The Background
Frustration. Ruined prints. Wasted time. Here’s a quick tutorial to save you the hassle. What I wish I had, like 10 hours ago, and fifty pulled hairs.
The basic idea is to get your 3D printer to print a model. For that, you’ll need:
(1) a printer — I have a Monoprice mini IIIP (no, I don’t get paid by them)
(2) material to print — I use PLA. I bought a kg of 1.75mm
(3) a model — I downloaded one at Thingiverse.com
(4) a way to get the model onto the printer — I used a microSD and uploaded the model directly from my computer, then physically put it into the printer
(5) Tape and glue — this is used to get your print to stick to the surface. I used white masking tape (though I read blue was better?) and a glue stick
Setting up the Printer
Plugging in your printer is not enough.
(1) Put a layer of painter’s tape on the bed, making sure there are no bubbles. Some people recommend using blue painter’s tape.
(2) Adjust the bed height so that the part that prints out of (‘nozzle’) is quite close but not touching the bed surface. If the nozzle is too far from the bed surface, then it will drop out and it won’t stick. If it’s too close, it will get all clumped. To make sure you have the right height, you’ll want a piece of paper to be able to slide between the nozzle and the bed surface, so that you can move the paper, but there’s a bit of tension. You’ll want to check this on each of the four corners of the bed. In each corner, adjust the height of the bed by turning the bolts on each corner using an Allan wrench.
Turning right lowers the bed, and turning left raises it. Make sure you get this right if you want your print to come out well.
(3) Feed the PLA through the top of the printer, through the tube, until you get to the end.
The thing that pushes the material through the tube is called the ‘extruder’. Since the diameter of the nozzle is probably smaller than the filament, it will only be able to push through material when the nozzle is hot enough to melt the material.
Setting up the Model
(1) Get a model (I downloaded this one by Stopka from Thingiverse.com. Thanks stopka!)
(2) Get a ‘slicer’. A slicer is a program that takes a 3d model and gives it the proper definitions so that a printer can print it. I used Cura.
(3) Adjust the settings. There are a bunch. To help you get acquainted with what it all means, I’ll give a brief description of the Cura settings:
A. Material — this is the stuff you will print. PLA is a food-based plastic. ABS is harder plastic (lego) but worse for the environment.
B. Profile — Options here are ‘low quality’ and ‘high quality’, but it really is talking about layer height.
Print Setup
(1) ‘Recommended’
A. Infill — the ‘guts’ inside the model. ‘Solid’ is for stuff you need to be durable, that will take more time and material to print. ‘Hollow’ is the opposite. And ‘Light’ and ‘Dense’ are as you’d expect.
B. Enable support— your model will be printed layer by layer. So, if, for example, you are printing a standing up ‘T’, then once you get to the top of the letter you can imagine that it’s arms will droop down, unless it has support. That’s what support is — stuff that you will cut out and throw away, but buttresses the part you want to print.
C. Build Plate Adhesion — the info tip explains that this is for a ‘brim’ or a ‘raft’. A ‘raft’ prints extra material at the base (XY axes), so that your model has better grip on the bed surface. A ‘brim’ does that at the top, like the brim of a hat.
As for Custom Settings:
A. Quality (Layer Height) — Thinner layers will have higher resolution, but take longer to print, so this depends on what you’re printing. The Thingiverse I downloaded recommended 0.15mm, so I went with that.
B. Shell
(i) Wall Thickness — wall line width, multiplied
(ii)Top Bottom Thickness — Layer height, multiplied, for top and bottom
C. Infill Density — 100% is solid, and 0 is hollow
D. Material —
(i) Printing Temperature: I used 200 degrees celsius
(ii) Build plate temperature: the temp of bed. It helps material stick. I used 60 degrees celsius
(iii) Diameter- put diameter of filament you’re using. Mine was 1.75mm
(iv) Flow- honestly, I don’t understand this well enough to write about it
(v) Enable retraction — retraction is like picking up your pencil. For my model, I had this checked.
E. Speed
(i) Print Speed: I used 60mm/s
(ii) Travel Speed: I used 100mm/s
(iii) Initial layer speed: I brought this down to 10mm/s
F. Cooling — Not relevant for my model
G. Support -your model will be printed layer by layer. So, if, for example, you are printing a standing up ‘T’, then once you get to the top of the letter you can imagine that it’s arms will droop down, unless it has support. That’s what support is — stuff that you will cut out and throw away, but buttresses the part you want to print. For my model, not necessary.
H. Build plate adhesion-
(i)Type: Brim — I used 8mm, which probably was more than necessary
The rest was not relevant.
I then saved the file as a gcode file. I moved the file to a microSD. To do this with my computer (a mac), I had to use a microSD adapter that I had from a camera. I saved the file to the microSD, and inserted the microSD into the side of the Monoprice.
Printing
Finally. I had the painter’s tape on the bed, the filament through the extruder and tube, the file. Then:
1. In ‘temperature’: pre-heated the bed to 60 degrees celsius
2. In ‘temperature:’ pre-heated the printing temperature to 200 degrees celsius
3. In ‘move:’ raised the Z-axis
4. In real life: applied a generous layer of glue stick (to help stick)
5. In ‘move’: clicked on ‘home’
6. In ‘print’: clicked on print and selected the gcode file with the model I used
7. Watched in amazement as it actually worked
8. Came back two hours (and five minutes) later, and voila.
9. Peeled off the model from the bed (along with the tape).
10. Pulled out the model from the ‘raft’.
11. Should sand it down, but, laziness.
Troubleshooting
What I described above took me about 5 tries to get right. The bed wasn’t the right height, or level. Poor quality filament I had been using broke within the tube, so I had to unscrew the printer to get it out (tip: make sure it’s hot when you pull it out, but don’t burn yourself). I used the wrong kind of tape (it didn’t stick on tesa). My printing settings were off. The painter’s tape had bubbles. Filament had hardened over the nozzle. And other frustrations. Hang in there. You’ll get it.
