3d Printing for the Newbie Part 1 - How does it work?

So you have been hearing about this new technology, 3d printing. perhaps you have hear about buildings being 3d printed, or a 3d printed hamburger, or about how 3d printing is giving new prosthetcs for free that are personalized, and upgradeable.lastly, the most controversial story of all, how people are 3d printing guns.

Now, you want to be a part of it. How do you get involved in 3d printing? what can it do for you, and how do you make stuff to print?

The first question, is how a 3d printer works. Understanding this makes understanding what different types of 3d printers offer much clearer. The easiset way to think about a 3d printer is a computer controlled hot glue gun. the nozzle melts plastic the same way a hot glue gun does, but is controlled very specifically to place that plastic in the particular patter that makes what the computer tells it to. letsget into the features of a 3d printer that go into a 3d printer.

The easiest features to get is build volume, or how big of a thing can it print? there are two type of build volumes, a cube or a cylinder based on how the printer moves the plastic dispensing nozzle about. As you can imagine, it gets more expensive as the build volume gets bigger. a notehere, most printers use millimeters to tell you how big the build volume is, a quick and dirty rule is that ~25 mm equals an inch. this should make is easy to get an idea of how big that printer is, for example 100 mm is about 4 inches.

Another important feature is the calibration system. there are two options here, either it auto calibrates, or you have to manually calibrate it. A word of warning, manual calibration is a tedious process of adjust screws just right so your printer head has even spacing across the entire bead. this can take a while until you get the hang of it. I recommend going with auto calibration as this is a very frustrating aspect of 3d printing. With that said, auto calibration is still a new technology and is not implimented in the majority of printers, so be aware of this.

Also, what kind of plastic can the 3d printer print in. Almost eveery 3d printer supports PLA and ABS, which are two types ofplastic the nozzle spits out. ABS is what lego bricks are made of and if you plan to print in ABS, you need to make sure your printer has a heated bed. this keeps the plastic from shrinking as it cools of during the printing process. PLA is a corn based plastic that prints a little easier, as it does not require a heated bed, but if left in a hot area, may not hold it shape very well. This would matter if you are printing a phone cradle for your car, as if you pick PLA, come summer your phone might not fit in it the same way it once did.

the last feature that is not always mentioned is speed. a pritner can only move the nozzle but so fast, as such, not all priters are made equal here. some high end printers can print over twice as fast as the lower priced printers.

there is one more item to consider, and that is support. if you have a probem with the printer, where can you turn to fo help? most companies do not offer a support line, but there are large communities on the internet that can help you figure your problem out, as someone else has most likely been there before.