Top 10 3D-Printing Tips & Tricks

If you’ve ever called Airwolf 3D’s technical support line, visited us for 3D-printer training, or attended one of our 3D-printing workshops, you already have met some members of our awesome tech support team. With deep backgrounds in 3D-printing, technology, and customer service, these guys are true 3D-printing all-stars.

Day after day, support ticket after support ticket, our tech team is in the digital trenches tackling just about any 3D-printing problem you can throw at them. These guys really know their stuff and have accumulated a treasure trove of tribal knowledge that we’re ready to share.

Check out our tech support technicians’ Top 10 3D-Printing Tips:

1. Use Wolfbite. Avoid chipping glass by allowing the plate to cool down to room temperature before removing the part.

2. Always remove your build plate from the printer before taking the part off. Removing the part while the build plate is still attached stresses the bed and can damage your printer.

3. Always print from an SD card. Printing with your computer over USB leaves your print vulnerable to failure if your computer goes to sleep, restarts, or becomes unplugged from the printer.

4. Don’t run out of filament! If you’re concerned that you might not have enough filament on the roll for the job, look at the total weight of filament used in the top left side of APEX. Zero your scale to an empty roll and then weigh your filament roll to make sure there’s enough filament remaining on the roll.

5. Don’t give up too soon. If the first layer of your print doesn’t look so good, let the print go another two or three layers before aborting the print. You may find that the blemishes get covered up and the print will turn out great.

6. See if you can print more parts more quickly by testing the resolution. Don’t aim for too fine of a resolution right away. Print your part with a layer height of .24mm and then print it at .12mm. If you cannot tell the difference between the parts, opt for the .24mm layer height. The taller height will speed up your print time, so you can get more prints finished faster.

7. Have a decent digital caliper handy. It’s great for checking the diameter of your filament and getting detailed measurements of your finished part.

8. Get a good set of tweezers. They’re useful for grabbing tails of filament off the bed or for pulling out small fuses when changing them.

9. Get a good set of X-Acto knives for post-processing your prints.

10. Have sandpaper in varying grits to also help in the post processing of finished prints.

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for more of our 3D printing tips and tricks!

– The Wolfpack

Want free filament and Wolfbite?

Test out our new (free!) APEX 3D-Printing Software, share your opinion via the APEX Open Beta Feedback Form, and we’ll send you a free spool of ABS filament and a bottle of Wolfbite Bed Adhesion Solution in the formula of your choice.

Offer only available for customers using APEX with an Airwolf 3D printer. Please limit one per customer.

What do YOU think of APEX?