 I'm taking over Jim's channel! Don't worry, we're still going to talk about 3D printing. I'm going to go over some of the best practices, tips, and tricks that I've learned along the way for printing tiny on the Bamboo Lab printers. Let's do this! Hey, edge of techers and mini friends! This is Lindsay, Jim's wife from Fluffy Unicorn Minis, and I thought since the Bamboo Lab printers are really blowing up right now in the miniature community, I put together a few videos to show you some of the tips and tricks that I've learned while using Jim's printers for the last 8 months. This video is going to be more aimed at beginners, so I apologize to those of you that already have some experience. I'm going to try and make this information beginner-friendly, but also helpful to new Bamboo Lab owners who have used other printers in the past. Because Jim already had some of these printers, it was very easy for me to borrow one to start trying to make miniatures. Now I know until these printers came on the market, your best bet for printing tiny was with resin printers, but the detail and speed that can be achieved with FDM thanks to Bamboo is simply incredible. I know I am constantly amazed at some of the super tiny things that I've been able to make. If you want to give it a try, I want to show you how intuitive and beginner-friendly these machines are. And if you've already taken the plunge and purchased one, I want to help you get the best results out of your new printer. When I started printing dollhouse miniatures in July of 2023, I had zero experience. Just a little bit of background knowledge that comes with being married to a 3D printing guy. I was lucky that I didn't have to put it together, because Jim had already done that for me, but I promise it isn't that scary. And he also has a great video here on this channel that will walk you through the steps of putting your new printer together. So what do you need to start 3D printing? Besides the printer, all you need is filament and a 3D model file. If you aren't ready to start creating your own models just yet, there are some great miniature files available for purchase on Etsy. My favorite shops are my mini front porch, the square to spare, little house of lights, and dove and pear minis. You can also find free files for personal use on things and Thingiverse. Bamboo Lab even has its own file sharing community called Maker World. I'll be sure to add the links for these places in the description below for you. Just keep in mind, depending on where you get your files, they may need to be resized to the dollhouse miniature scale that you're working with. Okay, so you have your filament loaded and your 3D model. Next, you need to bring that file into Bamboo Slicer Program and prepare it for printing. The slicer will analyze your model layer by layer and figure out the best way to make it. So in the slicer, the main thing to focus on are the size and details of your model. Are you printing something that's going to be larger than an inch or two? And if you are, you will be just fine using the standard nozzle size of 0.4 millimeters. If it is something that is smaller than one inch, then I do recommend getting the smaller nozzle size, which is 0.2 millimeters. That is going to be a separate purchase from Bamboo Lab. And make sure you are looking for the complete, hot and assembly for your printer. Then, now when you're ready to switch out your nozzle, Jim has a really great video that will help make that super, super easy. This is a separate purchase from Bamboo Lab, but it is definitely worth it for printing tiny, detailed pieces that you want to make. Just be sure to purchase the complete, hot and assembly for your printer to make switching back and forth between nozzle sizes much easier. Then check out the video that Jim made when you're ready to switch them out. All right, now that you've selected your nozzle size here in the drop-down menu, next let's look at our layer height options. Those are going to be right here. That's what they're going to show up, but this is your drop-down menu right here. So for most of my larger prints with the 0.4 nozzle, I have found that a layer height here of the 0.2 millimeters is just fine. And for prints with the 0.2 nozzle, I can usually do a 0.10 layer height. It does generally default to that as well. And you can change it here under the system presets. If it is extra teeny tiny like this or this, then I will do a 0.08 or even a 0.06 layer height. But most tiny things will do just fine with the 0.1. So if that went over your head a little, just think of half. Whatever your nozzle size is, do half of that as a standard practice. Then if you print your piece and it still needs to be adjusted a little, you can adjust down from there. You can also check what your piece will look like in the slicer, which will do soon. And then that way you can see what it'll look like when it prints. Check for any areas that look like there's gaps or holes that shouldn't be there. And in that case, you may need a smaller layer height for it to print correctly. Don't worry, as you get used to printing and your printer, it will all become a bit more intuitive for you. So no worries if this all seems a little bit confusing right now. The next thing to look at in the slicer is if your model will need support anywhere, or if you need to adjust the orientation of the model to minimize the need for support. Take my many oven, for example. If I were to print the oven this way, I would need to add supports in here in this large space. And that can be wasteful and also add on extra print time. Remember, the printer prints parts layer by layer horizontally, and it can't print very well in thin air. So any areas that have an overhang unless it's a very gradual slope will need support to help it print well. Now let's take a look at this oven if we use this tool to help rotate it on its back. Now the only areas that I need support are going to be here in this area and then also on the back where I add my battery light. The slicer program also allows you to do one of my favorite tricks called ironing, especially with a matte finish filament, is going to give you such an amazing smooth finish on any flat surfaces that you select. It's going to hide those telltale 3D printer layer lines and just look amazing. You're going to love it. So make sure that you're subscribed to this channel if you want to check that out and then keep an eye out for my next video. Getting back to supports, here is where you find your support options. Go to the support tab here and then right up at the top, make sure that you have enable support checked. If you select normal auto or tree auto, the program will analyze your model and find the places it thinks needs support. Sometimes it's a little overkill with them and sometimes it's fine. This will also be something that becomes more intuitive for you as you keep printing. There is also a manual option which can help you eliminate any extra support that you don't really need, which will save you time in filaments. So to use the manual option, make sure your model is selected by clicking on it and then click on this icon in the upper right of the program. I usually use this paint tool which allows you to just click on the areas that you want to support. So I'll be clicking right here and then I would be clicking right here. You can also adjust the sensitivity with the slider over here to select a larger or smaller area on your model. So slide it down to get even smaller sections and that's going to be more obvious with a model that's got some shape to it and not just straight lines. And if the area you need to support is hidden and you can't rotate it enough to see it, the slider here can help you change the direction of the section that you're viewing. So you just slide it here and it will cut away pieces of your model so you can see inside the hidden areas. You can also click here to reset the direction that it's coming from. One more thing to consider before you're ready to print is your scene placement. And that can be changed here in the quality tab. 90% of the time I choose a line which is the default and that's going to try and hide and blend the scene into your model. And it may change its placement throughout the piece to achieve that. It works really well with pieces with corners and angles like my oven. Sometimes it doesn't work out though. For example, these are some table lamp bases that I make and for whatever reason it changes the scene placement in these two sections. This top and bottom section actually makes it more visible because now it's in these two places instead of just going straight down. So for this piece, I do change the scene right here to back and then it all prints in the same section. The last thing that you're going to want to check before you print is whether or not your model needs a brim. A brim can help prevent larger pieces like this oven from lifting off the build plate and warping. It can also help your super tiny prints stay on the plate much better. If you'd like to add a brim, go to the others tab right here. And then there is a box here to just keep it at auto or you can manually add one by choosing from these options. I've personally noticed that auto doesn't always add one to my super tiny prints so then I will select inner brim only to add one. Okay, those are really the basic things to check for in the slicer. Now we're ready to slice your model. To do that, click this button up here to slice and you'll get a full analysis pop up when it's ready. All right, here your analysis will tell you how long it will take your print. Total time here one hour 25 minutes and how much filament you will need and that is right here 61.01 grams. You can now also visually see the layer lines and how your supports will look and you can see where your seams will be with the setting you chose. So those are going to be these white lines. Here are my seams on the knobs. Here are the seams in the corners they're hiding. Here those are those white lines are going to be the seams so it's all color coded. And if you want to dive even deeper this slider to the right will show you section by section how your piece will print. So if I slide this down you can see there's different colors happening and different shapes happening. It's color coded to match the different line types here in your analysis. Something that you may not be aware of is that most pieces even the super tiny ones do not print completely solid. They don't need to. These red lines here are called infill and they keep your piece strong while also saving time in filament. Pretty cool. If everything looks good next you just click here on print plate and then you're going to click here to select the filament slot that you want to use if you have multiple colors loaded in the AMS. It's not showing up here because I don't actually have any printers connected but that's where you would change your filament color and select your printer and then you're going to hit send. It's that easy. Your printer will then make some noise as it does its auto bed leveling and calibrations. It's going to calibrate the print flow and then it's going to print your first layer. When your print is done the bed will lower and you can remove the magnetic build plate and gently flex it to get your print off. There is also this handy scraper tool that you can print on your printer that helps get any remaining filament off especially that smooth cool plate. I hope these tips help get you ready to print or help you decide if a bamboo lab will be part of your miniatures journey. If you do decide to get one please see the link below for our affiliate link. And if you'd like to see more of my minis, look for me on Instagram, I am Fluffy Unicorn Minis or on my Etsy shop Fluffy Unicorn Designs. Make sure you subscribe to this channel for future takeover videos I'll be sharing about this awesome printer. And if you own a bamboo lab printer don't forget it needs maintenance to keep things running smoothly. To check out how easy that is watch this next video.