{"id":1621,"date":"2021-08-02T16:12:49","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T23:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coastalvectors.com\/blog\/?p=1621"},"modified":"2021-08-02T16:12:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T23:12:49","slug":"3d-printing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coastalvectors.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/3d-printing\/","title":{"rendered":"3D Printing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Way back when I was an itty bitty boy, I remember reading about rapid prototyping, and seeing pictures of objects created from an SLA printer. The object I remember most was a rook with an internal spiral staircase. Was was amazing about it is that it is an object that would be impossible to injection mold, or carve using a CNC machine. It had amazing detail for such a diminutive object.<\/p>\n

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When I went to college, we had a pair of powder bed printers that we could use in our manufacturing laboratory. Powder bed printing is extremely versatile because the objects being printed do not require any support structures. This allows for flexibility in design that could be difficult to achieve otherwise.<\/p>\n

Since graduating, there has been an at-home 3D printing boom. I recall when the MakerBot<\/a> went mainstream. It was very interesting, but I was very put off by the quality of the prints. The filament left a very jagged surface, there wasn’t a ton of detail, and the few prints I had seen in person had de-lamination issues in some of the layers. I’ve been very skeptical of filament printers since.<\/p>\n

I finally gave in after seeing some prints a friend at work made using his printer. The prints still have the trademark layer lines of a filament printer, but the detail has improved so much. I got a Creality Ender 3<\/a> ($260 at time of writing) which seems so incredibly cheap. I am extremely impressed with what this machine can do.<\/p>\n

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Setup<\/h2>\n

The printer comes unassembled. It took about 30 minutes to put it together. It really required very little skill, as long as you know how to turn an Allen wrench.<\/p>\n

Once it is assembled, the next thing to do is level the bed. This is accomplished with 4 knobs underneath the print bed. Again, it’s a pretty basic process.<\/p>\n

Lastly, feeding the filament is a simple task. After that, it’s ready to print.<\/p>\n