Tips and Advice - Printing in Plastic: Build Your Own 3D Printer - page 27

C H A P T E R 3
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Tips and Advice
With any DIY project, it's always a nice bonus if you have some hints about what to expect, what kinds of
bumps in the road might be ahead, and how others before you have tackled the job. We'll keep this
chapter short as we know you're anxious to get to work on your 3D printer, but we don't want to get
started without sharing some tips and advice we've discovered during the cutting, drilling, and other
tasks required for this project.
As with any advice, you're free to ignore it. We'll tell you throughout the topic how we perform
certain tasks, but if you've found a better way to do something, feel free to do so—but please consider
logging into the topic's forum and sharing your own tips and tricks with other readers. Just as there are
many tools that can be used to cut and drill the 3D printer parts, there are many methods for cutting,
drilling, and wiring up your machine.
That said, we do want you to know that we did encounter the occasional roadblock, requiring us to
take a step back, figure out where we wanted to be, and then find a detour to get there. We'll document
as many of those throughout the topic as we can, but there are some standard recommendations we can
make that will hold true for the entire project that we'll point out here.
Read the Entire Topic First
Yes, we know how difficult it is to slow down and read all the instructions first. We, too, always want to
jump into the deep end of the pool without knowing the exact depth. But projects like this have the
tendency to throw a curve ball at you here and there. (You can always just read the assembly chapters
and then build the 3D printer frame, followed by the electronics chapters, and so on. But a thorough
read of the entire topic will help you understand the scope of the whole project.) We've tried to make the
steps in this topic as easy to follow and as non-technical as possible, but we cannot emphasize enough
the benefits of reading through the entire topic before starting on this project.
If you can take the time to read every chapter first, you'll gain a better understanding of how the
machine works. You'll know which parts require more exacting cuts and which ones have some wiggle
room. You'll know how the parts fit together. You'll read about options regarding the building of the
machine and have time to think about those options, ask some questions, and maybe check some prices
before committing.
But you'll also find one more benefit from reading the entire topic before starting—you'll be less
anxious about the work to come because you'll have read our experiences and looked at our results.
Nothing beats having a detailed map from Point A to Point Z. (Well, that's not entirely true—many folks
like the unknowns of a trip, but since you're going to be spending money, and plywood isn't very
forgiving when cut or drilled improperly, you might prefer to know what's coming, right?)