Print Cooling: When and How Much Fan to Use
Part cooling fans are among the most influential yet most misunderstood components on an FDM 3D printer. The difference between a perfectly crisp overhang and…
How PLA, PETG, silk filament and resin actually behave in a working print farm: durability, colour, finish, and the trade-offs behind each choice.
Most material advice online is written from a single desktop machine. These articles are written from a production floor in Laval, Quebec, where the same design gets printed in many materials, in many colours, across many machines, and the differences show up as returns and reprints rather than as opinions.
The practical buyer’s questions get their own guides: whether a figurine will survive a sunny windowsill, how a display piece ages, what silk and multi-colour filaments really change about the look of a finished model, and when resin is worth it over FDM for fine detail.
For people running their own printers, the same section carries the process side — bed adhesion, calibration, extruder choice, speed versus quality, and how a cold Canadian workshop changes all of it.
We describe what we can demonstrate from our own production. Where a claim depends on how a piece is displayed and handled, the guides say so instead of rounding it up.
Start with PLA vs PETG, then the best filament for 3D printed figurines and durability and care. For the machines behind it, read Behind the Print Farm.
63 articles
Part cooling fans are among the most influential yet most misunderstood components on an FDM 3D printer. The difference between a perfectly crisp overhang and…
Layer adhesion is the bond strength between consecutive layers in an FDM 3D print. When this bond is strong, the finished object behaves as a…
Every 3D printer operator encounters failed prints. The difference between frustration and fast recovery is knowing how to diagnose problems quickly and apply targeted fixes.…
PETG is one of the most versatile and practical 3D printing materials available, offering a compelling balance of durability, ease of printing, and chemical resistance.…
Stringing is the most visible and most frustrating cosmetic defect in FDM 3D printing. Those thin whiskers of plastic stretching between features turn an otherwise…
The build surface is one of the most critical yet underappreciated components of any 3D printing setup. It affects first-layer adhesion, bottom surface finish, ease…
The first layer of a 3D print is the foundation upon which everything else is built. If it fails, the entire print fails. Poor bed…
The appeal of 3D printed collectibles does not stop at the front door. Garden gnomes standing guard over flower beds, decorative ducks perched beside a…
Speed is the most tempting setting to increase on any 3D printer. Faster printing means more output per hour, shorter wait times, and higher production…
The nozzle is where every 3D print begins. This small, often overlooked component determines the minimum feature size, wall thickness, surface resolution, print speed, and…