Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I just turned 72, and decided I need a new hobby. I downloaded Fusion 360 to get started on learning to draw 3D models and will download a slicing software once I have confidence on Fusion. My goal is to create desk models and desk components before I start cutting up expensive wood. I hope I am still smart enough to do this but even if I find I am not, your video has been a great help.
6 months ago I watched about 10 minutes of this video. Moved on thinking “dude I just want to print stuff. I don’t care about tweaking settings. Just normal is fine” 🤦🏻♂️oh how I was I wrong. So here I am again lol
Lol I have watched a lot of videos, I just got a 3d printer in trade a week ago, and another 2 days ago. I want to print a starlink flat housing, and I want it in ASA, and I keep tweaking the settings on my ender 3 s1 pro, and things keep warping… argh!
This is exactly how I feel about animatronics. It's hard to get people to understand sometimes. The creating and finding of workarounds is really fun. It's specially satisfying.
#12 - 03:11 - Slicing Matters #11 - 04:26 - Print profiles #10 - 06:03 - Ironing #09 - 06:55 - Have a little help from your friends #08 - 08:21 - Materials matter #07 - 12:24 - Keep an eye on things #06 - 14:30 - Octoprint #05 - 16:58 - Understanding support #04 - 19:09 - Rafts, Brims & Skirts #03 - 22:37 - Get sticky (but only if you have to) #02 - 24:15 - Print on glass... or any good bed #01 - 26:08 - Bed leveling & The first layer squish
Couple things for future viewers: PETG does not work well on glass beds. Hairspray or masking tape is prob best if you have to. It also requires a lot of heat control and fine tuned retraction settings. Take the time to tweak and test and if you get an all metal hot-end, you will have to start that process from scratch. Also rafts work well for objects without a smooth flat bottom surface. You can tweak settings of the raft top layer and print bottom layer to avoid final part deformation from raft break off. Lastly, be patient. Test often with small but complex parts before loading up large ones. I like to shrink larger objects to 10-25% and run it first to make sure print orientation and supports will work as planned. Happy printing!
Been a while since you posted this, but I wanted to thank you for the idea of shrinking larger objects. That is a fantastic idea that isn't obvious for someone who hasn't heard of it before.
Thankyou! I just started 3d printing (actually am about finished with my 2nd test boat) and have an ender 3 neo with a glass bed, I also have an enclosure and filament dryer (I don't think I need it for pla+ but it can't hurt) I don't know if I'll use the spool of pla that came with the printer, there's not much there and I got 2 1kg spools of esun pla+ so figured it'd be best to do my first test prints with the same filament I plan to use, like I said I'm finishing up my 2nd print as I type this, so I'm testing out different temperatures (first print the extruder was set to 210°C, I think I had the bed at 60°C but it might have been at 50°C. This run I have the bed at 60°C and te extruder at 225°C, I think I'll also do one at 220 and 215 and also might try setting the bed to 65°C, but thanks for your advice, I've been trying to decide of PETG is something I want to try, but I think I'll avoid it, at least until I'm comfortable using this thing and want to try different filaments. Have a good day!
Keep motivated. It's frustrating in the weirdest ways early on but it's worth it in the long run. My first few prints were perfect then I started having huge issues that took forever to work out. It was a discouraging progression to say the least, but once you've experienced most of the problems you can have once or twice it's pretty smooth sailing and pure joy. Good luck gentlemen.
So glad you found it helpful! I've learned a ton from your channel. Let me know if I can ever help with anything you're working on - I'm pretty sure we live in neighboring towns :)
One thing that REALLY helped me out with bed adhesion/bed leveling is changing just the initial layer height of the model in the slicer. I like to do very high quality prints .05mm, my CR-10 disagrees with me and VERY often didn't want anything to stick to ANY bed I used. Glass/Glass+adhesive/Original Bed/Perforated beds/ painters tape... When it did adhere to the bed. it was often melted into the bed :(. That is until I changed my first layer to always be .3mm. Now there is plenty of space for the first layer to adhere correctly, it doesn't warp, AND if my bed leveling is off even just a little, the layer is large enough to compensate. Until I get the BLtouch installed, this has been a blessing. No more ruining beds, no more ruining prints.. no more rafts! Most I use now is a skirt with 5 lines max I should note I only use PLA for all of my prints, and have started printing minis with incredible details ;)
BLTouch is for people who can't reliably level. Sounds like you can, so you don't need it unless you are sharing your printer. Also .05 is insanely patient. Respect.
I really appreciate people like you who take their time to teach others. I just purchased a Makerbot Replicator + and I’m super excited to start 3D printing. So when I say I appreciate makers and specially those who teach others I mean it. Keep up the good work and I promise that as I get better and better and learn stuff I’ll pay it forward. Thanks
Mechanical engineering student here. I’ve had some experience with 3D printing in the university printing lab. I’m waiting for my printer to come in, but I wanted to instruct myself a bit first. Very good and concise video. Hope to see more.
@@CrunchyTire I'm glad you're here too. I once had a 10-hour-shift @ McDonald's: I fried a chicken nugget for 10 hours straight. ➡️ it turned to sand! 😅😭🤪
I've been 3D printing for quite a while and still learned a great deal from this video. Ironing was probably the best single tip I've ever heard. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I always hated my top layers. Now the look fantastic.
Trying to learn as much as possible so my first printer purchase will be a positive experience. I feel I've learned more from this single video than any other. Well done easy to understand. Very helpful imo
22:00 I once printed a bunch of screws with ~3-4 mm in diameter. I put 20 of them on a raft and whenever I needed one, I could easily break it off the raft.
One use for a raft is when printing articulated toys (lizards, snakes, etc) when you have generally poor bed adhesion, due to the size of the individual pieces. Before I got my self-releasing glass bed rafts were a necessary evil.
Good point, and I also find a raft useful with long 'top heavy' parts printed standing vertically on end, like model pistols with no 'base'. Needs a lotta supports too, but also avoids having to print horizontally in two pieces.
@@mingonmongo1 I like rafts for printing large parts with narrow connection points too, things like RC car body parts. Also, good for holding narrow supports.
I remember the bed levelling paper trick from This Old Tony setting his clearances on his CNC router on RU-vid. So that made it easy to understand why you say it’s important. 👍🏻🍻
Totally agree with your top 3 picks. You know your stuff. Too many people have failures that are related to poor bed leveling, and when asking for help they claim " the bed is leveled", because they underestimate the importance of the first layer adhesion/success. Whenever having a spaghetti monster as a result, 95% of the time the cause is related to bed leveling. That is by far the most important tip. Master the bed leveling!
Of all the many RU-vid videos I have watched trying to inform myself as a novice 3d printer yours is the very best and most informative 30 minutes anywhere.
16:30 I love how the timelapse only uses frames in which the printer head is on the right side of the print, making the left side look like it just rises up out of thin air
About tip #5 - Understanding support - I make my 3d models using Blender. And whenever I know in advance that my model will need a support or it will have to deal with bridging at any point, I make those supports within the 3D model itself, using the smallest thickness that I know the printer is capable of handling. I have modeled and printed a couple of A-10 Warthogs and an F-15 Eagle for myself. And for supporting the wings, pylons and engines, as the miniature would be printed in the vertical orientation, I included these really thin "walls" coming from the base - or the raft, as mentioned in the video - to hold these structures, already during the 3D modelling process. It can be a more reliable method than the built-in supports you can create during the Slicing of the print, assuming of course you have experience with these 3D printing issues.
This is not a youtube video, this is a 3D printing mini course! I didn't know why all people put paper when leveling, I knew they are leveling the bed but did't know why the need of paper. You actually made me (probably more of us) understand. I don't even have a 3D printer yet, but I'm waiting my TRONXY X5SA Pro to be shipped (damn covid) and for few days I keep watching youtube videos. After this one I realized that show "Tips" for experts. I will save this and watch it for few times, probably more after I fail some prints.
It’s not just having a “sheet of paper”. It’s having the correct thickness to set the deck offset for that first layer. I have yet to see someone say what weight or kind of paper they are actually using.
EXCELLENT VIDEO ! Very good points in this video. A couple of things to consider though; BED ALIGNMENT (not leveling) The initial paper alignment is the first step to get close but it is just the first step… Bed "leveling" is a misnomer, and should technically be called “Bed Alignment Procedure” because it is actually an alignment process NOT a “leveling” process, that is the entire print surface is "aligned" equidistant to the extruder(s). Had a customer send a picture of a carpenter’s level on the bed. All documentation was revised, changing “leveling” to “alignment” after that incident. So start with the paper then use a “bed alignment” print to dynamically adjust the bed as it is extruding a “first layer” print. Create a near maximum bed size single layer circular print to perform this procedure. I like your graphic of the cross section of what the first layer extrusion should look like. GLASS For safety reasons, plain mirrored or clear glass is NOT recommended for printing with heated beds and especially in an enclosed printer. We had a lot of issues with 12” x 12” plain and tempered glass not being “flat”, these ranged from a single full sheet warp of 1.2mm to ripples of 0.7mm that were very apparent in the initial layer. Borosilicate ended up being the design choice and was the most trouble free but a lot more expensive. So if buying off the shelf glass take a straight edge and feeler gauges and pick the best piece. OBJECT ADHESION Any “spray” used for surface adhesion will cause “over spray” and will work as well, but with disastrous results, on all moving parts, bearing rails, slides, flex cables, fans and connectors used in the printer. The Elmer’s washable school glue, the purple stuff $1 a stick for the large ones. It can be scrapped off or dissolved with water. Just a hint, any 3D printer installation should have a dedicated vacuum to keep the printer and area clean of debris and “glue shavings”.
Very nice sum up of pretty much all you need to know. One thing I would add is that if you (for some reason) don't have a heated bed, just a glass bed won't be enough for the adhesion. And just print PLA on 60 deg celcius. I saw some examples of 45 deg, and it might save a lot of electricity, but 60 is definitelly a great temp for good adhesion.
Same here. I've had my Ender 3 Pro since 2021, and it's slowly becoming like Theseus' Ship. Also, last week, I finally decided to get Octoprint, however the thing that got me to finally bite the bullet, and make the whole thing seen more user friendly, is the fact that I can install octoprint into an old smartphone that I'm not using anymore. I don't have to fiddle around with a raspberry pi, I don't have to do any major programming, just enough to know what I'm doing, and enough to plug-n-play.
@mnoafield-qu6rm oh no. It's still working, and I use it daily in my streams. It's just that it slowly has upgrades added to it. Like last week, I added an all metal dual gear extruder.
Ok, the idea that you had just built a completely new 3d printer by replacing parts of the ender 3, and now you just have an unbuilt ender 3 lying around was funny to me
23:24 i used to use tape because my 3d prints wouldn't stick to my heated bed, but i fixed that by cleaning every few prints and making sure that my nozzle is low enough to where paper will slide WITH FRICTION.
Thank you for this video! It helps me along my path in this 3d printing hobby. It is clear that you spent time organizing the content and producing the video. The effort shows; it is good. Thx!
6:03 ironing can also be useful when your printer isn't printing everything with a consistent flow rate so that your next layers are OK so your print doesn't Fail.
This is an excellent video. Very well done. You can understand it, it is simple, clear instruction, and good audio. This was very useful information that I direct people to watch before they start printing.
I have had my printer for about 3 years ago, and print occasionally, usually with issues. The bed curling, object not adhering, having to stop and start over.... Watched this video and he re-baselined my thinking, printing speed, bed temp etc... I had looked on internet for hours and he in one video mentioned it all . I had developed Calligraphy printing pens for my girl several years ago, and now each one is printing without issues......Thank you and I am now a permanent subscriber...
Great job! A clear winner. I've been researching 3D printing for literally months, and I still learned some things from this video, especially ironing, a clear description of the differences between skirts, brims, and rafts, and the real value of Octoprint.
i'm just a silly female who usually watches makeup tutorials or fashion videos or how to do gel nails at home. some times i check out random diy's and i saw one on a dude making electricity from his rain gutter. it was extremly tecnical, he was making parts on his 3D printer, this led me to you. i had a vague idea what 3D printing was but i wanted to know more ,like how did it actually work. the more vids i watched the more my mind was blown. this is all old hat to you all who do it, but it is totally amazing to me. to think now days they are printing body parts and orgins and even food. tecnology moves so fast....i still have troubles working my cell phone. i bet you have advanced so far in the 2 yrs since you made this vid. thanks for the info i was totally amazed at all that goes into 3D printing.
Thanks so much for this video. I’ll be getting my first 3D printer this week, it’s a Anycubic cobra max, Never worked on any 3D printer before, total newbie, I have no idea what I’m doing but this video has taught me a few things. Can’t wait to start playing with my new toy and watching more of your videos. Am so grateful! New like and subscriber here. Thanks so much! I’ve joined two fb groups will be joining more. I need all the help I can get. 🙏🏻
It's now 2020 and I've just bought my first 3D printer, a Creality CR10s Pro V2. I turning 62 this year but it's never too late to have fun. The cool/exciting thing for me is that I can now design and make all those bespoke things that I would otherwise have had to fabricate from metal or timber. This video is still relevant and the tips are spot on point.
@@The3DPrintingZone Thank you. It's certainly a wonderful distraction and feel good place to be with the madness that everyone's experiencing at the moment. Well wishes to you and family.
I just want to say thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge of 3D printing. I'm just opening up an Ender 3 printer to put it together and start my first prints. You have gained a subscriber. Keep broadcasting!!!
Great video. I used an a raft to get across a river one time in 1971. I was stranded and would have died, but I had a portable 3D printer that ran off solar power. So I 3D printed raft components and was able to assemble a giant raft that fit me and my pet giraffe I had met on the island. Also, I do deserve a Snickers. I just downloaded the file to 3D print a king size Snickers bar out of chocolate, peanut, and nougat filament. I’m going to print that right now and eat it! Thanks for the tips on printing and for the Snickers file. (link below) -Nate
I pretty much always print a raft. I get much better final results with my main print slightly "elevated" above the raft. Never comes loose, always works well.
re: ABS. I use it as my primary material because Acetone melts it. That means Acetone can be used to weld parts together and to smooth the finish when done.
@@KalaniHausman True. I recently combined advice from a lot of videos on first layer adhesion and I'm stunned at how simple a solution I landed on. (using a Monoprice Mini Delta.) 1. Blue tape to bottom mount a glass build plate solely for it's flatness. 2) Blue tape surface with NO HEATING. 3) Lightly sand blue tape. It's working great for 8-10 prints before replacing. 4) 215C for PLA 235C for ABS. First layer is excellent. Apparently heating Blue tape reduces it's adhesion.
Thankyou for your video, I have Tronxy 802D (X6D) bought it last year Jan and didn't use till Nov last year. Some of things I didn't get what I understood on Slicing software now cleared up. Funny thing is that you mentioned about IP camera, I do use it (Outdoor PZT IP Camera with light if needed LOL) and also I use Smart socket (Merkury brand from Walmart cost me $10 and it also sells Smart bulbs, Security cameras ect). I am able to keep eye on my printer while I am at work or anywhere. If my printer is done printing or having failure to print, I can simply remotely shut off printer via Geeni app on phone for Smart socket. I find it very useful. Although my printer is actually fire risk (Chinese printer, do not have thermal run away protection), I put it in garage for safety reason. As for bed adhesion, I use wide blue masking tape and it's very good on adhesion. As for bed levelling, I use paper and when I run printer for bed leveling, Hotend moved and settle on first corner, I shut it off and manually move X and Y Axis quickly and repeat to be sure that paper feel evenly snug on all 4 corners then power up printer and hit "Home All" then ready to print. I realized that squish is but much and it make it harder for me to remove printed pieces. It literally rip blue tape off the bed and I had to peel it off from base LOL. I'll readjust bed to correct "average" adhesion. I have Octoprint installed on RPI 3. I have RPI 4 and noticed a difference between two. (I was using RPI 4 one day then next I swapped to RPI 3 and swap SDHC so RPI 3 is for Octoprint and RPI 4 for my "desktop" pc for temporarily (my son 'borrowed' my system until he have $$ to build his own). I noticed that uploading and adjusting bed temp ect seem to be lagged a bit on RPI 3 than RPI 4. I give it 30 seconds to respond on Octoprint server. I would recommend using RPI 4 with 4GB ram for speedier response on Octoprint server. (I am not sure that Octopi formatted SDHC on RPI 4 then swap to RPI 3 cause performance lag? ) Bottom line is that your video are educational!! Thankyou!!
Thank you so much! I wanted to buy one for my nursery to make little pots, but I don't think I have the dedication for another full blown hobby. You saved me from tons of frustration. You rock! Eric from East Austin Succulents
Another thing to know: there must be 25 settings in the slicer software that you need to optimize, in order to get good prints....temp, extrusion, retraction, line width, height, fan speeds
I wish I had watched these when I started, this is awesome! If you're new and thinking you should watch this sometime I highly suggest doing it before opening your new printer's box! I hate leveling, my world improved greatly when auto leveling became a thing lol Cookies for all!!!!🥳
Number one on the list when you first buy your 3D printer: Make sure that your bed is leveled before you do the first test print because with an ender3/Pro you can melt the soft magnetic bedplate with the nozzle if it is too low. Yes you can guess how I learned that one, just one day later I purchased the 4mm borosilicate glass bedplate with the black surface on top which provides great bed adhesion when hot and releases prints when cool.
This is a great presentation for 3D printing! Take notes on his different topics. Then go back and research each on your own. Use different sources. I've watched this twice and may yet again.
You have a very natural presenting style which is such a welcome change from the more common, scream-at-the-lens ‘technique’. Thanks for the great info!
Dear Creator of Thinks, It is blissful to see how beautiful everything is summarized, for me it was neither too long nor tedious. I am a Civil Engineer with special up greads in machine building, Robotics, and I specialize in manuals on all kinds of things that still have to be invented. Only I don't have the power like you to make a video of it. thanks and one of the following video's
There are situations in which you’d want to use glue stick for the exact opposite purpose - too strong adhesion. This happens when printing some materials like PET-G, where it bonds to glass so strongly, that it’s very easy to either damage the bed or the print when trying to take it off
After one year of printing I did buy a glass bed. I do not regret using the magnetic bed, that came with the ender 3 pro, for a year. That is because I was inexperienced and sometime damaged the bed a bit, but because of the magnetic bed was soft only the bed that got scratches/damage. I did also buy an auto level kid after a year, which I completely love. To connect it I also needed a new mainboard (transfer board did not work/broke) which also was a good upgrade, because of less noise and power savings. Also upgrades you can print yourself can improve the prints/comfort by a lot. With the hobby you will often have bad/failed prints, but more often cool/practical stuff you made wich made it completely worth it for me
One addition to the leveling: If you use a glass bed, you can likely use your parts cooling fan to level the bed if your nozzle is clean. Turn the fan on 100%, and adjust the bed so that the bed just barely rings with the fan.
Rafts have been useful for me when I want high "horizontal" precision, for example gears or anything which requires tight tolerances on the first layers. With perfect stickyness and adhesion they may work fine without a raft, but a raft somewhat guarantees no elefant footing or other problems, which can be annoying to clean up afterwards.
Can you do a video on Fusion 360? How to use the program for newcomers on to 3d printing world. I think you're really good at explaining things. Will be very much appreciated.
Thank you so much for this video I have printed probably 15-20 things with the raft supports and wasted so much material while trying to find how to turn it off and you helped so much!!!
I wrote the book “3D Printing for Dummies with a co author, Richard Horne, over in England and we were the first book on that technology! I like you 13 things to know when you start! A very good job!
Thank you so much for your explanation with pictures/showing what your talking about. Extreemly helpful for me because this is all noob to me. I look forward to seeing other videos
Thank you for the info! Just the description of how tight the paper should feel under the nozzle was worth watching. Of course, there was a lot of other helpful info too.
I'm so glad I made it all the way to the end of this video. I am a super newbie and I haven't yet used my CR10s but I've been super confused about bed leveling and especially 'making it sticky'. This is a great correction and I feel much more confident going into my first print. Thank you for this clear and well-laid-out video.
I just brought my 3d printer a Elegoo pro and this video is helping me out a lot. It’s 2024 and I’m like sheesh I’ve been procrastinating on getting one this long. Great video l definitely will be saving this video.
Just wanted to say thank you. A moment ago I ordered the TEVO Tornado from GearBest using your discount code. This is my first 3D printer and I am very excited. I hope to see more videos from your 3D Printing Zone channel. Cheers from Texas!
Rafts helped me with the first version of my printbed which was warped a bit. With a few extra layers below the actual piece I had a good flat surface to print on. Although you're right that the first layer of the workpiece will not be as smooth as it can be when directly printing onto the hotbed. Best bottom layer surface finish I had with a glass bed - you basically get a shiny surface
