How 3D Printing Works

Extrusion Printing

  • 3D Model

    All 3D prints start with a 3D model created in a CAD software (Solidworks, Autodesk, Fusion360, Blender, etc.) where you design your part(s). Then, you export them as a .stl file to get 3D printed. Many .stl files are available online for free for anyone who is uncomfortable with 3D modeling themselves, or depending on availability we can work with you to make one for you. Once we have the .stl file, we can upload it to our slicer which will tell us how much material it will use in grams and how long it will take to print.

  • How Extruding Works

    Extrusion printers work by heating up a thin line of plastic and drawing a pattern (imagine drawing a circle with a hot glue gun). Then, they print another layer on top of the first giving it height, these layers do not have to be the same pattern (imagine you keep drawing smaller and smaller circles on top of each other with a hot glue gun until you got a cone shape).

  • Infill

    Almost all 3D prints can be 100% solid plastic, but often times that is unnecessary and costs more. Instead, most prints have what is called an infill where the entire outside is solid up to a certain depth. Then, the print has thin walls with air in between them to reduce material usage (these are never seen unless the object breaks).

  • Supports

    Sometimes, when a part has a particularly difficult overhang (or some other weird geometry) it may need what are called supports to help print it. Imagine you were printing the letter "T" and wanting to print it right side up for some reason. You would need something for the horizontal line at the top to be able to be printed onto while it hardened. Supports are intended to be removed after printing (depending on the print they can be removed easier or harder).

  • Layer Height

    3D prints can be printed with different amounts of distance in between layers to increase speed (bigger layer height) or increase resolution/quality (smaller layer height).

  • What We Do

    We will use 20% infill, default print layer height, and supports as needed unless you desire other parameters.