My Experience Printing on a Real 3D Printer

I’ve researched them, read about them in books, seen them in movies, and written them in to my books. Now I’ve finally seen a 3D printer at work on my last trip to Austin to visit my oldest son.

Workshop

My son set up a workshop in his house, and this is where he keeps the printer. This 3D printer uses the plastic rope from a reel on top of the printer to print items. The red items on the printer (holding cords and such) were printed on this very printer.

Set Up

Before beginning, you have to make sure the printer bed is perfectly level with the printer head. My son moved the head around and used a piece of paper to make sure the spacing was perfect. The picture is a little blurry because his hands were moving, and I only had my phone.

In Progress

This is a close-up of the printer in progress. Before beginning, the printer draws a line around the area where it will be working. We are printing a clip to hold some of the printer wires.

Almost There!

My son was surprised that his printer worked perfectly the first time he showed it to me. Apparently, sometimes the plastic comes loose before it’s finished because it isn’t aligned well enough. I guess I’m good luck!

Close-up View

 

All finished

Top view of the finished clip.

Here, I am holding the clip in my hand.

In action!

These clips work great and do exactly what they were intended to do. My son has printed other handy objects with them, but he’s still in the experimenting stage. Scientists have great hope that 3D printing will become more useful in the future, perhaps even printing human organs. I hope that science-fiction comes true sooner rather than later. Again, I only had my phone, so taking close-ups is a challenge.

Have you ever seen a 3D printer in person? What did it print? Please post in the comments below? Thanks for reading!

Copyright 2019 Teyla Rachel Branton

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