My 10 BEST tips for 3D Printing 

1. 1:11 Nozzle size: use .6 mm 2. 4:14 Perimeters over infill: 5 mm + 20% infill 3. 7:03 Materials: PLA is strong enough 4. 8:27 Glue stick: Before printing 5. 10:42 filet vs chamfer (round vs angle): Use chamfer 6. 12:17 Multiple nozzles 7. 14:30 Test prints 8. 15:40 Off the shelve hardware 9. 16:52 Avoid supports 10. 18:24 Final product don't need to be plastic

Great tips, Alex. As a previous applications engineer working for a 3D printer manufacturer just about everything you went over was spot on! One other tip for avoiding supports (which I whole-heartedly agree with) is to consider breaking up the part into separate pieces that can be assembled after the fact. Most people assume that the ability to consolidate parts is always the answer - not necessarily.

Actually at CNC Kitchen Stefan showed that you can easily go up to 150% layer line width of the nozzle's diameter. So 0.9 mm layer line width on a 0.6 mm nozzle is not just okay, but the most strongest print setting for 3D printed parts. If you are okay with having 'not the shiniest surface quality' I'd recommend doing exactly that. If you need better printing quality at the surface you can combine the 0.9 setting at the inside walls with a 0.6 mm setting on the outside walls. That will give you a great quality at wall thickness of 1.5mm and high layer adhesion. This is actually my favourite setting.

My tips : 1. When opening a new roll of filament, write the date on the spool/bag so you know how old it is. 2. Once you find a filament supplier you like, stick with them. There are subtle variations in material from different manufacturers so for consistent prints, be consistent w your filament. 3. Similar to (2), support your filament supplier on social media & promote their product. You’ll benefit from this relationship. 4. There is a difference in the density of black vs white PLA/PLA+. when switching to black PLA, re-tune your extruder each time (only takes a few minutes) 5. When modeling complex curves or parts, print a very thin test print to check the interface. you can slice this easily by moving the object in the negative Z direction so it only slices the ‘top’ for your test prints 6. Don’t always slice prints in the Centre of the build plate. Move them around to spread out the wear on your flexible magnetic plates. Hope this helps !

I don't know what they're officially called, but I like using "chamflets" (chamfer + fillet) on prints that need a chamfer larger than a few layers high. First you create a 45 degree chamfer, then you add a fillet to the top edge of the chamfer. This results in a smooth transition to the side surface (where it's most noticeable), but doesn't suffer from the overhang problems of a standard fillet.

I'm currently working on my engineering thesis. I had to do a bunch of tensile test on 3D printed parts. It's currently almost 80 pages long. I came to RU-vid to stop thinking about 3D printing for a minute. This wasn't it, but it was very enjoyable.

Outstanding! Right to the point, and therefor, time effective. A blessing. Thank you so much for sharing.

Great video! I will wait your Vol. 2 !!! Congrats!

Fantastic video. Non of the ideas were completely new to me, but the way you visualize them and show examples of real world benefits, convinced me to try more of them out.

GREAT video! Love seeing some of the aspects of how you *design* some of what you do. Would be great to see more of that!

Very informative video especially the extrusion width setting one.

Great ideas and tips thank you Alex

Thank you for sharing you knowledge

Brilliant video! Thank you!

Glue stick tip: some special glues for 3D printing (like Dimafix) don't just act as a better adhesive while printing, but also as a release agent when it cools down so parts come off all by themselves when they cool down (try to easily release an articulated or flexible part from a flex plates 😉).

Love these tips Alex ! Thanks for all your hard work !

Excellent, thank you very informative

great tips, thank you!

Thanks for both keeping me inspired AND improving!! :-)

Awesome video! I am a 3d printer myself and I love hearing from people who have real world experience making parts. I plan to watch this video a couple of times to pic up on all your tips.

Of all the things there is one S-tier tip that I always share with people: Zen and the Art of 3D Printer Maintenance. Whether you got your Ender 3 on sale or you shelled out for a very expensive model, realize that this is a hobby that requires maintenance. Think of the printer as a diminutive motorcycle that fits on your desk. Just like that guy how occasionally has a really great time riding his motorcycle on the weekends, there are also many evenings after work, he's in his garage "working on the bike". Maybe he's putting a new pair of shiny pipes or a better visibility mirrors on it. Maybe something's rattling and he's got the socket set out and is tightening up this or that. Or, maybe it's just time to change the oil because it's due to have it done. The 3D printer takes maintenance in the exact same ways. Aluminum parts sometimes twist out of shape. Screws come loose. Parts wear down. Wires burn out. Crappy boards from places in China you can't even pronounce burn out. Take a breath. Relax. Look things up online. Don't jump to conclusions, and let your spouse know you're gonna be "working on the machine for a couple hours". Eventually you can enjoy your hobby when the printer is putting down butter-smooth first-layer lines.

Great tips Alex. Now you should do a video showing us how you design your pieces in Fusion 360 for example 😉

I like all the 3D printed stuff you make. I think your a great Designer

Thank you for the handy tips. I agree and use PLA filament almost exclusively. I installed a 0.6mm nozzle to print a bunch of your grids and boxes for my workshop. You gave me a few good tips to tweak my print settings which I appreciate and use when printing the next batch. Cheers 👍😎🇦🇺

Thank you for making this, I learned a ton!

Thanks for 3D printing tips! 👍 These are worth trying out.

I got into 3D Printing because of your videos. Really enjoy designing things and printing them out! Thanks for getting me hooked on it!

Your glue stick experience is interesting, because I've actually had the opposite experience with surfaces like BuildTak and similar, that when I use glue stick on those the parts come loose, but without they stick like the duck's guts! I think (correct me if I'm barking up the wrong tree) the way those surfaces work is that they are microscopically rough, which gives the printed plastic something to bite into and stick. Isolating the surface and plastic with a layer of glue inbetween means that the surface can't do the work its designed for.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for the amazing collection of tips! I often wonder how you get so much throughput for your organizer projects! I'm making a cheat sheet of these tips to post on the wall next to my monitor so I can use them in my designs too! Bravo! :D

Great tips

Great tips!!!!!

Great tips keep up the good work thanks

Great tips Alex. Really enjoyed the content in this video 😊

Some really great tips here. I learned a lot!

thank you, for all the tips..

Great Video , Thank you and subbed

Great video, Alex~! I'm brand new to 3d printing and found this info really interesting. I dove right into getting a Prusa i3 MK3S+, so it's great seeing other makers using the same equipment. Kinda makes it easier to relate, even though they all pretty much do the same thing. I especially liked the tip of using a 0.6mm nozzle. I'm going to have to give that a try. I'm really looking forward to going thru your other videos. Thanks much~!!

Great vid

Fantastic tips, Alexandre! 😃 Thanks a lot!!! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

what a great video!!

Awesome tips

Hey Alex, my 5 yr old son loves watching your channel. Keep making these videos, especially 3d printer ones. 👏🏽👏🏽

Thanks! just gave me an idea to rethink a whole project i gave up on over a year ago.

Great man

Thank you so much I ordered my printer today and this really helps a lot

The video I needed prior to printing out almost 1000 storage boxes and base grids.

thanks!

Thanks!!!!

Nice Tips 👌

hey there i only just found your router table build as i am about to do the same . you did a incredible job of that love the table best i have ever seen

These are excellent tips! 😎

Thanks your information, really learn a lot of tips!! Will upgrade the nozzle ASAP :-P

12:16 .... I just realised that I can save a bunch of time on parts I've been making for work. I've been designing them wrong. I knew this tip once upon a time but had forgotten it. Cheers!!

Thanks a lot!

Great video!! Another tip is to use “Adaptive Cubic” infill. This will build smaller infill shapes when inside more complex elements of the model such as curvature, tubes, etc. and larger shapes for bigger gaps.

Top content 👌

Yayayay another video !!! This was so educational and I learned a lot of stuff about 3D Printing

Great tips! 😃 shared!

Excellent Tips, and I have been 3d printing for several years now.

These Tips are awesome! Just getting started printing your assortment boxes. Today I saw this video and optimized all the gcode files. 0.6 nozzle is ordered. But I tweaked the 0.4 nozzle to print 0.75mm wide and it lowers the quality just a little bit, so I don't mind on these assortment boxes. Today I also set up the OctoPrint Continuous Print Plugin so I can print boxes nonstop! Or at least when I am not sleeping in my Bed ^^ Keep up your creative and high quality content! Really appreciate your work :)

Great video. Agree with all the tips. Mahalo for sharing! : )

Great video. Nothing new for me but 2 years ago i would really benefit from that. As a tip 11 i would suggest start playing with magnets. That was a huge step for me and my designs.

I find cheap (Aquanet - $1.39 at Wal-Mart) hairspray to be easier to apply and clean (I almost never clean but IPA works fine).

I used to print only with PLA. But I live in Brazil, and many of my parts start bending. I never thought that our temperature would make any difference. Still, it appears that PLA exposed to warmer temperatures for more extended periods starts changing its structure, and after a year, it bends. Some structural parts even broke. So, now, I only use PETG, and none of my parts have any issue anymore. I live in a very open place with lots of sunlight. Maybe that was my problem with PLA.

Another tip btw; You don't necessarily need a bigger nozzle for the print speed increase. Most of printers and nozzles can handle layer widths up to 50% bigger than their diameter. So you can print 0.6mm layer widths with a 0.4mm nozzle. On the flip side, you can do this with bigger nozzles as well, as long as your hot end supports the increase in flow. I for example tend to print 1.2 mm thick vasemode prints on my 0.8mm cht nozzle. So there is still a lot of benefit in upgrading.

brilliant

The best part about Tipp 9 in that exact example is, the layer lines are way better in that load scenario then they would be if it was printed standing straight.

Great tips!! Can you do some 3D printing tutorials for beginners with your prusa printer?

Great tips, especially the one about supports. PLA is one of the strongest plastics, just not very temperature resistant

Love your videos. Very helpful as well you giving me so many ideas. Almost overwhelming what i would want to get at first. Quick question. What design software do you use?

I love your videos

Great video. For the line width, try to keep it between -20% / 20% of your nozzle size. For example, 0.4 nozzle, use 0.32 to 0.48 line widths. Of course you can try with more extreme values but that's a good rule of thumb to start with.

Thanks for video. Great :))

In my experience, PLA isnt very good at holding tension for a long time. Every clamp I printed from PLA that was tightened got a crack in a few months

My number one tip is to watch a lot of tip and trick videos on 3D printing

I’ve to say that there’s some clever ideas here !

I started using the exact same glue stick from Clas Ohlson when I had adhesion problems, never had a failed print since... :)

some great tips, thanks. I must finish your camera arm I started some time ago. 👍

Thanks Alex! Really solid tips! I'd add one extra tip to this is to rotate square-ish models on the bed so make both axis moving most of the time (so ~45 degrees). This might increase quality of the print on Z axis

I do chamfers at 45 degrees and the select the top edge of the chamfer set a fillet on it to about half the height of the chamfer. This allows the bottom part of the part to get the benefit of the 45 degree chamfer but the top of the chamfer gets the benefit of the fillet and is more aesthetically pleasing. You almost can't tell that the bottom of a chamfer, unless if you count it not failing like fillets do, as being able to tell.

One thing on PLA, I live in Australian and the temperature inside the house in summer can exceed 40 degrees celsius quite often and I have had parts warp sitting in the loungeroom so while PLA is good enough in Europe and some cooler countries, in some countries I would suggest prototype in PLA and if you need it to last, do the final item in PETG but reserve the PETG just for those last copies. The only way around this down under is to run an air conditioner even when you are not at home to keep the internal house temperature down but that is not a good solution.

Great 3D printing tips, Alexandre! Love the chamfer vs roundover tip, I've definitely had my fair share of crappy roundover prints and I'll switch to chamfers fully now for that situation.

I know nothing about 3D printing but enjoy watching your video haha

ok nice, pretty great tips, been thinking about 0.6 nozzle anyway

Been 3D printing for years and never used glue stick or hairspray. In the beginning I used Kapton sheet for the bed, which was OK. Later on I switched to PEI on steel sheets and never looked back. As ALCH mentioned, you just need to keep the bed clean with something like a cheap microfibre cloth and isopropyl alcohol and rough it up once in a while with scotch-brite and it will keep working like a treat for a long time.

About the glue stick tip, it is valid, but I would argue that most sticking issues are mechanical not physical, meaning that either the bed is not aligned properly, or the z-offset is wrong. I used to need a ton of glue stick on my old printers, where leveling the beds where a nightmare. Don't need them anymore and exclusively print PLA and ABS. Even use the Purse print sheet on one of them. Second, really get to know your material. If the melting points for PLA are not correctly set, it will either cool down too fast (not sticking well enough) or too slow (warping issues).

I never considered max "fillet" because of nozzle size before. That makes a lot of sense. I think you should give NPA a try instead of gluesticks. Even though it is for high end filaments it works for PLA/PETG too. The reason I like it more is because it is water soluble and doesn't leave imprints on the bottom of prints. Lots of great tips for beginners too! Thanks Alexandre!

Great tips Alex, I am using them in everything I print now. One thing which I thought you might mention: aligning the print so that the axis with the most bending stress has the filament running along it, so that there's less danger of layer separation. But perhaps that's much less important than I thought? I have very little practical 3D printing experience compared to you!

Great tips for aspiring 3D printers. Do you have any tips on achieving smooth surfaces either through some form of post processing or by altering the print parameters.

With the pei sheet as used on prusa is incredibly strong for bed adhesion. Use methylated spirits/denatured alcohol/isopropyl alcohol to wipe it down just before a print then like once a week/few weeks use scotch brite with acetone to scuff up the surface and expose fresh pei. Process takes 10 seconds once you get used to it and perfect adhesion all the time (note this process is for pla NOT petg as adhesion will be too strong for petg). I know people who have been doing this for over 2 years without needing to change the plate/add more pei because of how little pei is removed during this process

3D print the vase then use silicone from hardware store to create a rubber mould for casting. Personally I found it easier to work with and if you mix in a little cornstarch in to the silicone first it creates a putty that you can mould better with your hands.

Great tip about perimeter width with 0.6 nozzle! 1/3 of print time saved on your assortment boxes =).

The presentation and content are so g-d damn compelling that I even watched the commercial. The energy and experience are a great combination. I usually avoid infrastructure because it saps my time and, honestly, isn't organization always a bit of a grudge project? But your pep and clever design are inspiring and got me excited about getting my mess under control. Among machinists, BTW, there's a lot of need for organization but sometimes a set of name-brand drawers with dividers costs so much that you can't bring yourself to buy. Vidmar, Kenedy, Huot, and other quality products really cost a lot. Also, you lock yourself into certain dividers once you get a brand of drawers... anyway, thanks for sharing this advice. Keep up the good work.

Great video, when do you come with the next 10 tips ? 👍

people are surprised when they ask what I print with and I say the cheapest PLA on ebay! If your careful with your print settings its plenty strong enough and still looks great!

Perfect timing. I'm literally buying a prusha MK3S+ next month. Little bit of an early birthday present. Will pair nicely with my desktop cnc.

I just tested the glue stick tip and got a perfect first layer. So simple, yet so effective! Why didn't I try this sooner?? Printing some more of your organizer boxes now :D

defiantly great tips, but I stept off the glue sticks a long time ago. I use glass topped with magnetic sticker then metal buildplate pai sheet. Sometimes clean with sprits of alcohol, wipe off, and ready to print. Super clean prints.

Spot on about PLA. It has stronger tensile strength and is stiffer than ABS but lower impact strength and heat resistance; so unless you very specifically need your part to take impacts and high heat, PLA is actually superior for most applications.

in cura you can force it to not use infill/top/bottom even if your walls are not a multiple of the nozel size. It will use a thiner wall in the middle instead of jogging back and fourth to add a face or infill.