Q: Does a printer take a lot of electricity to use?Ī: Not really, studies we have found online put it at less than having a 60watt incandescent light bulb turned on.Ī: We recommend eSun PLA Pro, or Hatchbox PLA, as both are very easy to work with and produce excellent results. We really cannot recommend using it at all, especially in a home environment.
ABS requires a printer with a heated print bed, and it gives off very bad fumes when heated for the print process due to some toxic chemicals used in it. It is harder and slightly more brittle than ABS, and can be printed at lower temperatures, so it holds fine details much better. Q: What is the difference between PLA and ABS filament?Ī: PLA is what we use for all of our printing, it is a bioplastic derived from corn starch or sugarcane, and is biodegradable. Q: How much does it cost to print a model?Ī: A 28mm humanoid miniature will run 7-12 cents, and a standard dungeon tile about 38-40 cents, depending on the price of the filament you use. Be careful when buying filament to ensure you are getting the proper diameter for your machine. 1.75mm is pretty much the industry standard and used by most printers. Q: What does it mean when a printer says it uses 1.75mm or 3mm filament?Ī: This is referring to the diameter of the filament that will fit in the printer’s nozzle. A 50 micron print will look much better than a 200 micron print, but the 200 micron print will print much faster than the 50. A machine printing at 200 micron resolution would have layers that are 2/10ths of a millimeter high (.2mm), thus the smaller the resolution number, the finer the print quality. Q: What does the term ‘micron’ mean when listed for a printer’s resolution?Ī: A micron is 1/1000 of a mm, so a printer than can print 100 micron layers is printing layers that are 1/10th of a millimeter high (.1mm). As an example, on our Ender 3, we can print a standard 28mm skeleton miniature in about 1 hour, and a dungeon wall tile in 2.5 hours. Q: How long does it take to print a model?Ī: Time depends on the resolution you are printing at. If you can work a screwdriver you’ll be fine. Most maintenance takes the form of tightening bolts and lubricating the rods that the print head runs on, and periodic cleaning of the unit and making sure the belts are tight.
Q: Are 3D printers difficult to maintain?Ī: Not really (at least not the ones we have listed.) They aren’t totally plug-n-play, but the maintenance is really simple. Q: Where can I get help and have questions answered?Ī: There are several fantastic user communities like the Dragonlock/Dragonbite group on Facebook ( ) and the FDG forums here on our website to get help and have questions answered. We recommend starting with a simple test object like this cube ( ) once you get your printer for the first day or two to get used to how it operates before attempting to print dungeon terrain or miniatures. The filament itself is very inexpensive (a 1kg roll for $20 will make 40-50 dungeon tiles).Ī: As with most things, there is a learning curve to 3D printing. The thinner the layer height you select for printing your model will result in much finer details and resolution, but thinner layers mean you must print more layers in total, thus resulting in a longer print time. This type of printer uses a spool of plastic filament to make models by feeding the filament into a heated nozzle, melting it, and extruding it on a build plate in successive layers to build up an object. We recommend starting with a plastic filament type printer (also referred to as FDM or Fused Deposition Modeling). Q: Where can I learn to use a 3D printer?Ī: We have a Youtube channel devoted to this! Check us out HERE.Ī: Home 3D printers fall into two categories, plastic filament and resin.