3D Printing

First Time Setup

Slicing a Model

Changing Filament

Starting a Print

Our Printers

The Mechanical Engineering Shop at Rowan currently provides 6xK1 SE's and 3xCreality Hi printers for use on student class projects, in Rowan Hall 146. These operate on the latest on custom Klipper firmware and are upgraded with a touch sensor to provide automatic bed leveling performed on a regular basis.

Printing Rules

Printers are for Mechanical Engineering course work & clinics (The 3D Printing Club and Studio 231 accept personal prints)
Printers operate on a first come, first serve basis, & may not be reserved for use
Students must verify the first layer of their prints is correct to avoid permanent machine damage
These printers are for PLA only, reach out to the Technicians for support for other materials
Printers are not be removed from the Project Lab
Students should not adjust printer settings

Creality Hi

Creality K1 SE

Process Capability and Design Tips for Creating Accurate Prints

The following information only applies to prints printed with the default ME Shop PLA Profile, instructions for downloading and using that profile can be found above. Prints printed using other settings will have minor to extreme differences in accuracy.

Process Capability of ME Shop 3D Printers

Process Capability is a measure of how much parts produced by a given manufacturing process vary from the ideal, usually in Mechanical Engineering the variability is in the size of a part. All manufacturing processes, including rapid prototyping tools like 3D Printers, will produce parts that have some amount of variation from your ideal 3D model. By understanding the expected variation you can design parts with the appropriate clearances to allow your parts to assemble as expected.

Features Printed Parallel to the Build Plate

The printers are most accurate in X and Y, features parallel to the build plate. Generally you can expect the parts printed on the projects lab printers to be within:

Creality Hi:

+/-0.003"+0.0015" per inch of size

So for example 2" wide part would have an expected tolerance of: (0.003"+0.0015*2")=+/-0.006"

K1 SE:

+/-0.010" + 0.003" per inch of size

So for example 2" wide part would have an expected tolerance of: (0.010"+0.003*2")=+/-0.016"

Circular Features Parallel to the Build Plate

In addition to the tolerances above, due to a combination of factors including filament tension, circular holes and bosses printed parallel to the build plate will be smaller than expected. To compensate for this increase the diameters of your circular features in your model before exporting by:

Increase hole diameters by 0.008"
Increase boss diameters by 0.004"

So for example a 1" diameter hole is desired the size should be increased to 1.008" before exporting your .stl file.

Features Printed Perpendicular to the Build Plate

The printers are less accurate in Z, features perpendicular to the build plate. This is because in addition to all the other causes of variance experienced parallel to the build plate, features perpendicular to the build plate are more heavily influenced by bed warp, layer height, and support material. When possible critical features should not be printed in this direction. Generally you can expect parts printed on the projects lab printers to be within:

For both the K1 SE and Creality HI:

+/-0.01"+0.003" per inch of size

So for example a 2" tall part would have an expected tolerance of:

(0.01"+0.003"*2")=+/-0.016"

Eliminating Elephant's Foot

Due to the compression of the first few layers against the build plate prints can be slightly wider at the bottom. This can be largely eliminated by adding a 0.02-0.03" chamfer to the surface of your model that will be contacting the build plate before you export your .stl file

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