This week’s selection is the “3D Printer Troubleshooting Handbook” by Johannes Wild.
The tagline for this book is “The Ultimate Guide To Fix All Common And Uncommon FDM 3D Printing Issues,” and that is precisely what the author, a holder of a Masters Degree in Engineering, set out to do.
This is not a long book, as it comprises only 70-some pages. Part of that is because the layout isn’t particularly fancy, and the other part is because the information presented is very straightforward and to the point.
In a way, it’s almost like a “knowledge dump” of tips and tricks for successful 3D printing and troubleshooting. Yes, there’s more than just troubleshooting here.
The first chapter reviews a series of best practices to ensure your 3D print is successful. Some of the these tips are obvious, like ensuring the print surface is properly leveled, but others are a bit less obvious, such as ensuring the belts are appropriately tight.
There’s a quick review of 3D printer components, which may be useful for beginners, as well as a useful image chart to quickly identify a given issue. I am pretty sure that some readers may be having print quality issues you don’t yet realize you’re having, but this chart can assist.
However, the majority of the book is simply a list of 3D printing failure scenarios, each with solid advice on how to deal with them.
Some of the 3D print issues covered include:
- Hot end not heating
- Poor adhesion
- Under extrusion
- Curling
- Blobs & Zits
- Warping
- Wobble
- Clogged nozzle
- Z-seam visible
- Infill visible from outside
And many more.
There’s also a bonus section where the author shows an optimized 3D print slicing profile in Ultimaker Cura. While this particular profile might not be the exact match for your situation, the discussion around it will help enable you to tweak your own print profiles to achieve greater 3D print success.
The book is not expensive, at only US$19 for the paperback edition. It’s something any 3D printer operator could use, especially novices.
Via Amazon
