Touching a new technology: 3D printing as a beginner
2024/9/9
In the past, my understanding has been that 3D printers were complicated, innovative but highly uncommon pieces of high-end technology. I have known about them since I was little, reading How It Works books, but the first time I really came into contact with 3D printers is at the school’s STEAM club during lunchtime.
Guess what’s the first 3d model I ever printed. It’s a chess pawn. I experimented by downloading it, and the club teachers uploaded the model and then printed it. The piece came out beautifully, made of a translucent, shining substance - which really was just ordinary plastic. It seemed like magic, seeing the 3D printer transform plastic filament into real-life objects as if they grew from the bottom of the printing plate.
I had experienced using 3D printing pens when I was young, but they were slow, inaccurate and the outcome looked like it was made of wet noodles stuck together. Looking at the 3d printer’s toolhead zipping across the hotbed (a heated metal plate that the printer squeezed molten plastic onto layer by layer to build a 3d structure), the printer reminded me of 3D printing pens, but much more sophisticated and accurate.
The first time the idea of buying a 3D printer for myself occurred to me was after I saw one in my friend’s house. Can you believe that all he had to do to make a digital file become real is open the 3D printer’s application, drag a model file into the window and send it through Bluetooth to the printer? I was deeply astonished by this machine.
In less than a minute, the printer started working, and 20 minutes later a miniscule model of an F-35 stood on the hotbed. Can you believe that this extraordinary piece of technology can be purchased at approximately 200 dollars? I didn’t. I asked for the price, and the friend told me about it. Realizing that this thing is fully affordable, I immediately asked dad if we could get one. Because he was also intrigued by the abilities of a 3D printer, we decided to get one for ourselves. Before we did, though, we did quite some research, and finally settled on the a-little-over 2500 RMB Bambu Lab P1S. It advertised a high speed and top-grade print quality along with multi-color printing capabilities, so we decided that it would most likely be worth its price.
The actual printer arrived a week later, delivered in a huge cardboard box almost a meter wide in all three dimensions. I was eager to see what’s inside, but I waited for dad to come home from work, worried that I might break something by mistake. Did you know that a 3D printer comes in parts that you have to assemble? I expected a fully usable machine.
By the time my dad and I hauled the massive machine to the basement, it was time to go to bed. I did not. Everyone has had moments of receiving a new thing and cannot sleep until you try using or playing with it, right? We had to plug in cords and cables one after another, then connecting the expansion components that gave it the ability to print in multiple colors. Eventually, after two hours of night work, we managed to put everything together and started the first project: a 3D printer benchmark test meant to test of the printer was functional. At that moment, mom was calling me to go to sleep louder and louder, already very impatient, as I still had to go to school the next day.
It did not work. The benchmark test failed, resulting in a pasta-like disaster inside the printer. Do you know why? Well, I had no idea at first, so I had to look it up, and my research led me to the official website of BambuLab. Soon, I located the problem: the Z position of the toolhead (the component that melts plastic and releases it) in the software was different from the actual Z position of the toolhead, so it often ran into the inner casing of the printer, and it was fixed after a manual correction. This made the bottom part of the benchmark test, a miniature boat, unattached from the hotbed, and with nothing under the toolhead, the newly printed parts became unorganized threads of plastic that filled the inside of the printer. Thankfully, though, the plastic scraps weren’t hard to remove.
Unknowingly, I have started my 3D printing, 3D engineering and most importantly troubleshooting. The initial setback was just the first of many problems I would face, but it was also the start of an interesting new hobby. As I continue to explore the possibilities of 3D printing, I’m eager to see what other innovations and creations lie ahead.
Have you ever experienced a similar journey with a new technology? What challenges and successes did you encounter? Share your thoughts and experiences, and let’s dive into this topic.