What Stringing Is and Why It Happens Stringing is the thin threads of filament left between parts of a print when the nozzle travels across an open gap. The nozzle moves from one section to another, and instead of leaving nothing behind, it drags a fine strand of melted plastic across the gap. On a…
What Under Extrusion Is and How to Spot It Under extrusion happens when your printer deposits less filament than the slicer expects. The nozzle is moving and the filament is feeding, but not enough plastic is coming out to fill the path correctly. You will see it as gaps between infill lines, weak or porous…
Printing threads and precise holes in FDM requires accounting for how FDM slightly under-sizes holes and the specific design constraints that make threads printable versus fragile. Get the tolerances right and your printed threads work on the first try. Get them wrong and you have a part that either won’t thread or strips after two…
The Nozzle Nobody Thinks About (Until Something Goes Wrong) Most 3D printers ship with a 0.4mm brass nozzle, and most people print every single job with that exact nozzle for the entire life of the printer. For the majority of use cases, that is the right call. But knowing why and knowing the specific situations…
Variable layer height lets your slicer automatically use fine layers where the model has curved or detailed surfaces and coarser layers on flat sections where layer lines aren’t visible anyway. The result is a print that looks like it was printed at a fine layer height throughout, but takes significantly less time because it uses…
The extruder system on your 3D printer determines how filament gets pushed to the hotend. Two configurations dominate: direct drive (extruder on the print head, right above the hotend) and Bowden (extruder mounted remotely, filament fed through a PTFE tube). Both work well; they make different trade-offs that matter for specific use cases. Direct Drive:…
3D printing has its own vocabulary and most beginner guides assume you already know it. This glossary covers every term you’ll encounter in the first few months of printing, defined plainly without unnecessary jargon. Bookmark it and refer back when a tutorial mentions something unfamiliar. Essential 3D Printing Terms A-G AMS (Automatic Material System): Bambu…
A few months into 3D printing, most makers have a Downloads folder full of STL files with names like “thing-2345678.stl” that they can’t find when they want them. An organised file library lets you find any model in 30 seconds, know which settings you used last time, and avoid reprinting something you’ve already printed and…
Most 3D print failures come from the same handful of causes. Bed adhesion failure is the most common. Filament issues (wet or tangled) are second. Settings mismatches between the slicer profile and actual filament are third. Address these systematically and your failure rate drops dramatically. Here’s the checklist. Before Every Print: The 3-Step Check 1.…
The Filament Choice That Makes Painting Ten Times Easier If you have ever tried to paint a 3D printed cosplay prop and found the paint beading up, peeling off, or looking inconsistent no matter what you did, the problem was probably not your paint or your technique. It was your filament choice. Shiny and silk…