Sending readers elsewhere may seem like a strange topic, but as hobbyist, we spend a great amount of time reading articles, watching videos and sorting useful from not-so-useful information. My list of bookmarks, YouTube subscriptions/playlists and personal documents (real and digital) have evolved over the years, but I wanted to take a snapshot and share them out in hopes to save others a little time and energy. This list is specific for FDM printers. I’ll share more on resin printers as I become more proficient in their use and dial in on a list at a later time.
Once in a while I end up skimming through the guide on the 3DPrint Beginner site and I always find something that helps tune or troubleshoot some of my prints. Aimed at the beginner, there’s a fairly good run through of things to look out for and consider when trying to get a better looking print from your printer.
It seems that I’m constantly troubleshooting issues of all kinds. My ego blames an affliction of wanting to tinker with varying filaments, hardware upgrades and toying with settings in my slicer as the culprit. There are a couple of sites that I refer back to every so often as I’m troubleshooting issues. Both have pictures and insights on what could be causing what you’re seeing but the first seems to be a little better organized while the later is a little more detailed.
Chuck Hellebuyck’s Electronic Projects
CHEP’s Filament Friday
My go-to for anything with the Ender printer and Cura, Chuck has tons of resources including hints and tips, reviews, and even some excellent Cura profiles. There are some great videos on his YouTube channel that can be useful even if you are not using an Ender printer and especially for those that prefer to slice with Cura.
Sometimes I just want to create something simple or make some basic alterations to a design and there is nothing easier to use than Tinkercad in my opinion. Sure, there is software out there that dwarfs this simple web-based application in features and power, but sometimes, simpler is better.
Back in the day, thingiverse was my one-stop-shop when looking for useful things to print or redesign to fit my needs. With some recent changes, including removing the ability to download a zipped file with all models and notes, I finally threw up my hands and moved on. Printables has a growing library and is still focused on providing a quality experience for their users. Even though I don’t own a Prusa printer, I’m impressed with the models and love the fact that I can download one file for each project.
So that’s it. A quick list of useful resources to bookmark (or not). Of course, I have even more that I use when tinkering with my Maker Select Plus or Ender 3 printer that is more specific for those machines. I’m looking forward to taking a deeper dive with those soon.
Update
With the recent purchase of an Ender 5 Plus, I wanted to add another resource for those that pulled the trigger on this printer and wanted a place to start for set up, mods and upgrades.
Kersey Fabrications has a YouTube channel with everything from unboxing to board upgrades. Though a little dated (some of the links to other resources or Amazon products are either in valid or not applicable to the latest Ender 5 Plus shipping from Creality), the overall information is a great resource for anyone staring at the new printer that now takes up half of their maker space.
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you penning this write-up
and also the rest of the website is also really good.