What are the flavors of 3D printing?
Who can I turn to on YouTube when I want to learn more?
What 3D printers do you “currently” recommend?
What filaments do you recommend?
How do I obtain 3D-printed devices if I don’t have a 3D printer?
Is 3D-printing safe?
For the most part, the answer to this question is “yes”. You’re in way more danger when you step into your workshop and grab your hammer, saw, or screwdriver.
But you do need to pay at least some attention to what you’re doing.
3D-printers melt plastic filament in order to reshape that plastic into an entirely new and very useful form. To melt the plastic, the printer’s extruder heats up to at least 360 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). That’s for PLA. Some filaments may require temperatures almost twice that.
Water boils at “only” 212 degrees Fahrenheit. So, just like you wouldn’t put your hand in boiling water, keep your hands (and fingers) away from the extruder of your printer until the printer tells you that it has cooled down to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) or so . All printers will show you the temperature of the extruder on their screens.
The print surface (a.k.a., print bed) can get very warm but typically won’t burn you like the extruder can. Still, don’t touch the print bed until it has also cooled down. In many cases, the printed object will release from the print surface quite nicely if you just let the surface cool down. You heated up the print surface in the first place so that the plastic would stick to it as much as possible.
Some plastic filaments smell nasty when heated to melting temperatures while others can actually give off toxic fumes. You probably won’t encounter these filaments unless you’re trying to create an extremely tough or heat resistant object or are still living in the past and have a soft spot in your heart (or head) for ABS. As long as you stick to PLA, TPU, or PETG, you shouldn’t have any problems. There may be people in your world who are very sensitive to smells and even these, otherwise safe, filaments will be an issue for them. In that case, keep your printer in a room that you can ventilate during and after printing.
The printer is blind. It’s following precise instructions that say “start here and go there while extruding x amount of plastic”. It can’t see you nose or your fingers, so keep them away from all of the printer’s moving parts. Some printers, like the Prusa, include a crash-detection feature, but there will still be a crash. If you’re in an environment, like a school, where the printer may get too much attention, move it to a separate room with a door. There are lots of ways you can set up a webcam so the tourists can enjoy the printing process from a safe distance. Once the printer has stopped printing and cooled down, it will be safe to pay it a visit and retrieve your amazing creation!
Strangely, most 3D printer owners who get hurt, cut themselves with the scraper that came with their printer:
The scraper is intended to aid in removing a print that is stuck to the print surface. Waiting until the print surface has cooled down to room temperature will often cause the printed object to completely release on its own from the print surface. You won’t need that that nasty scraper at all.
Enclosures
Many high-end printers marketed to schools come with enclosures that, for lack of a better word, “enclose” the printer, often in a see-through box, that protects students by preventing their access to the printer inside.
Enclosures also help to raise the temperature in the air surrounding the printer so that some difficult-to-print filaments won’t warp or crack.
You can find many DIY enclosure designs on the internet.
If you’ve purchased a Prusa 3D printer, Prusa has designed an enclosure that will allow you to keep your printer out in the open and still protect everyone around it from the dangers described on this page. It’s an additional $350 but that might be very reasonable depending on where you’d like your printer to sit.