3D printing hints/tips

[JKnightandKARR]

Thought, I'd start one for any kind of hint/tips/ect for 3D printing.  I've got one at the moment.  For resin printers, I tend to wash stuff off as soon as it's finished, but I know this won't always work, so I had dried resin on my build plate, and since it's not flexible at all, I got hints for how to take the dried material off.  I tried with no luck, iso alc, since it's recommended for cleaning, in my book with my post processing unit, but a heat gun and scrapper got it off pretty well, I just had to secure my print bed in vice to hold it still, and just let it cool off after.  Just turn the gun on, I tried high and low, high worked a little better, but held heat gun on an area and gently scrapped stuff loose as I went along.

[JKnightandKARR]

Well after my first failed successful resin print, yes I know that didn't make much sence, but it will, reindeer 1/24 scale, while it did infact print successfully with no issues, getting the supports off after post processing is another story.... so with that:

Next tip: If print fails, try different orientation and or a different print method, in my case, would the reindeer been standing upright, while 2x long job, made a difference or would FDM printing work better??

[JKnightandKARR]

Next I got this one that actually helped me get my Neptunt 2D printer up n working finally.
1) Preheat to normal operating temp.
2) Home all axis.
3) Before turning off/disabling stepper motors, raise Z up equal to thickness of paper or feeler gauge.
4) While not moving Z axis, move tip, over screws and adjust corner by corner firectly over the screws/springs, leaving center for last. Repeat atleast 2x. On center, check for warp by checking various feeler gauges to see if it's off or not, subtract the thickness of one used for leveling. 0.1 or under over thickness should be fine. Ex) 0.15 total would be 0.05 warp for what i used. 0.1mm.

This worked on my Neptune 2D, the Auto leveling didn't work for me for some reason... it seamed like my bed was warped, but my 0.1 worked fine with no thickness over or under at center.

[Chris Savage]

@vampyricblood77 needs to watch this. He has an Ender 3 S1.

[JKnightandKARR]

https://jknightandkarr.altervista.org/3DPrinter/cover.png
Well, next tip. For this one, I am on V3 of a cover for the Trash Compactor at work, for a solution to keep water out of the start button, below.

https://jknightandkarr.altervista.org/3DPrinter/Resized_20251122_152947.jpeg
Last winter, as the water got into said button, and temp droped, as expected, pushing said button became VERY hard... so answer is a cover to keep water away. 
Tip: For projects such as this, measure completely, and for my case, my digital calipers would have made this VERY easy, esp. with the thickness of the front panel, which is also wider than the box itself, and think about how it needs to be before spending 5 hours printing, only to have it not work, due to having it designed with a flaw that had, what was intended to go over the front panel by sliding on, green and yellow bars, to be too far out, and also too close togeather, thought 11 mm and seamed to be closer to 16 mm (18 mm to be safe), so had to redesign, which also includes removing some side material, and adding whats my alt name online.

[granz]

Tip: For projects such as this, measure completely, and for my case, my digital calipers would have made this VERY easy, esp. with the thickness of the front panel, which is also wider than the box itself, and think about how it needs to be before spending 5 hours printing, only to have it not work, due to having it designed with a flaw that had, what was intended to go over the front panel by sliding on, green and yellow bars, to be too far out, and also too close togeather, thought 11 mm and seamed to be closer to 16 mm (18 mm to be safe), so had to redesign, which also includes removing some side material, and adding whats my alt name online.

We learn from experience - good job, Joe.

[Chris Savage]

We learn from experience - good job, Joe.

That philosophy is highly underappreciated. In my projects on Savage///Circuits, I post my failures as well as mu successes. It's important to show how even experienced people can run into issues and possibly how to overcome them.

[JKnightandKARR]

We learn from experience - good job, Joe.

That philosophy is highly underappreciated. In my projects on Savage///Circuits, I post my failures as well as mu successes. It's important to show how even experienced people can run into issues and possibly how to overcome them.

True, failure is a chance to learn!

[granz]

True, failure is a chance to learn!

Often times, we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. That is another reason for my recommendation for getting an Engineer's Notebook - record all the results from your testing/experimenting and go over them periodically to see what you can learn.