Mastering 3D printing

Pt. 1. Open source 3D printers. A brief history of 3D printing: What is 3D printing? ; Nature's 3D printers ; Historical additive manufacturing ; Types of 3D printers ; The early days of robotic 3D printers ; The RepRap movement ; The rise of crowdfunding ; Enabling technologies ; The Arduino ; Open source code repositories ; A case study of the printer evolution

The desktop 3D printer: Who uses consumer 3D printers? ; Types of filament-based consumer printers ; Cartesian printers ; Deltabots ; Kits vs. assembled printers ; 3D printer design considerations ; Filament ; Frame ; Build platform ; Extruder design ; Moving parts ; Control electronics ; Machine tool or computer peripheral? ; Safety and ventilation

Open source: Open source infrastructure ; GNU licenses ; Wikis, forums, and open source repositories ; Open source pros and cons ; Meeting the open source 3D-printing community ; The maker movement ; Makerspaces and hackerspaces ; Contributing to the open source community.

Pt. 2. The 3D printing process. Making a 3D model: What makes a model printable on a 3D printer? ; 3D model file formats ; What does "watertight and manifold" mean? ; Scanning a model ; Consumer-level 3D scanners ; CT scanners ; Downloading and modifying existing models ; Models of everyday things ; Specialized databases ; Creating a new model ; Using a CAD program ; Programs for specific applications ; Design considerations ; Complexity is free: hardware as a service ; Speed vs. customization Slicing a 3D model: What is "slicing"? ; 3D printing as cooking ; Tools and techniques ; Starting a print and getting a model to stick to the platform ; Supporting and orienting a model ; Effects of layer height ; Speed ; Managing internal open space ; Getting started: how to slice open an object ; Slicing programs: Slic3r ; Alternative hosting and slicing programs Driving your printer : G-code: Controlling your 3D printer ; Understanding G-code ; Using host programs ; Repetier host ; MatterControl ; Octoprint ; When a print starts ; During a print ; When a print finishes normally ; Getting a part off the build platform ; Picking off support and cleaning up the print ; Restarting or shutting off the printer ; Manually controlling your printer ; Stopping a print ; Changing a filament ; Changing temperatures during a print ; Basic hardware troubleshooting ; Running from an SD card

Material considerations: Filament quality control ; Selecting and using a filament ; Temperature and speed settings ; Will my filament spool run out during my print? ; Filament materials ; Polylactic acid (PLA) ; Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) ; Nylon ; T-glase (PET) ; Polycarbonate ; Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) ; Research filaments ; Multiple extruders ; Printing dissolvable support ; Dual-extruder printer with two different materials

Case studies: Simple print ; Simple print example 1: heart pendant ; Simple print example 2: abstract base ; Printing a vase ; Printing a complex object with fine detail ; Printing with support ; Hand-building support ; Dual extruders ; Dual extruders: using one head for support material ; Dual extruders: models in two colors (or two materials) ; Speed settings.

Pt. 3. 3D printing meets traditional prototyping. Moving to metal: The sand-cast process ; Sand-casting terminology ; Patterns made from PLA ; Filling the flask with sand ; Cutting sprues and runners ; Pouring in the metal ; Finishing the sand casting ; Planning ahead for better casting ; Adding draft to patterns ; Avoiding undercuts ; Layer orientation ; Shrinkage and clearances ; Printing your sprues? ; Investment casting ; Lost-PLA process ; Casting vs. printing in metal

Large prints and post-processing: Printing computationally complex objects ; Printing physically big objects ; Objects that are too long for the build platform ; Objects that are too big in more than one dimension ; Gluing the pieces together ; Sanding, chemical smoothing, painting, and dyeing ; Sanding ; Smoothing and bonding ABS with acetone ; Painting ABS and PLA ; Dyeing nylon

Troubleshooting: Clicking or grinding noises ; Environmental issues ; Drafts ; Ambient temperature ; Humidity ; Dust ; Printer internal alignment issues ; Prints not sticking to the build platform ; Clogged nozzle solutions ; Cold pull ; Wire brush bristle ; Extruder drive gear teeth clogged ; Eliminate stringing ; Software updates.

Pt. 4. Using your printer. Printers in the classroom: Teaching design, engineering, and art ; Hands-on history ; William Hand, Jr. boat hull ; Herreshoff cleat ; Reactions to the 3D prints ; Learning through re-creating history ; The special-needs student ; After-school activities ; Robotics clubs and teams ; DIY girls ; Young maker programs ; Career tech ed ; Early-adopter experiences

Scientific visualization: Visualizing molecular biology ; Model accuracy considerations ; Example: 3D-printed models of six-helix DNA bundles ; Visualizing mathematical abstractions ; Parabola math manipulative ; Surfaces of revolution ; Sinusoids ; General surface modeling ; Other scientific uses of 3D printing

Futures: Technology trends ; Extreme users ; Improving the user experience ; Faster printing ; Filament ; Emerging 3D-printing applications ; Printing food ; 3D printing in medicine ; The developing world ; The business of 3D printing ; Printer patent issues ; Hardware as a service

Appendix A: typical printer settings: Slic3r typical settings ; Cura settings difference

Appendix B: links and resources: A brief history of 3D printing ; The desktop 3D printer ; Open source ; Making a 3D model ; Slicing a 3D model ; Driving your printer: G-Code ; Material considerations ; Case studies ; Moving to metal ; Large prints and post-processing ; Troubleshooting ; Printers in the classroom ; Scientific visualization ; Futures ; Focusing on 3D printing.