orientation-image

build IT Orientation

A RedID is required for this orientation workshop.

This orientation is required for anyone wanting to access build IT. It will provide a general introduction to the space, best practices and for its use, and importantly, an introduction to potential hazards, protective equipment, and other aspects of safe Makerspace use.

After this orientation, attendees will be given card access to use build IT during open hours.

orientation-image

build IT Orientation

A RedID is required for this orientation workshop.

This orientation is required for anyone wanting to access build IT. It will provide a general introduction to the space, best practices and for its use, and importantly, an introduction to potential hazards, protective equipment, and other aspects of safe Makerspace use.

After this orientation, attendees will be given card access to use build IT during open hours.

orientation-image

build IT Orientation

A RedID is required for this orientation workshop.

This orientation is required for anyone wanting to access build IT. It will provide a general introduction to the space, best practices and for its use, and importantly, an introduction to potential hazards, protective equipment, and other aspects of safe Makerspace use.

After this orientation, attendees will be given card access to use build IT during open hours.

orientation-image

build IT Orientation

A RedID is required for this orientation workshop.

This orientation is required for anyone wanting to access build IT. It will provide a general introduction to the space, best practices and for its use, and importantly, an introduction to potential hazards, protective equipment, and other aspects of safe Makerspace use.

After this orientation, attendees will be given card access to use build IT during open hours.

orientation-image

build IT Orientation

A RedID is required for this orientation workshop.

This orientation is required for anyone wanting to access build IT. It will provide a general introduction to the space, best practices and for its use, and importantly, an introduction to potential hazards, protective equipment, and other aspects of safe Makerspace use.

After this orientation, attendees will be given card access to use build IT during open hours.

supports print

Supports

Before we begin

Necessary Terminology

Extruder - This is a part of a 3D printer. This is the part that heats up to nearly melt the material so that the material can be worked with. A motor pushes the material through the hot part and out of a nozzle at the end.

Filament - This is the material that is extruded. In the case of buildIT, we use a Polylactic Acid (PLA) plastic filament. For more information, please see the post about materials.

Print Bed/Build Plate - This is a part of a 3D printer. This is the part of the printer that the filament is extruded onto. On some of our printers, this is a heated plate with or without glass on top. On others, it is simply a glass plate.

Layer Height - This is the amount the extruder moves vertically between each layer of the print. This number is usually a fraction of a millimeter for our printers. For more information, please see the post about layer heights and resolutions.

What are supports?

Technical Description

Supports are extrusions of material that are continuously built up to prevent droop for an object or a part of an object where previous layers are insufficient to prevent droop on their own. The 'rule of 45°' is often used to determine when supports are necessary. This rule will be discussed below.

Explanation

Plastic cannot be deposited onto thin air - it needs something to sit on. Supports are extra bits of plastic that are put down as the printer moves through the layers. They can be thought of as temporary scaffolding for the part; supports are for the construction of a part to help it be built and are removed when the part is done. Since 3D printing is done in layers, the scaffolding is built up layer by layer as the part is.

Supports are necessary when the object has overhangs. An overhang is a piece of an object that does not have a layer directly beneath it. In other words, to attempt to print an overhang would be like trying to print onto thin air - there's nothing for the plastic to sit on. Supports remedy this by providing a temporary structure for the object's overhangs to be printed on.

When should I use supports?

The 45 Degree Rule

There is a general rule of thumb for when parts need supports called the "45 degree rule." It may be hard to think about the 45° Rule on a 3D model or object, so this section explains the concept, and the next section has an example.

The image to the right shows a plane. The vertical axis is at 0°, there's a line in the middle at 45°, and the horizontal axis is the 90°. If the overhang of a part is between 0° and 45° from vertical (the green curve on the picture to the right), supports are unnecessary. If the overhang of a part is between 45° and 90° from vertical (the red curve on the picture to the right), supports are required.

A variation of this uses 60° from the vertical as the cutoff for needing supports. We use 45° because it tends to be the easiest to visualize, and it works very well for making sure that all parts that need supports have them.

degrees

An Example

The image to the right is a screenshot of a model of a Darth Vader helmet by Jace1969 from Thingiverse. The arrows, two red and one green, point to three different locations where there is an overhang. These are not the only overhangs on this model, but they are the easiest to see.

The rightmost arrow is red. It points to a part of the object that doesn't have another part of the object directly beneath it, so it is an overhang, and it juts out from the part between 45° and 90° from vertical. This portion needs supports.

The center arrow is also red. It points to another overhang, This is also between 45° and 90° from vertical, so it also requires supports.

The leftmost arrow is green. The curve of the helmet is an overhang because there isn't another portion of the object directly beneath it. However, unlike the other two parts, this is between 0° and 45° from vertical, so no supports are necessary.

What do supports look like?

panavise

The Model

For this example, I decided to 3D scan a vice that we had on a workbench in buildIT. This is a picture I took of the model for our part.

For more information on 3D scanning, see our blog post about it!

Looking at the model, you'll notice that it has two arms at 90° to the vertical. This means that the printed version will require a lot of supports.

supports print

On the printer

The small vice was printed on the Makerbot printer with supports. The print was nearly done by the time this picture was taken.

The supports are completely done. The thinner-looking extrusions all along the sides are supports. They are meant to snap off easily once the part is removed from the printer.

supports on

Off the printer, on the part

This is how the part came off the printer. The supports are attached to the part - they move when the part does. However, they are very thin.

At this stage, it should be very easy to remove them. This part was a bit of a challenge because of how thin the actual part is. The majority of parts will have something much more substantial than the supports staying on the part, whereas this part was about as thin as the supports were.

supports off

Off the printer, off the part

The supports have been removed. The part is ready to be cleaned up with a hobby knife to get rid of any other excess filament.

The supports are now trash. They can be thrown away in a trash can or in our plastic recycling can.

Remember to clean up after yourself!

panavise

Comparison

This picture shows the completed and cleaned 3D printed version of the vice in front of the model.

I think they look pretty similar!

How Do I add supports?

Adding supports to a print is easy!

The way you add supports depends on the 3D printer you're using and its associated software.

A quick reminder on software association with printers:
• Rostock uses Cura
• Flashforge uses Cura
• Makerbot uses Makerbot Desktop
• CubePro uses CubePro

cura support1

To add supports using Cura

The two pictures show screenshots of Cura.

The picture on the left shows a green circle around "Support Type." Click on the dropdown selector next to "Support Type."

The picture on the right shows a red circle around the dropdown options. You have some choices based on your needs. Your choices are "Touching Buildplate" or "Everywhere." The main difference is whether your object has overhangs that you are concerned about above the base. If it doesn't, "Touching Buildplate" should be enough. In general, though, I usually choose "Everywhere."

cura support2

To add supports using Makerbot Desktop

The two pictures show screenshots of Makerbot Desktop.

The picture on the top shows a green circle around "Settings." Click on Settings.

The picture on the bottom shows a red circle around the checkbox on the settings menu next to "Support." Click so that the checkbox has a checkmark in it.

Makerbot Raft 1
makerbot support2
cube support1

To add supports using CubePro

The two pictures show screenshots of the CubePro software.

The picture on the left shows a green circle around "Build." Click on "Build" to begin changing settings.

The picture on the right shows a red circle around the "Support Material." The dropdown selector already says "PLA White." For the CubePro, "Support Material" simply means the material the supports will be made out of. The CubePro allows the user to select the color and filament material for the supports, which is why we have a color option. As we only load one cartridge of filament at a time, simply select whatever color it offers.

In the bottom of the red circle, you have the choice of support type: points, or lines. We always use "lines" because they offer the most stability and the best chance at a good print. This shouldn't be changed for printing here, but it's always good to check that the settings are what you expect before printing.

cube support2
filamentcolors

Materials for 3D Printing

filamentcolors

Original image by Pete Prodoehl

Before we begin

Necessary Terminology

Extruder - This is a part of a 3D printer. This is the part that heats up to nearly melt the material so that the material can be worked with. A motor pushes the material through the hot part and out of a nozzle at the end.

Hot End - This is a part of a 3D printer. It is usually considered to be a part of the extruder. It is the part that actually heats up to melt the material. It is placed on a carriage that moves it around to place the material.

Filament - This is the material that is extruded.

Direct Drive Extruder - This is a type of extruder. In a direct drive extruder, the motor is placed on the carriage with the hot end. One drawback to a direct drive extruder is that it is heavier so the printer needs to move slower to achieve a nice print.

Bowden Extruder - This is a type of extruder. In a Bowden extruder, the motor is placed off of the carriage that the hot end is on. Filament is pushed through a tube to the carriage with the hot end. One benefit to the Bowden extruder is that the carriage is lighter so the printer can move faster and still achieve a nice print.

Print Bed/Build Plate - This is a part of a 3D printer. This is the part of the printer that the filament is extruded onto. On some of our printers, this is a heated plate with or without glass on top. On others, it is simply a glass plate.

Painters Tape - This may not seem like it, but this is an important part of 3D printing in buildIT. This material is the exact same as the one you would purchase for painting a room in your house. The tape is placed on the print bed so that the material has a rough surface to adhere to. If the tape wasn't there, the material would have a much harder time staying in place.

Layer Height - This is the amount the extruder moves vertically between each layer of the print. This number is usually a fraction of a millimeter for our printers. For more information, please see the post about layer height and resolution.

Warping - This is something that can happen to a print. In some prints, the edges of the part will curl up, away from the build plate. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including the part being too big or too thin. Usually, a part will need to be reprinted if the warping is severe enough. Some filament materials are more prone to warping than others.

Filament Basics

Most filaments…

Filaments tend to have some things in common for 3D printing. Most are plastic or plastic-based. Nearly all are put on spools to help keep them from getting tangled on their way into the extruder. Nearly all filament has a melting point between 180° and 250° Celsius.

Filament can come in 1.75mm or 3mm, but all of our printers have 1.75mm extruders. All filament that we use in buildIT is 1.75mm.

ABS

abs filament

Original image by Creative Tools

ABS Material Basics

ABS stands for Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene. In the context of 3D printing, it is a plastic filament that comes on a spool. ABS is one of the two main printer filaments.

ABS is the material that LEGO bricks have traditionally been made of.

Print Temperature: 245° Celsius

Bed Temperature: 100° Celsius, if the bed heats up.

Print Speed: This varies by printer, but 40-50 mm/s works well.

Flow Rate: 100%

Toxicity: The fumes emitted by ABS are considered to be bad to inhale for large periods of time. Proper ventilation is strongly recommended when printing with ABS. The material is not recommended to be eaten. For more information, please see the Material Safety Data Sheet.

Cooling Fan: Do not use a cooling fan. The reason ABS is prone to warping is because it cools too quickly.

To help with adhesion: Painters tape can be put on the print surface to help with adhesion. If the painters tape by itself doesn't work well enough, putting down a small amount of glue from a glue stick may help. If the glue doesn't help enough, using a paint brush to put down some acetone may help. Dissolving some ABS in the acetone before painting it on can also be useful.

Discussion

ABS is not used in buildIT. This is for the simple reason that the fumes emitted by the melting ABS are toxic, and we do not have a sufficient ventilation system in place. We do not want the fumes to be trapped in our space, or expose patrons in the library to the fumes.

In printing, ABS tends to be prone to warping due to loss of heat. As it cools, the material tends to curl inwards. An easy way to help with this problem is to use a raft or put something on the print surface to help the object stick better.

ABS PRO

○ ABS parts tend to be rather strong once they are done printing.
○ More flexible than PLA (see next section), so somewhat more durable.
○ Relatively cheap, compared to other filaments besides PLA (see next section).

ABS CON

○ ABS is very prone to warping.
○ ABS emits fumes when heated that should not be inhaled if possible. This means that ventilation is required.
○ ABS is somewhat prone to layer separation.

PLA

pla filament

Original image by Adafruit Industries

PLA Material Basics

PLA stands for Polylactic Acid. In the context of 3D printing, PLA is a plastic filament that comes on a spool. PLA is one of the two main printer filaments.

PLA has been used in disposable cups and utensils, as well as bags and food packaging.

Print Temperature: 215° Celsius

Bed Temperature: 60° Celsius, if the bed heats up.

Print Speed: This varies by printer, but 40-50 mm/s works well.

Flow Rate: 100%

To help with adhesion: Painters tape can be put on the print surface to help with adhesion. If the painters tape by itself doesn’t work well enough, putting down a small amount of glue from a glue stick may help.

Toxicity: It is not recommended to eat PLA, but small quantities can be ingested with minimal adverse effects. The odor given off by the melting PLA is also nontoxic. PLA is biodegradable. For more information, see the Material Safety Data Sheet.

Cooling Fan: If you have one, use it.

A neat trick: When unloading PLA, you can avoid a clog by heating the extruder to about 80° Celsius, disengaging the motor, and pulling the PLA out quickly.

Learn more about PLA

Discussion

PLA is the main material that we use in buildIT. This is because it emits relatively scentless fumes that are nontoxic. It is also pretty easy to work with, and can be colored nicely with a variety of methods. For more information on coloring PLA, please see the post about how to color prints.

PLA can be food-safe when the filament preparation process is specifically food-safe, and when printed on a specifically food-safe printer. The PLA and printers that we use in buildIT are not food-safe.

PLA PRO

○ PLA is nontoxic when heated.
○ PLA is relatively easy to work with when printing.
○ PLA can be food safe.
○ Relatively cheap, compared to other filaments besides ABS.
○ PLA is compatible with most printers.

PLA CON

○ PLA is relatively soft when the part is completed.
○ PLA has a low temperature at which it gets soft. This means that a completed object can lose its shape or structural integrity at a low temperature.
○ PLA tends to be more brittle than ABS, which may decrease durability.

NinjaTek - SemiFlex

semiflex filament

Original image by Joey Casabar

SemiFlex Material Basics

NinjaTek's SemiFlex is a flexible filament material that we have used in buildIT. We used it for a project that we worked on for STEM Day. This material is not normally available for use.

Print Temperature: 225° Celsius

Bed Temperature: 60° Celsius, if the bed heats up.

Print Speed: This varies by printer, but 15-25 mm/s works well.

Flow Rate: 350%

Toxicity: The material is toxic if ingested, so one should avoid eating it. The fumes created when it is heated are relatively odorless, but breathing them should be avoided if possible. For more information, see the Material Safety Data Sheet.

Cooling Fan: If you have one, use it.

To help with adhesion: Painters tape can be put on the print surface to help with adhesion. If the painters tape by itself doesn't work well enough, putting down a small amount of glue from a glue stick may help.

For the best results: Slow down the printer, increase the flow rate, and use a direct-drive extruder (not a bowden).

Discussion

SemiFlex is not used in buildIT. This is because it tends to be a very difficult material to work with. Additionally, only one of our printers is physically able to print with SemiFlex, so offering SemiFlex is logistically difficult.

SemiFlex is a material that has very interesting properties. It can stretch some, but it can bend very easily even after being printed. We found that the thicker the part is the harder it is to bend, but that is to be expected. To color SemiFlex, acrylic paint covered with a clear sealing spray worked relatively well.

For more information on our project with SemiFlex, including why we chose to use SemiFlex over other flexible filaments, see our post about the Engineers Week Bracelets.

SemiFlex PRO

○ We did not have to modify our extruder to work with the SemiFlex. The printer we used was an unmodified Flashforge Creator Pro.
○ SemiFlex was flexible enough for our purposes.
○ The fumes emitted were relatively odorless.

SemiFlex CON

○ SemiFlex jams in the extruder easily. We helped the jamming problem by continuously unspooling some filament so that the extruder wasn't pulling directly on the spool.
○ SemiFlex is best printed on a Direct Drive extruder, while most newer printers have Bowden extruders.
○ Ventilation is recommended.

Nylon

nylon filament

Original image by Lindsay White

Nylon Material Basics

Nylon is a material that is not available in buildIT. This section is included because I have used nylon on my own personal 3D printer for my own personal project, so I have some experience with the settings that worked well for it.

The specific nylon that I used was Taulman Bridge in 3mm.

Print Temperature: 245° Celsius

Bed Temperature: 100° Celsius, if the bed heats up.

Print Speed: This varies by printer, but 20-40 mm/s works well.

Flow Rate: 100%

To help with adhesion: Painters tape can be put on the print surface to help with adhesion. If the painters tape by itself doesn't work well enough, putting down a small amount of glue from a glue stick may help.

Toxicity: It is not recommended to eat, but there are minimal adverse effects for ingesting small amounts. When heated for printing, the material gives off a strong odor but is considered nontoxic. For more information, see the Material Safety Data Sheet.

Cooling Fan: If you have one, use it.

Discussion

Nylon is not available for use in buildIT. This is because it has a very strong odor and is rather difficult to get a good print with.

Nylon is about as hard to work with as ABS. A heated build plate is strongly recommended because nylon is also very prone to warping. It fed through the printer without issue, but had some difficulty adhering to the build surface. It creates a stronger part than ABS did, and it is a little less rigid than ABS.

Nylon PRO

○ Nylon has more tensile strength than ABS, so it may be more durable.

Nylon CON

○ Nylon has a very strong odor when heated.
○ Ventilation is required when working with Nylon.
○ Nylon is very prone to warping.
○ Nylon must be stored with a way to remove moisture, else it will absorb the moisture in the atmosphere and become unusable.

Other Filaments

laywoo pallet

Original image of a 3D print in Laywood filament by Creative Tools

Filaments We Have Not Yet Used

There are many other filaments available for 3D printing. These filaments are not available to use in buildIT. We have not yet had a chance to try them out, but this is where I'll discuss what they are. As we have not used them, I will not include information on printer settings for the specific filaments.

Most other filaments are a composite, usually of PLA and another material. One really cool one is a composite of PLA and wood fibers that can be sanded and stained after the print is done, called Laywood. Another is a composite of PLA and stone particles that can be sanded, ground, and polished, called Laybrick.

NinjaTek, the makers of the SemiFlex filament that we have used previously, also make a variety of other flexible filaments. Their list of filaments can be seen here.

A Last Note

On some printers, there are two extruders. These printers are called "Dual Extruder Printers." On these printers, it is possible to load a filament that will be for the object into one extruder, and a different material that will be for supports and rafts in the other. The benefit of doing this is that it's possible to use filament that dissolves in water. This would aid in the cleanup process for the part.

For example, you could load PLA in one extruder and PVA water soluble filament into the other, print out your part, and wash it in water to clean it up. Unfortunately, we have not used dissolvable filament, and it is not available in buildIT.

For More Information

Other Resources

For more information on many of these filaments, and to see more types of filament, please see the following lists.

○ An excellent comparison for many materials by Matter Hackers
○ A great list by Nick Lievendag
○ A really nice comparison for PLA and ABS by ProtoParadigm
○ An in-depth guide and comparison chart for many materials by All3DP