{"id":6685,"date":"2022-03-22T08:38:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/volksswitch.org\/?page_id=6685"},"modified":"2024-09-19T12:59:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T18:59:33","slug":"is-3d-printing-safe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/volksswitch.org\/index.php\/getting-started-with-3d-printing\/is-3d-printing-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Is 3D-printing safe?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is 3D\u00a0 Printing?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What are the flavors of 3D printing?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Who can I turn to on YouTube when I want to learn more?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What 3D printers do you “currently” recommend?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What filaments do you recommend?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

How do I obtain 3D-printed devices if I don’t have a 3D printer?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

3D-printing caveats…<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Is 3D-printing<\/span> safe?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For the most part, the answer to this question is “yes”.\u00a0 You’re in way more danger when you step into your workshop and grab your hammer, saw, or screwdriver.<\/span><\/p>\n

But you do need to pay at least some<\/em> <\/strong>attention to what you’re doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

3D printers melt plastic filament to reshape it 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Water boils at “only” 212 degrees Fahrenheit.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 All printers will show you the temperature of the extruder on their screens.<\/p>\n

The print surface (a.k.a., print bed) can get very warm but typically won’t burn you like the extruder can.\u00a0 Still, don’t touch the print bed until it has also cooled down.\u00a0 In many cases, the printed object will release quite nicely from the print surface if you just let the surface cool down.\u00a0 You heated up the print surface in the first place so the plastic would stick to it as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Some plastic filaments smell nasty when heated to melting temperatures, while others can give off toxic fumes.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 As long as you stick to PLA, TPU, or PETG,\u00a0 you shouldn’t have any problems.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In that case, keep your printer in a room that you can ventilate during and after printing.\u00a0 You can learn more about airborne contaminants associated with 3D printing in this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The printer is blind.\u00a0 It’s following precise instructions that say “start here and go there while extruding x amount of plastic”.\u00a0 It can’t see your nose or your fingers, so keep them away from all of the printer’s moving parts.\u00a0 Some printers, like the Prusa, include a crash-detection feature, but there will still be a crash.\u00a0\u00a0If you’re in an environment like a school where the printer may get\u00a0too<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>much attention, move it to a separate room with a door.<\/span>\u00a0 There are lots of ways you can set up a webcam so the tourists can enjoy the printing process from a safe distance.\u00a0 Once the printer has stopped printing and cooled down, it will be safe to visit it and retrieve your amazing creation!<\/p>\n

Strangely, most 3D printer owners who get hurt cut themselves with the scraper that came with their printer:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n


The scraper is intended to help remove a print stuck to the print surface. Waiting until the print surface has cooled to room temperature will often cause the printed object to completely release on its own. You won’t need that nasty scraper at all.<\/p>\n

Enclosures<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

You can find many DIY enclosure designs on the internet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you’ve purchased a Prusa 3D printer, Prusa has designed an enclosure<\/a> that will allow you to keep your printer out in the open and protect everyone around it from the dangers described on this page.\u00a0 It’s an additional $350, but that might be very reasonable, depending on where you’d like your printer to sit.<\/p>\n

Where should I look for things to print?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

How can I start designing my own 3D objects?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2904,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"folder":[105],"class_list":["post-6685","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t