3D Printing

D Vautier
1/2024

This last Christmas I saw an Ender-2 3d printer on Amazon so I suggested it to one of my kids.  I got one as a Christmas present.

There is a whole world out there of hobbyists, engineers, entrepreneurs and just plain curious people that are way into 3d printing.

Many types of 3D printers exist but the simplest and cheapest ones consist of a platform that moves (x) and a nozzle that moves (y and z) all driven by servo motors.  A string of plastic or other material (it's called a filament) is fed into a small heated nozzle and and gradually builds the object.  The table, nozzle and feeding unit (extruder) is controlled by a simple digital file that consists simply of x-y-z go-codes and feed-codes which is appropriately called a gcode file.  These gcode files are made by programs called slicers that slice up a 3D model into many layers.  The printer then runs the file and it takes a long time to print anything.  Models come whole or in kits which can be glued and painted.

Here is my Yoda, jack sparrow, t-rex and Valkyrie.