I haven’t realize how much we’ve been printed, until I went to start blogging about it. I’ve had a several good prints and several not so good ones. What I’ve learned thus far:

  • A good slicing program is your friend. I’ve started using Cura and no reason to look for anything else as of yet.
  • It’s tricky to figure out what really needs a raft or a support when you are first starting out. Obviously, it’s narrow and/or tall the more the likelihood it will need a raft. As for the supports, they are a pain to completely remove. Here are some good rules for when to need supports (see https://all3dp.com/1/3d-printing-support-structures/). Prints (such as the frog below) didn’t need supports even with that overhang, while others do.
  • Support Trees! The first handful of times I used supports, it was the typical support pattern. A friend of mine suggested using trees and trying to widen the distance between supports when having issues removing. I think there is room for customization of settings here.
  • Most prints seen to adhere just fine, however I had a couple of issues (such as the octopus below) with lifting of small features, which would completely disrupt all subsequent layers. Applying a glue stick to the bed worked wonders.
  • Small models can be hard to print! I knew that FDM printers weren’t great for small models and figurines, but I’ve had several so far that just haven’t turned out due to need for supports but extremely difficult to remove supports. I haven’t given up on these, just stopped doing these for now until I understand better how to customize the Cura settings.

Here’s whats turned out thus far: