Intro to 3D Printing for Whistle Producers

THIS ARTICLE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the world of 3D Printing. There are tons of beginners guides for general 3D printing available on the Internet; the content below relates to getting you up and running quickly printing whistles.

If you haven't yet ordered a 3D Printer and got here by looking for how to get involved, there are a large number of 3D Printers now on the market, at various price levels. The Bambu A1 Mini is a low entry point price-wise, and they go up from there in feature sets and cost. The Bambu A1 Mini also can have an Automatic Material System (AMS) Lite partnered with it, which allows you to print from different spools easier than single-spool printers.

When ordering your new 3D Printer, make sure to order one to two rolls of filament. Filament is the material used to create items with the printer. There are many varieties of filament, but as a beginning printer you should start with PLA.

This section assumes you've just ordered a 3d Printer to get involved in the effort. If you already have one but need tips on getting started with whistles, see Beginning Your Whistle Prints.

• Once your printer arrives, follow the manufacturer's unboxing instructions.
  • The manufacturer typically includes a QR code or paper labeled “Quick Start” to get you going.
  • It's important to follow these instructions to ensure you remove all the packaging material is removed correctly. Missing something could damage your printer.

• Determine where your printer will be located.
  • You need access to power for the printer, and a stable (not-wobbly) surface.
  • You also need to determine if you have children or pets that will take interest in the device, especially if you have an open printer bed (the thing that the prints are built on).
  • Consider the sound a 3D printer will make when deciding location. The noise is similar in volume and content to a loud dishwasher.
  • Fumes and odors from a 3D printer are dependent on the filament being used for the printing job. The process of 3D printing melts the filament and, in essence, draws with it on the print bed. PLA filament does not have much odor or fumes to worry about, but if you move to more advanced filaments, you will want to ensure you have adequate ventilation for those filaments.

• The next step is making sure that your printer works .
  • Plug it in and follow the manufacturer's instructions for first time power on.
    • Typically, this will be a calibration routine.
  • Once this process is complete, follow the manufacturer's instruction for printing your first model.
    • Yes, you may want to dive into whistles right away, but making sure things work is important.
  • If your first model prints successfully, you're ready to begin

It may be tempting to jump in right away with a full bed of whistle models, but you should first print one or two whistle models to ensure that your printer can reliably print the whistle you've chosen. This will give you two things:

• Confirmation that your printer can produce a functional whistle.
• Confidence that you can send a job to your printer and get something out of it.

Whistle models differ in size and loudness; the one you choose should be the one that works best with your printer. Some locations have local groups of whistle printers customizing whistles with phone numbers or images - if possible, check with your local area to see if a need exists there.

Select a model from here: https://makerworld.com/en/collections/14533358-good-whistles or a local list of loud dependable whistles, and start by testing your printer with the model. If it works, scale up to full print bed prints.

• Note: printing a full print bed of whistles may take 6-12 hours or longer.

Printing your very first full bed print of whistles can be a little nerve-wracking, and yes, something might go wrong. Many printer manufactures have extensive troubleshooting tips in their documentation; check there for how to fix your issues.

Some general articles on troubleshooting your print job:

• Bambu Lab Wiki Common print quality problems and solutions
• MatterHackers 3D Printer Troubleshooting Guide
• Simplify3D Print Quality Troubleshooting Guide

Guidance on this wiki for troubleshooting:

• When things don't stay put on the print bed
• Troubleshooting whistles specifically

Congratulations - you've created whistles from a random spool of plastic!

Once you've successfully printed a full print bed of whistles, you need to get them into hands that can use them.
As mentioned earlier, you can look for local organizations that need whistles. There are also larger groups creating whistles and shipping them to locations in need. To join this effort, see Joining the Whistle Crew

• AMS: Automatic Material System. The AMS for a 3D Printer adds the capability to automatically switch colors during a printing session.
  
• Bed-slinger: A variety of 3D Printer that moves the print bed itself under the print head. The total space needed for a bed-slinger may be larger than that for a fully enclosed printer that moves the print head instead of the bed.
  
• CoreXY: a technique to move the print head of a 3D Printer for printing, instead of the print bed. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreXY
• Enclosure: 3D Printers come in two main varieties - bed-slingers, which are open to air, and enclosed varieties that move only the print head. An enclosure is typically the add-on structured box that open-to-air bed-slingers are placed into to help maintain temperature and keep fingers/paws/pet fur from the prints.
  
• Filament: The “paper” of a 3D Printer. Filament, which typically comes in spools, is the plastic input which is melted by the printer and placed on the print bed to create objects, like whistles.
  
• Hot End: the nozzle assembly that heats up to meld the filament so it is able to apply to the print bed.
  
• Model: the item being printed. Models are designed within CAD software.
  
• PLA: polylactic acid, a plastic material created from renewable resources like corn. PLA filament is relatively strong, and well suited for most printing needs, including whistles. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid
• Print Bed: the surface of the printer on which the printer deposits filament.
  
• Print Head: the assembly that contains the input for filament, the extruder, and the hot end.
  
• Slicer: the software that analyzes a model to translate it into instructions for the printer. Called a slicer because the software breaks apart the model into lateral slices to analyze.