Hey ala,

Welcome to the first email in the 3D Printing For Woodworkers: A Primer! You made an excellent decision signing up for this, and over the next 6 days I’m going to teach you as much as I possibly can about 3D printing as concisely as I can. I won’t be able to cover every topic in full, but I’ll do my best to include resources for each topic if you want to continue your education beyond these emails.

When I first got into 3D printing, I had no clue what I was doing. PLA? PETG? Nozzle temp? Bed leveling? Elephant’s foot? What is that?!

I ruined a lot of prints figuring it all out, wasted so much money, and stayed up until 3am trying to figure out why my printer was clogging. You don’t need to do that. This is my attempt to teach you everything I wish someone had taught me in my first week.

Types of 3D Printing

Firstly, there are two main types of 3D printing: FDM and SLA.

SLA (or Stereolithography) works by pouring liquid resin into a reservoir, and the machine uses a screen with a special light to harden the resin one layer at a time. SLA can produce super-smooth, detailed parts, making it great for small models or parts that need to look really sharp, almost injection-molded. But the resin can be messy, it can get expensive, the parts can be a little more fragile, and it takes longer to clean everything up after a finished print.

FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) is the most commonly used type and the one I use in my print farms. FDM is like a tiny CNC machine with a hot glue gun instead of a spindle. It melts plastic and builds your object layer by layer. It’s great for making strong, functional parts. It’s also easier to use, cleaner, and cheaper to get started compared to SLA.

If you couldn’t tell from those descriptions, we’re going to focus on FDM for the remainder of this course, since I believe it’s the best entry option for woodworkers specifically.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, it’s time to talk about the most significant decision of your 3D printing journey: Picking out your printer.

Bambu Labs Printer Lineup

There are dozens of reputable FDM printer brands out there these days, from the OG’s like Prusa and Creality, to newer competitors like Bambu Labs, Anycubic, Elegoo, and Snapmaker. There’s more choices than ever! There’s a lot of great options out there, but I also have a firm favorite:

Bambu Labs.

Bambu Labs changed the 3D printing world by making printers that are faster, smarter, and easier to use. Before Bambu, a lot of 3D printers were slow, noisy, and hard to set up (this was back when I first got started; it was much harder than it is today). But Bambu’s printers come ready to go out of the box, are faster than competitors’, and sometimes even cheaper. Last year I did a video walking through all the printers that I’ve personally bought (Creaility, Prusa, and Bambu), and why I ended up selling everything I had and going all in on the Panda.

Side note: Bambu has recently entered the sponsorship space on YouTube and it’s common to see a lot of woodworking videos sponsored by Bambu. I’ve actually declined their sponsorships. This is not sponsored. I just believe in their product and earn my income using their machines.

Here’s Bambu’s printer lineup, and what each printer is best suited for:

Bambu H2D - https://tidd.ly/4hAgX0c

• The H2D is Bambu’s newest, and most expensive printer. With dual nozzles, this printer makes multi-material 3D printing faster than ever before, and wastes less filament in the process. At $2,000 it’s not for everyone, but the amount of technology packed into it is well worth the cost if it’s in your budget. They also make a version of this printer that has laser engraving and cutting upgrade, if that’s your thing. Disclaimer: since I’m a straight shooter, Bambu did send me a pre-production unit of this for my feedback, which I gave them. I don’t love the laser option. I think it's overkill. They ignored my feedback!

Bambu X1C - https://tidd.ly/43Ia3QQ

• Bambu’s original flagship printer, the X1C, completely changed 3D printing. With a touch screen, Dual auto bed leveling, 7μm lidar resolution, spaghetti failure detection, and an AI inspected first layer, it’s virtually impossible to have a print fail on this printer. But, at $1,000 it’s still a little steep for the average maker, especially if you’re just getting started.

Bambu A1 - https://tidd.ly/4hATrQJ

• The A1 is Bambu’s entry into the budget lineup of FDM printing, starting at only $249 for the A1 mini and $349 for the A1, these printers are some of the most affordable on the market. While not as feature-packed as the X1C, this open frame printer is capable of multi-material printing (with an add-on), full auto bed calibration, and even active motor noise cancellation. You’ll be printing right out of the box on a budget. I got one of these for my kids and they 3D print all the time without me. It’s gotten out of hand.

Bambu P1S - https://tidd.ly/48QCmQJ

• Next was my personal recommendation for the average woodworker for a very long time, the P1S. At $399 it’s a step up from the A1 for sure, but that money gets you a larger print bed and, most importantly, a fully enclosed chamber. That may not seem that important, but trust me. Not only do you need an enclosure to print in more advanced engineering filaments, but if your printer is in an area that gets dusty, say, a woodshop, you’ll quickly regret an open frame printer. If you have a place to store it inside, and you don’t want to print any advanced filaments, you can probably get by with the A1. But Bambu has come out with a few newer printers since, and the P1S is going to lose support over time as they transition to their newer lineup.

Bambu P2S - https://tidd.ly/4qygMa0

• One of Bambu's newest printers is the P2S, the upgraded version of the P1S. It costs a bit more, but you get a lot for that extra money. You still have the fully enclosed chamber, but now the printer has a servo-driven extruder for faster, more precise printing, plus AI-assisted error detection that can catch problems before they ruin a print. Cooling and airflow are improved too, which means cleaner layers and more reliable prints, especially with trickier filaments. This thing prints PETG as easily as PLA. If you want a 3D printer that works consistently in a real woodshop, can handle both basic and advanced filaments, and just generally makes life easier, the P2S is a solid step up from the P1S—basically the same trusted platform, but supercharged. I’ve yet to get my hands on one, but it does look intriguing. I’m thinking about upgrading my P1S farm to the P2S for the printer failure detection alone. After getting one of these in the shop, I thought it was going to be a slam-dunk recommendation. That is, until Bambu did it again...

Bambu X2D - https://tidd.ly/4uPdHDS​

• So remember everything I just said that made the P2S better than the P1S? Take all of that, and add a second nozzle. A second nozzle makes multi-color prints, as well as prints with dedicated support material, dramatically faster while wasting less filament. It also adds active chamber heating to ensure no warping during printing, and an air filter for when you're using filaments that give off harmful fumes like ABS/ASA. It's only $100 more than the P2S, and you get quite a bit of added features for the cost. This has become my new recommendation for woodworkers, and honestly anyone else. A printer with these features didn't exist 5 years ago, and if it did it would have cost 3X as much. This is the best value in 3D printing today.

I’m trying my best to keep these emails short, so I’ll get straight to the point with my preferred printer settings (we will get into them in more detail later). While Bambu’s slicer will work well enough right out of the box, there’s still steps you can take to guarantee a successful print, even on the cheaper printers.

Preferred Printer Settings

Print failure is the first fear and frustration that every beginner encounters. To get a strong foundation for any 3D print, you want the strongest bed adhesion possible, and that starts with a good first layer. You can do this by tweaking your INITIAL LAYER slicer settings. Here’s how I do it:

• Slightly hotter bed - 65 instead of 60
• Slightly hotter nozzle - 225 not 220
• Slightly taller layer height - .28 instead of .2
• Slightly wider nozzle width - up to 150% more than your nozzle width. Usually .55-.6
• Slower speed - 30mms instead of 50

All of these settings combined will give you a solid base layer that is slightly thicker and taller than normal, increasing your chances of success (exact temperatures and layer heights can vary depending on filament type and nozzle size).

The Print Bed

Your 3D printer will print onto a removable sheet called the build plate. There’s a lot of variety among build plates, so this is a topic that could go on endlessly if you really wanted to. Most build plates magnetically adhere to the print bed (this is how Bambu printers work). This allows you to remove them easily and “flex” them to get your prints off, and put it back in the printer when you are finished.

Your 3D printer will heat the build plate during 3D printing (those are the settings mentioned in the last section). Be careful when removing a print immediately after it finishes, as these plates can still be incredibly hot to the touch.

You should also avoid touching the middle of your build plate. The oils on our skin will leave a residue on the plate, preventing your parts from sticking. Different materials can require different build plates to match their specific mechanical properties, but the standard textured PEI plate that is included with all Bambu printers is the same one I use for all my prints, which is by far the most common build plate type. It’s essentially the “jack of all trades” of build plates. I find my slight print setting changes are more than enough to get a perfect first layer and print adhesion on the default bed, so I haven’t swapped.

I used to prefer smooth plates because I liked the bottom finish, but I found that the textured plates offer better adhesion, and no one really looks at the bottom of a print or cares about that texture. So I recommend starting with a textured plate.

If you’re interested in learning more about build plates, here’s a great video.

Before You Hit Print: Clean the Bed

Before we hit print, we’re going to make sure our print bed is clean. I already mentioned why you shouldn’t touch your build plate, thanks to those pesky oils on our skin, but it bears repeating. To get a clean bed, wash it with warm, soapy water, then dry it. After that, I spray it with isopropyl alcohol - the higher the percentage, the better, because it evaporates quicker. That gets you a clean plate. (We’ll discuss this more in a later email).

Final Trick: Hairspray (Yes, Really)

My last trick (in this email) is another bed adhesion tip, because you cannot get a great 3D print if it doesn’t stick. Once you’ve cleaned your print bed with soap and water and IPA, spray it with hairspray. Seriously. Lots of people recommend glue sticks, but I find they build up too quickly on the bed, requiring you to wash it more and more often. A quick coat of hairspray will improve your first layer; it only needs to be reapplied every 4-6 prints, and it doesn’t gunk up your build plate as much as glue. It simultaneously improves adhesion and also prevents some materials from adhering too well by providing an interface layer.

Important: Always remove your print bed from the printer before spraying. Spraying hairspray inside the printer can cause build-up on lead screws and other parts, and we don’t want that.

I can’t overstate how helpful these first-layer tricks are. You could spend an extra $600 and get the X1C which has spaghetti detection and that will check for a good first layer. That technology is amazing, but I just use these settings instead, and I get a perfect first layer every time.

That’s it for lesson #1! I know it’s a lot of information to process, but you can always come back to it in the future. Tomorrow, keep an eye out for email #2, which is all about filament types and when to use them.

Happy Printing,

Drew
​wittworks.shop​​
​youtube.com/wittworks​
​