The modern hobby 3D printers are a far cry from the $300K machines of 40years ago. No more building it in a science lab, and getting a few MIT students to do your programming, times really have changed. Just order on line and away you go. The Chinese company Creality really opened up the market a few years by providing a cheap kit built 3D Printer that you can put together in an hour or so. Called the Ender 3 which is where many people start today.
No lasers or expensive chemicals are required today and the basic principals are a bit different but the results are the same for $200.
Simply put you load a file into the machine with the model you want to print. FILAMENT is then fed off the spool into the EXTRUDER which controls the flow of plastic through the BOWDEN TUBE to the HOTEND where it is heated and melted. It then squeezes out onto the BED and X and Y directions are controlled by STEPPER MOTORS to create the pattern, once the layer is complete the Z Stepper motor moves the nozzle up about 0.2mm (or less for finer detail) and another layer of plastic is then put down building up the model.
Filament can come in many types and colours today. The most common is PLA (polylactic acid) a plant based polymer. Usually in 1KG rolls and 1.75mm diameter and more colours than Jacobs coat. You can all so have additives like carbon Fibre, wood, marble or silk to provide different textures, finishes or strength. PLA is a commonly used material because it prints well at a relatively low temperature around 200degC and a bed temperature of 60degC
Other popular materials are plastics such as Nylon or ABS which are much stronger than PLA but harder to print with because they require higher temperatures. Typically around 250degC hotend and 100degC bed which usually needs some sort of enclosure round the printer. One odd one is TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) this is a flexible plastic and great for printing O rings or or just something you want to be a bit squashy.
Finding things to print isn't difficult these days either. There are a number of sources for STL files (stereolithography) most notably Thingiverse where you will find many thousands of models from the practical such as a box to hold your herb jars.
To the decorative, this was a cock up on my part I was printing a vase for a friend and forgot to change the mode do it printed out solid, so I'm stuck with it.
Don't even ask about sex toys but the answer is yes.
If you can't find what you need in Thingiverse there are 3D modelling programs such as Fusion 360 which is a full blown professional 3D CAD program or Tinkercad which is an online program that I use most often, as it's really simple and quick and great if you in a hurry.
Once you have your STL file from Thingiverse or your own design. You simply load that into a SLICER program such as CURA where the GCODE file that runs the printer is generated. This file takes into account the material being used, temperatures, any supports, the bed size of the printer and the quality of print you need. The gcode file is copied on to an SD card and once plugged into the printer everything is good to go.
So what's on my printer today. More face shields I'm afraid. Just another of the many that I've been printing to give to hospitals and clinics here in Cebu since this Covid thing kicked off.
I hope that's given some of you Hivers a bit of an insight to 3D hobby printers. It can be an interesting, and practical hobby but quite addictive and frustrating at times.
