0. Fab Academy Boot Camp¶
The offical start of Fab Academy was January 26, 2022!!!
Building A 3D Printer¶
Before Fab Academy started, my classmates and I decided to build our very own 3d printers. Our instructor Mr. Dubick bought us all Ender 3 Printers.
Once my printer arrived, I started to build it by following an online tutorial by CHEP’s Filament Friday on How to Assemble an Ender 3. Along with the tutorial, I referred to the manual located in the box of the 3D printer. Before assembling the printer, I took everything out of the box to double-check that I had every item that I needed. To do this successfully, I cross-checked the items with the appendix/ glossary of the manual.
After checking all the necessary items, I started following the tutorial and assembled the bed, which is the base of our 3d printer. It is crucial to make sure that the bed is not loose, therefore you want to access the wheels at the bottom of the bed, and turn them in a clockwise direction making the bed secure and tight. Make sure to check and repeat this process as needed.
Next, it is necessary to take the top material off the bed by removing the four clips. Then start assembling the two uprights, but as recommended by Chuck in the tutorial, it would be easier to install one, as it makes putting all the other pieces together much easier.
During this step, it is important to remember to install the upright on the electronics side, as later on there will be many other components that fit onto the left side of the upright. You also want to be very careful to make the bed upright square with the bed. I recommend using a speed square, although you can also eyeball this. A speed square is recommended because both the uprights on the printer monitor the movement of the z-axis. It is crucial to keep those squared and straight as possible.
After 6 hours of following directions from the tutorial and the manual, the 3D printer was assembled. One of the challenges I encountered was not having enough patience. I would try to skip ahead of some of these steps, which sometimes did not work and slowed down my working pace. This was my first time building a 3D printer and using one without instruction from a teacher. Once the 3D printer was completely assembled, I switched on the 3D printer.
🔌 Make sure to switch the voltage to 115 volts instead of 230 volts which is its default setting. This is on the back of the power box.
Once switching on the printer I followed The Ultimate Creality Ender 3 Quick Start Guide Tutorial on how to navigate the printer settings and get the printer to test print something from the SD card to make sure the printer works.
This was a fairly simple process, as the tutorial was very helpful. First I turned on the printer and then followed the instructions on how to re-home the axis on the printer and load the filament. I had some challenges loading the filament as the clasp was too tight for me to hold down and load the filament at the same time. I used the help of my dad, and he helped me hold the clasp down and to load the filament. Through the recommendation of the video, I bent the filament to help it fit through the small hole, although this resulted in the filament breaking in half.
To fix this, I inserted the filament from the opposite side of the hole (where the filament comes out from) and then took it out and inserted it correctly. This was beneficial as I could now locate the correct hole in which the filament was supposed to go in and, had a much more successful time at interesting the filament. I highly recommend trying this if you’re having trouble with inserting the filament in your 3D printer.
Following the instructions, I started to heat the bed and the hot end and import one of the test designs to print which was a fairly easy process. Although when printing the test print, the filament cut off because I did not have the appropriate spool, I reloaded the filament and then resumed the print. Although this was a big mistake, as the support for the head of the test print was not enough so it was printed in two different sections. This caused the test print, which was supposed to be a dog, to become a beheaded dog. OH NO!
I decided to take the print off the bed and decided to follow the same steps as the tutorial showed, but instead organized my filament roll better and kept an eye on it as it was printing.
After 2 hours of printing, the test print (dog) was done. The second print was a success!!! I learned from my past mistakes, by making sure that the filament was not getting tangled, and that resulted in a confidence booster, as I was certain that my 3D printer worked and now can print anything I want.