Where to place your 3d printer for the best results

So you have bought yourself a 3d printer- excellent, now- where to place your 3d printer for the best results.

With the helpful hints in this post you can be sure that if you follow them you will get the best results from your 3d printer.

1. Table of Contents

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   Flat surface

   Make sure that you place your printer on as flat a surface as possible. Now this doesn’t mean that you have to get out the level, but it does mean that you are better off siting it on a flat surface and not moving it.

   Why – well a lot of these printers are sensitive on the Z axis to movement – especially the reprap open frame types. This means whenever you move them to a new location you need to check the Z axis height and level of the print bed.

2. No overhanging items

   As your printer will be getting hot, the last thing you want is anything overhanging it. Anything which can be damaged by heat.  Net curtains – which can blow into the printer. Paintings – which can be damaged by the heat or fumes given off by the printer. So have a look at where you are going to site your printer and see that it is unobstructed.

3. Ventilated

   Dependent on the type of material you are going to print – I suspect you will start with PLA, as most of us do, you will need to have adequate ventilation.

   Even with PLA there are some minute particles given off, which may over time cause slight health problems. Myself, I have found that it sets off a hayfever type of reaction when printing in a room with no open windows!

   If you are placing your printer close to a window, make sure that there is not draught across the print bed, this may cause the model to warp coming unstuck from the print bed and being rather annoying.

4. Sunlight

   If you are placing your printer close to a window then watch out for sunlight causing problems with your filament.

   I have recently placed both of my printers on a bench in front of the window and left the filament installed – not always recommended due to moisture ingress.

   I came back to the delta printer filament being broken. I thought it was due to tension and cheap filament.

   The filament was broken all the way up the bowden tube. So removing it was a pain.

   Today I came back to the filament being broken on my Prusa clone, same problem, just broken. The sun has been in and out today, so I can only surmise that the heating and cooling has caused the filament to melt and with the tension from being rolled up it has caused it to snap. This is one I didn’t think of at the time – now, how to relocate my bench!!

5. Surface

   make sure that the surface you are going to place your printer on will not get scratched. These printers will move around a bit, so any shiny surface may get a little damaged, place a mat underneath or better yet…

Make a plinth

With the 3d printer you will collect a few tools for maintenance, a couple of reels of filament and other bits you will want to keep tidy.

The way I have overcome some of the above problems – moving to a new place and scratching the surface is by building a simple plinth with a drawer. All of the tools go into the drawer, and if you are good and build it double height the reels of filament can go underneath.

If you screw the printer down to the top of the plinth this will keep it rigid, reducing the necessity to re-tweak the Z axis or level the print bed.

It also gives you an area where the little bits of extruded filament can fall onto and be easily wiped up.

 

 

So now you have found out where to place your 3d printer for the best results

Where are you placing yours?

Well, with these five tips on where to place your 3d printer you should be able to look around your room and find somewhere ideal.

If you have any other tips on where to place your 3d printer for the best results, please leave them in the comments box below, so we can all benefit from your expertise.

Many thanks for reading

Phil