What is 3D printing?
3D Printing is the process of building a physical object from a digital design using additive manufacturing, building an object layer by layer. Industrial 3D printers can make objects using a wide range of materials, from plastic to concrete. Desktop 3D printers have become more and more popular over the last decade as many new companies have started to produce inexpensive, small 3D printers. For the last five years, the White Plains Public Library has used such machines for programs and has offered a free 3D printing service. The Library has two types of desktop 3D printers; Extrusion and Stereolithography.
Interested in Creating 3D Designs to be Printed?
The Library offers 3D design classes to learn how to use TinkerCad, a free, web-based, 3D design software offered by Autodesk. Check our online calendar each month for up-to-date program listings.
You can also take video courses for learning TinkerCad on Lynda.com, a resource offered by the Library. Click here to login and create a free account to Lynda.com using your Library Card and PIN. Already using Lynda.com? Click here to access their TinkerCad Lessons.
Interested in Printing Your Own Design Using One of the Library’s Printers?
Check out the video below and then use our submission form.
Our Printer Video Guides
3D Printer: Bibo 2
The Bibo 2 is a dual extruder 3D printer. Dual extruder printers can print objects using 2 different colored filaments. It uses ABS and PLA filament like the Flashforge Guider II, but it can produce more colorful objects in a single print. What makes the Bibo 2 unique compared to other dual extruder printers is that the extruders can also move independently, which gives the printer the ability to print matching objects at the same time, cutting production time in half.
3D Printer: Flashforge Guider II
The Flashforge Guider II is an Extrusion 3D printer. It has an extruder that melts a plastic filament and pushes it out through a small nozzle. The extruder is moved around on the X and Y axis to print out the design. The filament is extruded onto a build plate, that slowly moves down after each layer of filament is extruded, to create a 3D object. The print volume (size of the object it can make) is 280x250x300 mm. This printer can use a variety of filament types (the type of plastic), at the Library we primarily use ABS and PLA filament.
3D Printer: Original Prusa SL1
Prusa has been making top quality Extrusion printers for several years. They have recently created their first Stereolithography 3D printer, the SL1. This printer uses a liquid resin instead of plastic filament. Each layer of the object is built using a combination of UV light and a masked LCD display to activate and harden the resin into shape. This is a faster process than an Extrusion printer and gives much higher detail. Desktop Stereolithography 3D printers are still fairly new since the technology is much more advanced than Extrusion printers. Applications that this is used for is in dentistry and jewelry molding. You can also create beautiful, highly detailed 3D objects with this machine.
