Watch This BEFORE BUYING A 3d PRINTER

I'll do guys it's Luke at geek gaming scenics in this video we're going to talk about everything that I wish I learned about 3D printing when I got started so let's get straight into this because there's quite a bit to cover first thing guys is bed leveling bed leveling when you're 3D printing is one of the most important things that you need to do correctly now on a smaller printer it's a bit easier than a bigger printer but how I do it is I loosen the bolts and I fold a piece of paper and stick it on the screen you let that go down and once that's gone down you tighten the bolts up now there's a way to do this apply your pressure to the build plate evenly with one hand and then do alternative bolts so say you're starting on the first on the front left go to the back right front right back left and tighten that up with even pressure while you're still maintaining your hand pressure on the build plate now on a bigger build plate it's the same principle it's just obviously it's bigger and it's a bit harder to do if you've got somebody that can help you get them to hold it with both hands while you do that but if you're doing it on your own just apply the pressure as evenly as you can and do that but don't over tighten one bolt sort of make it so all the bolts are tight and then while you've still got that pressure on go back and give it the final tightening but make sure you do it the same on all four corners if you do want more than the other one there's a chance the build blade might shift a little bit but once you've got the bed level that is one of the biggest things that causes most of your issues and most people think they've leveled the build plate and sometimes it can be just slightly out and you get all sorts of adhesion problems and things and it's as simple as just leveling the build plate and if you do the four corners like that you're more likely to a far more successful Prince so when I started 3D printing I didn't want to jump in buying loads of stls what I ended up doing was looking on thingiverse looking on Cults and things like that this isn't a great thing to do if you're new to 3D printing what I suggest is sign up to a decent company like the sponsor of this video this video is sponsored by the dragon Trappers Lodge this month they're releasing over 75 STL files for just 15 a month this theme has got my juices flowing it's a Fantasy World War II inspired Army called the children of the flame consisting of dragon Soldiers war beasts that is perfect for wargamers this month they've also teamed up with one-page rules to make an army that is full of playable and compatible with both age of fantasy and the grimdak future it also comes with a full rule so you're able to play with them and the Army focuses on smaller units of elite troops that can pack real punch one really good thing about Dragon Trappers Lodge is the themes that they're going to actually put into production are voted on by their patrons so you can become a part of the models that they're releasing which is really cool and if you don't even have a 3D printer don't worry about it you can also buy the physical Minis and have them ships straight to your door and this month they've even added a bonus that the Doom with an advent calendar whether releasing a bonus Christmas theme minute every day leading up to Christmas dragon trap was Lodge you've got an awesome product and World War II dragons and lizards is pretty cool so why don't you check the links below and check them out for yourself now back to the video once you've signed up to these companies Dragon Choppers Lodge you've got some awesome pre-supported models now I want to talk to you about base exposure a lot of people sand the build plates they use flexi plates they use a lot of things like that I've never bothered what I do is I spend time trying to get the base exposure correct so I want it so it just sticks so it's not too hard to get off with the with the scraper and when you're doing something bigger it's always okay just to up the base exposure a little bit just so it sticks better to the build plate but my base exposures on these modern printers they're not much over 15 seconds whereas I see a lot of people exposing at 30 a minute crazy times and there's just no need you've just got to set it for that resin so you can get it off the build plate with ease and as long as you do that you shouldn't have any problems you're not going to break any models you shouldn't have any sort of delaminations or anything like that just make sure the base exposure is set you don't have to sand build plates you don't have to do anything like that because all that's going to do is cause imperfections on your build plate and that needs to be pretty level so leave it as standard and just get your base exposure correct now the biggest thing that I've learned over the years is cleaning models everybody says to use isopropanol alcohol which is correct you can use it but I used it for a very long time and as the iso gets dirtier it gets it doesn't work as well so you end up having a monkey pot and a clean pot and you dip it to get the majority off then you have a clean pot that you rinse it in that's fine and it does work but what I found works better is methylated Spirits I don't know why but for some reason maths cleans them a lot quicker and a lot better and it lasts longer and the reason for this is it seems to separate from the model rather than thinning it and making it better it just seems to pull it away from it and the way that I discovered this is when I actually cured the dirty meths outside the resin floats to the top it doesn't turn into a big jelly goop like it does in ISO so it's obviously doing something different I don't know the science behind it but the methanol or methylated Spirits just seems to clean the models a lot better I don't advise you do this um but I cleaned it in the pot for 30 seconds or so and I touched it with my finger and the zero residue on that model methyl experience is my go-to and I can use a pot of methylated spirits and it can last six months before I need to even clean it or change it and I use methylated Spirits from a chemical supplier it's not purple like you get from your Supermarket um it's a lot cheaper to buy it in 25 liter or five liter containers it's clear and there's no odor to it at all it's like a vodka sauce smell and methylated Spirits is my go-to for cleaning now that's not the only cleaning step I've put these two together because support removal and cleaning is the same sort of thing now I wish I'd learned about the hot water trick at the start because the new supports are very fine and it doesn't take much to remove them but if you dip them in the hot water they pull away with ease but what you also find is if there is any extra residue on the models or anything like that the hot water helps give a final clean on the model and then you've got a perfectly clean model you get none of that white mess on the models or anything like that you get no detail clogging and it's it's a step to remove the support so you don't get any scarring or very minimal scarring depending on the type of model and supports but you're also getting a final dip clean and there's nothing stopping you to get the water off dipping that back in your mouths for a dip or two so it gets rid of the water and then the mess will evaporate quicker rather than having to leave it for 45 minutes for the water to evaporate and that way you've got perfectly clean models and since doing that I've had no detailed loss I've had no sticky models I've had no like Hollow models like leaking resin it just seems to do such a perfect job and if you've not tried it yet I advise you to try methylated Spirits it's cheaper it's quicker and it lasts longer and I'm all about saving a couple of coolant I can do now one of the other things I get asked about a lot is what do you glue the models together with now there's two things you can do super glue and activator is your best friend super glue is what you want to be gluing your resin models together with it just grabs instantly in the activator makes it so it's strong almost instantaneously just make sure you get it in the right way first or otherwise you're gonna have to break it off and clean it again but super glue and activator is the best way if you've not got any activator this is a trick I learned when I used to work with resin models from like Forge World and things you want to get yourself a bit of sandpaper or like a a nail polisher or something like that don't remove material as such you just want to Scuff the surface of one or both sides of the model and then when you put the super glue on and push that together that dust of the resin works like bicarb almost it's sort of solidified with the glue and it it just grabs it instantly obviously there's a bit of a key and everything else that makes it stronger but if you just sand one side if you've got no activator that works just as good as well and if to be honest it's sometimes a bit stronger depending on the joint type and everything else and that's all I do if you've got any severe joints or anything where there's like a big gap you can get a paintbrush with a bit of resin on and draw that in and then cure that with the model and then that will cure and fill the seam as well it's not something I do that often but you can do that and that makes it a very solid model when it's all glued together now the most important thing about 3D printing and I wish I'd learned this at the start is temperature because when I was printing in the units or having so many failures and I could not figure out why and I were turning up the exposures to try and compensate because the more you over expose the resin the more Heats in the in the vat because the light's on for longer and that's why you get successful prints when it's cold but they're not really successful because they tend to be a bit softer you're not it's not good for the printer being overexposing for them lengths of time either what I used to do is when I was in the unit I just used to put an oil-filled radiator next to the printer if it were quite cold I'd even put a big box over the printer and the radiator so it kept the ambient temperature in that space at room temperature when I used to get these problems with fails I never used to think temperature temperature was an issue but the reason it happens is because in the cold the resins have got oils and everything else in them they get thick and they need to be warm to work properly and as soon as I add a controlled temperature even if it's just a radiator next to your printer the successes that you get is tenfold okay I very rarely get fails now um because I'm using good pre-supported models my beds definitely level and the settings are ones that I've downloaded off lychee but if you've done all that and you're still getting fails I can nine times out of ten it's normally either the lift speed or the temperature slow prints and temperature is what I go for and as long as it's warm and as long as it's printing I don't care how long it takes so just make sure that you've got your printer above 20 degrees and you shouldn't have many issues if you look on the resin it even tells you that there's a perfect operating temperature and you try and keep it close to that as you can and you should should have a stress-free printing experience now the last thing I want to talk about is curing your 3D prints I wish I'd learned this at the start I went out and bought a nail polish um Cura and stuff like that and you have to leave them under there for ages because there's not enough power you don't need to go out and buy a cure machine it's nice to have I mean I've built one in my Ikea unit and that's good you know just slap it in there for 30 seconds a minute and they're done but I still sometimes just bang them on the windowsill for 20 minutes or whatever and they're fine I bought a lot of stuff when I first got sent my first 3D printer because I thought I needed it and you really don't the things that you need is just a windowsill or a tray stick it outside even in winter when it's cloudy there's still UV getting through and the little cure so just don't go up balls to the wall and buy everything that you think you need because you don't as long as you've got a 3D printer some gloves and some towels and a few pots to wash things in that's all you really need I went a bit mental like I always do and I wish I didn't because all you need is the basics and if you're printing for yourself you're not going to be printing that much anyway so just print it clean it and put it on your windshield to cure so guys I hope this video has been helpful and thanks to Dragon Trapper's Lodge for sponsoring this video I absolutely love this month's release World War One Two at lizards and things like that pretty cool and if you want to check them out all the links are below I hope this video has helped because I know I get asked unseen questions every day about 3D printing and the reason I've put this video together is to help them guys out so I don't have to keep sending the same question back I can just send you this video now um but anyway guys thanks for watching thanks for tuning in and if there's anything else drop us a comment and I'll answer it if I can but anyway guys I'll catch you for the next video love love

Channel: Geek Gaming Scenics

Views: 41,740

Keywords: 3d printing, 3d printer, best 3d printer, 3d printing tips, 3d printing fails, fix 3d printer, problems, warhammer, warhammer 40k, dragon trappers lodge, geek gaming scenics, geek gaming, warhammer fantasy 3d print, wargaming, tabletop 3d printing

Id: 9mZN7soWegU

Length: 14min 24sec (864 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 20 2022