that are on the print bed.
I've been using this for quite a while now. And since I started using it,
the adhesion of my first layer has been much better because I don't have the
oils that come from my fingers or my hands getting onto the bed.
And I only have to use this usually every five or six prints or so just kind of
check it once in a while.
Now I prefer to use shop towels instead of paper towels,
because they have a tighter weave and they're less likely to leave debris behind
on the bed. Next on our list is a good set of digital calipers.
These are fairly inexpensive.
I'll put a link in the description to some of my favorites.
You can also pick these up at the local hardware store or Harbor freight,
other places like that.
And your mileage may vary depending on the quality that you get,
but a good set of calipers goes a long way for three different reasons.
Number one, you need to scale the models usually to the size that you need.
So if you're printing anything,
that's going to be wearable or has a specific purpose or application in mind,
then you can use calipers to get the exact right size of it in the real world.
And then translate that into the software for your slicing software and print it
out just like you need it. The second application is for failed prints.
There is a great technique that you can use where if your print goes along and
it gets to, let's say, um,
31 millimeters and it fails at that point.
And you've got 50 millimeters that you need printed.
You don't need to toss that thing out.
If you've got a relatively clean top on that,
then you can actually use your calipers to get the exact height of that.
So let's say again, we have 31.1 millimeters in this case,
and once you've got that height,
you can then take the model into your slicing software,
drop it down on the Z-axis negative 31.1.
So just everything above that will remain on the print bed.
And it will just print that. So you remove the old failed print off the bed,
that your first 31.1,
and then you will print everything from 31.1 and above on the bed,
and then you can glue those together. Now this is not always going to work.
Sometimes there's layer shifts that have happened along the way or more severe
issues. But if you do have some calipers and can save a print,
these will make your life a lot easier.
Now the third use for this and perhaps most obvious is just for designing your
own models.
So if you need to design some household objects or some little parts to work
around the house,
then calipers are really a requirement for that for getting the specs, right.
So very handy to have very inexpensive to get started with and definitely an
accessory I recommend for all 3d printers.
Next on my list is OctoPrint or OctoPi.
If you're not familiar with this or you're new to 3d printing,
this is a fantastic hardware software combination that you can use with a
Raspberry Pi, a very inexpensive little computer,
and it adds a whole bunch of features and functionality to your 3d printing
world. Now, first on my list is remote monitoring and remote printing.
You can send files remotely without ever having to touch an SD card or a
USB drive, send them directly to your machine,
and then you don't have to have your laptop or computer hooked up.
It's really convenient. It also gives you the option to remotely monitor,
and you can even monitor that with some smart AI.
I've got a new video coming out shortly that will get a little bit more into
this, but shows you how you can actually leave your prints alone.
Let it print overnight if you want to,
or even for several days while you're away.
And this will actually watch it for you and see if there's anything fishy or
anything bad going on. And we'll pause the print if you want it to.
It's really nice to be able to keep an eye on your print at all times from
wherever you are now.
Not only can you watch your prints while you're away or out of the room,
but you can also record them and make super cool. Time-lapses,
there's a great plugin for OctoPrint called OctoLapse.
And that gives you features galore and all kinds of options so that you can
create buttery smooth. Time-lapses like this one. Now those topics are huge.
There's a lot to them and you can kind of get lost in those. But for starters,
if you're interested in installing OctoPrint,
I do have a video linked right up here where you can learn how to install.
OctoPrint get it set up on a raspberry PI and connect it to your 3d printer.
Now, speaking of monitoring and recording your prints,
wifi led light strips are next on my list.
They are an awesome way to make sure everything is well lit.
And you can actually see what's going on,
both in your monitoring and in the videos that you do for time lapses. Now,
for my 3d printing setup, I use these day better smart wifi led lights,
and that's actually the sponsor for today's video.
These ones are actually really cool and stay tuned because I've got a way you
can get these really inexpensively on Amazon.
Now these lights actually have all kinds of built-in functionality. One,
you can control them from your smartphone.
You can use the Tuya app to control them, both the lights, the colors,
the brightness on off settings, timers, program them to music.
Anything you want like that. But I like to use them for a couple of things.
Number one,
I've got them running all along the inside of my closet here to light up the
printers themselves as some ambient light.
So I can actually close these doors and cut down any noise that's coming from in
here and then make sure there's ventilation.
And then I've got good light all throughout here.
And then the second thing I like it for even more is just to create a custom
little light strip, a little light bar that shines down on my printer.
Now my setup for my light bar is fairly simple.
What I've done is I've printed some light bar arms and I'll put a link to the
STL files down in the description below, or you can print those out yourself.
They print really easily like you see here.
And then here's how I put together my lights to make sure that my whole print is
lit up really well.
Now these particular lights are actually perfect for doing these little light
bars. What I can do is use the 3m adhesive.
That's on the back to place these on a strip of wood, a strip of aluminum,
or even a 3d printed bar or strip like this.
And then I just use the spacing that's between them to pinch and fold them up a
little bit. So it creates basically a directional lighting now,
because these are smart lights.
I've got them set up with both Google home and Amazon Alexa as well.
So I can control them in the app with the remote or using my voice.
Set Ender strip lights to red.
Now, in addition to just lighting up your work,
you can actually light it up in different colors, which is pretty fun.
So here's a, time-lapse,
that's running behind me right now as I'm recording this and I'll show you the
finished version here,
where it's actually using different colors and it's just on a random pattern.
And then as it's taking snapshots with OctoLapse,
you can see those different colors play throughout.
So definitely a great way to have fun with that and make your time lapses that
much more interesting. Now, as I mentioned earlier,
they have a really great deal going on these.
If you use the link in the description below,
you can actually see that you can get these on Amazon instead of their full
price at 35 or 36 bucks,
you can get these for $16.99 us dollars.
And you just have to click the little box right there that says apply coupon,
and you'll get that discount and you'll have a hard time finding a price that
good on such good lights that have full remote access like this.
So a big thanks today, better for sponsoring today's video.
Next up on my list are pliers and snips. Now the snips,
these are a little more obvious. These are used all the time.
You can use them to trim a little bit of ooze that comes out of the hot end.
You can use them to trim your filament as you're getting it ready to put in. Um,
but pliers are also really handy,
both standard pliers and needle nose pliers.
Now these are really handy because they are perfect for support removal.
A lot of times you print supports on your materials or your prints,
and they can be really stubborn to get off.
And sometimes you need a heavier duty tool like this,
to be able to take them off. If it's really bad,
I recommend wearing gloves with that. And maybe even some eye protection,
I've had little pieces of plastic come flying up at my face.
And so make sure that you're careful with that.
I've also been cut by little sharp pieces of plastic,
dealing with supports and these make everything a lot easier.
If you've got a good pair of needle, nose pliers,
and a good pair of conventional pliers next on my list is a larger set of hot
ends. And by that, I mean, they have a larger opening.
So typically a lot of printers will come with a fairly standard or universal
sized hot end that can be swapped out for others that you can buy online,
pretty inexpensively. And as with the other products in this video,
I'll put links in the description below. I've got here some 0.6,
I've got some 0.8 and even some one millimeter nozzles.
These nozzles give you a lot of flexibility.
If you don't need a higher resolution or a really fine print now because of the
size of the opening, because it's larger,
they typically can push out more filament in less time. And so with that,
you typically want to increase the temperature of your hot end and decrease your
print speed just a little bit.
So if you've got a project that doesn't require real fine detail,
and you just need quick and dirty, put a larger nozzle on there,
and then you can print it out quicker and meet your needs just as well.
These nozzles are also perfect.
If you want to do something that needs thicker walls that you're going to be
doing in vase mode, which if you're familiar with Cura slicer software,
there's a spiralized outer contour. That's just vase mode.
And it gives you the option. If you want to use something bigger like this,
you're going to have thicker walls and it will do it really quickly.
So definitely a great thing to use.
One recommendation is typically you don't want to go over about three quarters
or 75% of the size for your layer height.
So on a 0.8 millimeter, for example,
you want to make sure that your layer height is no bigger than 0.6 millimeters
because you could run into some issues. Now,
the last item on my list is the humble glue gun glue guns are actually super
handy for a million things around the house, of course, but in 3d printing,
what I like to use them for is if I see that a print is starting to come loose
off the bed, or it already has come loose, but I think I can save the print.
I just need some way to temporarily glue it down. A glue gun is perfect.
Give it a couple of minutes to heat up,
glue it around the area that you need it.
And that will often save a print that starting to look a little wonky. Now,
these are just some of the accessories that I use every day with 3d printing.
I'd love to hear what you're using and what's helping you with your 3d printing.
Feel free to leave some suggestions in the comments below and share with others.
What's working for you. Now, if you want to see more about 3d printing,
this whole channel is dedicated to it. So be sure to check out this channel,
see some of the other videos,
and hopefully you can learn a few things and share with me as well. Also,
if you want to have a little bit of fun with 3d printing,
I've got a video you can check out right here where I have 3d printed a
Stormtrooper armor, the whole suit made it Bulletproof went out and shot it.
So be sure to check that one out right here.
My name is Nils with the 3d printing zone. Thanks for watching.
And we'll see you on the next one.