3D printing for beginners - Any advice or pointers?

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Is anyone here using 3D printing? I read about it once in a while, mostly with an industrial focus, but have no clue myself.

Is consumer-grade equipment mature enough to play with it to entertain a curious 6-year-old (and the parents)? And at least somewhat affordable?

In my imagination, it’d work like a color printer, and you could get started by downloading some files online and just watch it go brrrr?
Eventually making your own designs to print stuff like tracks for a marble run, Lego parts, some action figure.
Is that a pipe-dream or quite achievable at reasonable cost these days?

Given the perceived demographics of this forum, maybe someone can give a pointer?
Do you have any recommendations for beginner-friendly online communities or resources, or a book to get started?

I only started to search online, but mostly ended up with product recommendations and shops.

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There is some learning curve, so it won’t be like your standard HP Color Printer.
But there are a lot of great tutorials on YouTube to get started, and the printers nowadays are way more robust (and beginner friendly) than they were 10 years ago.

Here are two links to channels with good tutorials:
Made with Layers, Teaching Tech

You also need to decide whether you need it for printing super small parts (like game figures) or small to medium size parts. For super small/high resolution parts you’ll need a Resin printer while for the other scenario FDM printers are better. Most people think of FDM printers if they imagine a 3D printer and they are also much more user/family-friendly given that the resin of the resin printers is toxic in its raw state. Here you’ll find more info about the resin vs. FDM topic.

I can recommend FDM printers from Bambu Lab or from Prusa (e.g. the MK4S, from Czechia). But there are LOTs of more companies out there, some for super cheap price. Personally I would pay a bit more to have a large community (& supportive company such as Prusa) behind the product. These printers last forever…

Of course you could pay even more (Ultimaker for FDM, or even Formlabs for professional use cases), but IMO that’s not worth it for most people.

Now to give direct answers to some more of your questions:

Yes, I think so. But I would supervise it (hot parts can burn curious fingers quickly).

Yes rather affordable IMO; starter price <1k or even <500 CHF if you want to spend less. Then the filament itself is quite cheap unless you print huge and lots of parts.

Yes, good indication for FDM.

Can be made with FDM, but if its small, better resolution with Resin.

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I started 3D printing 8-9 years ago with an Anet A8 bought from Aliexpress for less than 200 EUR. It’s a bit that I don’t check the latest models (my Anet is still working well) but I’m sure you will find online comparison articles.
What I liked about the Anet is that you have to assemble it (you receive all the pieces in a box) and this makes you:

  1. Understand the technology and how the components are interconnected
  2. Where to go if one day you need to fix (or upgrade!) something

I think it is a really great hobby: you can start small and always learn new things: from the optimization of the print parameters to 3D modelling. And it really enables the exploration of new hobbies (electronics, FPV drone racing, …).

I also find it super useful in case something breaks: I remember that one of the little “feet” of my dryer broke and I was able to find the 3D model of it on thingiverse.com, print it and install it in less than a few hours.

Yes, you are not too far from the reality IMO. Sure, it’s a bit more difficult, but the possibilities are endless. (I can PM you some of the projects I did if you are interested, but I won’t share them here).

One thing to consider is that you are not supposed to breath in the “fumes” so, make sure you have a place in your house where it can run and you can easily open a window and change the air after the print.

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If your kid is a tinkerer, get him one of the cheap ones from aliex that you have to assemble.

They are not fully plug and play and you can spend time tinkering with them to dial in the settings to improve print quality and modify the printer.

I remember the first few prints on mine were to make alternative parts to improve cooling and increase rigidity (vibrations worsen quality).

There’s a lot you can learn there which transfers over to more expensive printers that work better out of the box.

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Did you take any precautions (smoke detector, constant supervision,…), given the reputation of catching fire of the Anet A8? :sweat_smile:

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Oh wow! Yes, it’s a bit sketchy indeed :sweat_smile:

I upgraded it with Mosfet and fans (which are supposed to help a bit) and when it is running there has to be someone at home.

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Awesome, thanks a lot all of you. I will go through those links in the next days. I started to look around but somehow skipped thinking about Youtube.

Your answers alone already give me some key words to specify my research. The kid in mind is curious, but let’s say he prefers to watch and ask questions, rather than tinkering himself. One of the things I’d like to encourage, but it will up to us parents to take the initiative. Definetely together, not something to leave him alone with.

Also thanks on the hints around fumes and hot parts. I’m quite sensitive on safety topics, even overly so and took note. I’ve got smoke and heat detectors all over the place and proper ventilation :smiley:

It’s exactly the idea to get something with some quick, rewarding wins to get me and the kid(s) excited, but endless opportunities to do and learn more afterwards. I was so focused on toys, I didn’t even think about other use cases, yet.

There’s always the risk with those kids that the most though-trough and expensive gift doesn’t catch on, at all and I want to avoid having fancy equipment that’s collecting dust in a corner. I’ll do my homework to convince myself and then start teasing the idea to the family.

Either way, I thought about anything priced in the hundreds, not thousands to get started. That one kid for now is happy with anything “self-made” that resembles a dinosaur or a marble can run down, no need for the highest details or quality of the result.

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I think it will be a standard procedure in, hmm, 15 years :smile:.