Okay, so in the Hackaday article that got me to do this series in the first place, one
of their first questions they want answered is “What does the actual workflow of 3D
printing look like?
What happens from beginning to end?”
So that’s what we’re going to look at today - the full process of going from wanting
to print something to having a physical, usable part.
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Okay, so the thing the actual 3D printing process starts out with is a 3D model.
Last week in episode 5 we looked at all the different options there are to get models,
for this video I’ve got this battery bank model that a friend is working on, I broke
the handle on it, so I’m going to be printing him a new one.
So I’ll export just the handle as an .stl file and take that over into the slicer.
Now, just like for models, I’ve already covered all the basic functions of the slicer
in a previous video, episode 6.
For this model, because it’s 201mm wide, I’ll be using the MK3, and I’ll make sure
it’s oriented correctly on the build plate so that I get nice, strong, continuous layers
from the area where you’d grip this handle to where it is attached.
Filament printers produce their strongest parts when forces can stay within one layer
and don’t have to be transferred from one layer to the next.
Because this model was designed with 3D printing in mind, we don’t need support material
here, but I’ll head over to the print settings and give it an extra shell just to stiffen
it up a bit and make it a bit stronger around the hinge area.
That’s were that first part broke.
For filament, I’ll be using PLA, both PLA and PETG would work, but since it’s a relatively
large part, it might be tricky with ABS, ASA or polycarbonate.
PLA doesn’t have nearly the temperature resistance of those materials, but this is
a part for basically a big ol battery in a box, so I would probably worry more about
the lithium-ion cells than the PLA case if temperature did end up becoming a problem.
And also, I only have the Ms. Pink color in Prusament PLA.
So, I’ll be using that, which means I’ll grab the PLA profile in the slicer.
Quick look at the print preview, this is looking good, so I can save it over onto, in this
case, an SD card, other machines use USB drives, safely remove it, and move on to the printer.
So on the printer, I’ll pop in the SD card.
The first thing I do is to check if there is stuff from the last print left on the bed,
and if the last print had trouble sticking, I’ll
wipe it down real quick.
If the printer already had the right filament loaded up, I could start printing at this
point, but we still need to swap in the pink PLA, so I go to preheat, and choose the preheat
preset with the higher temperature out of the filament that’s already in there and
the one I’m loading.
So this is PETG already in here, I’m loading PLA, so I’ll use the hotter PETG preset.
When the hotend is at temperature, I can click “unload”, and then load the new filament.
The old roll of PETG goes back into the drybox.
All that’s left now to do is to start the print.
Usually I’ll just watch the first layer and if that goes down without lifting, the
rest of the print is usually going to be fine, too, but that’s just experience in being
able to judge which models are going to work well and which won’t and trusting your machines
to not mess up.
This first layer looks good, so let’s keep this printing.
Ah, this is taking too long.
So there it is.
The printer is cooled down, which means the print should have released from the bed, if
not, a quick tap can usually break it free.
I like to use the print itself to go ahead and scrape the skirt and priming line off
the bed right away so that the printer is ready for the next print.
And that’s really it.
There’s the print, it’s ready to use right away, again, because it’s been designed
specifically for 3D printing.
If you had printed something with support material, now would be the time to remove
that, a combination of prying and snipping tools like flat screwdrivers, pliers and a
flush cutter works well.
Or if you wanted to make the print look less like a print, you could also go through a
full finishing process, for PLA, you can use pretty much any technique, be it, filler,
prime and paint, or wet-sanding the parts, or using whatever approach you like.
If it’s a part that’s intended for a functional application, drilling holes to their final
size, tapping threads or adding threaded inserts is something that’s easily doable with tools
made for metalwork as well.
So lastly, on the printer itself, if you’ve got a moisture-sensitive filament loaded in
there and you know your ambient humidity is not always super-low, it makes sense to unload
filaments that are sensitive to moisture, like PETGs, Nylons, which you probably should
be printing straight from a drybox anyway, ABS, all of those profit from being kept in
a sealed, dehumidified container.
Turn the printer off and that’s it!
Now, the process I showed is assuming that your printer either came with good profile
that are already optimized for the different filament types, or that you have gathered
or tuned profiles yourself that are ready to go already.
If you don’t have profiles that you know work for what you’re trying to do, with
the printer you’re trying to use, it might be a bit of a back-and-forward between slicing
the part, checking how it prints, and going back to the slicer and changing a handful
of things and then seeing if things are improved.
LIke I think I said before, having good, reliable profiles is, I think, way more important that
what exact hardware you’re running these days.
But anyway, I hope that helped shed some light onto what it looks like actually 3D printing
something - it’s really pretty simple, and most of the time, having to get up from your
desk is the hardest part.
So that’s it for this one, in the next video, we’ll look at what the requirements on your
models, tools and environment is to even start printing, until then, thank you for watching,
make sure to get subscribed, keep on making, and I’ll see you later.