3D printer

Ultimaker 2+

The 3D printer is located in room 428 of the Physics department. If the door is locked ask someone from the corridor to open it for you. It is an Ultimaker2+, with a single hot-end.

Assuming that you have already the model you want to print in STL format we first need to slice it and create a set of instructions that can be understand by the printer, this is done with Cura.

Slicing: Getting started with Cura

A 3D printer like the Ultimaker is printing a 3D model layer by layer. Transforming a 3D model into a stack of 2D layers is called the slicing. A lot of different slicers exits, but we will use [Ultimaker Cura](https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura).

If you start Cura for the first time (you do not need to create an account), you can select to add an "non-networked printer". In the list, choose "Ultimaker 2+" and set the printer name to something meaningful for example "PGP_printer".

Once this is done, you can select in Cura the material to use. The preset when starting Cura is "Generic PLA 0.4 mm", which should be fine for any PLA filaments we have. To be on the safe side you can select the exact filament in the list, ensuring the right temperature will be used.

On the right top side of the screen are the quality settings, by default only a few of them are displayed, which should be okay for starters:

• the quality: 0.06, 0.1, 0.15, set the vertical size of the layers: the smaller the finer the result but also the longer it will take
• the infill determines how much the part will be filled with material. Unless you want something really rigid a value around 20-30% is fine. Again, the more the infill the more time the task will take.
• Support (Y/n): if your part has some impossible to print feature (hanging in air features, big overhang) you can set this to yes in order to ask Cura to create supports for these features.
• Adhesion (Y/n): this will create a additional big layer at the bottom of the part in order to ensure adhesion. Can be used for parts which do not have a huge flat surface or if you have adhesion problems.

You can now drag-and-drop your STL file in Cura which will display the model in the global view. Using the left buttons you can move/rotate your model with respect to the building plate or even duplicate it. Note that a printer cannot print something which is not supported by anything, rotation of the model can be useful in order to prevent that (Cura won't warn you…). Note also that several models can be printed at the same time.

Once this is done, you can click on "Slice" at the bottom right of the screen and save the result to the SD card from the printer.

Printing

• Start the printer with the sliced model on its SD card
• Select "Print"
• Select the model you want to print
• Let the magic happens…
• Once it is finished, let the printer cool down before:
  • taking the part: it will detach more easily
  • shutting down the printer in order to prevent the hot-end to remain hot without the fans on

3D printing a part is not always successful and a part detaching while it is being printed can actually damage the printer. That's why it is recommended to monitor the first layers of the print when the print fails. If something abnormal happens you can abort the print using the menu or, in case of emergency, shut down the printer.