Hello friends!
There is a new 3D printer in town! Located in room 3204, this super-cool piece of equipment is a MakerBot Replicator and prints using 1.75mm PLA.
Ideal Settings
(as extrapolated from the example print settings)
Layer height: .2mm Infill: 10% Shells: 2 Support: [more on this later] Raft: generally suggested Temperature: 215 degrees Celcius Material: PLA Transfer data via: USB
Test Print
Checking out this 3D printer, I went through some of the example prints it had saved–and there’s one of 5 interlocked chain links! I was skeptical: how would this print without supports (listed as FALSE under info)? Surely they couldn’t print disconnected? How was this going to work?
(Example prints are generally a good way to test out 3D printers–because all the print settings should be correct, so anything that doesn’t work requires (usually manual) fixing, like plate height, etc… stuff that’s good to know before you get started.)
25 min Later
Cool, right? It printed just like that!
(granted, all the links were in a line on a raft… but there was no pulling them apart, etc.; they pulled off the ramp really easily, and weren’t stiff or anything.)
What Next?
Now I know this printer works well, and its ideal settings. The next steps are to download the MakerBot software (which will slice STL files and make them “legible” for the printer), and try some of my own test prints. (More to come later).