Tips for new 3D printer owners

[Sandro]

Since Jinha Jeong asked in the Kickstarter comments for beginner tips, I thought I'd post some here.

First, if you're new to 3D printing, I'd start with printing PLA in a single color.  PLA is one of the most forgiving plastics we 3D print, and it's fumes are usually non-toxic.  The MakerShaper PLA included from X-Machines seems to print OK, but my family doesn't like the smell of the fumes.  While it's tempting to jump right to two-color printing (if you have a Duo), there are enough extra issues with dual-extrusion that it's probably not a good idea until you're getting pretty good one-color prints.

The most important part of any 3D print is the first layer.  If the first layer isn't stuck to the bed well and pretty smooth, you're likely to run into problems later in the print.

You'll want to pick up a spatula of some sort (I started with a $.50 cent plastic spatula from the hardware store).  I find that I use fine tipped tweezers (to remove stray filament and ooze) and wire cutters (to cut and trim filament) fairly often.  Isopropyl alcohol is great for cleaning the bed -- the purer the better, I use 90% from the hardware store.

When you do start doing dual extrusion, you will need to confirm and tune the offset between your print nozzles.  Mine ended up being approximately (43.1 x -0.55)mm apart -- as opposed to the (43.6 x 0)mm that came set in firmware.  I used this object to calibrate the heads since it gave an idea about how far off the nozzles were: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1526735

[Jeremy Campbell]

I thought this might be useful to someone. https://youtu.be/OcddlK36OVs