 So you're thinking about getting a 3D printer or you just got one. Well, what are the must have tools or essential tools that you need to get started in 3D printing? Today we're going to find out. My name is Jim and this is The Edge of Tech. So I get a lot of questions from people that are interested in 3D printing or they want to get their very first 3D printer and they have no idea what else they're going to need. So when I got my very first 3D printer, which is a Creality Ender 3, I had no idea what else I was going to need with it. I didn't know about tools. I didn't know what it came with. All I know is that my friend Steve had one and I really wanted one too. Luckily I had him to lean back on if I had any questions and he could kind of help me through this in the very beginning. But I'm here today to show you it's not that bad. You don't really need a ton of stuff and some of the stuff actually comes with most of the printers. Also I'm going to show you a few things at the end that'll make your life a little bit easier as you go forward in your 3D printing journey. So let's get into it. These are my favorite 3D printing essentials for beginners. So I'm going to start with things that usually come with the printers. Now the first thing and the most recommended thing on my list would be a pair of side cutters. Now these are Crealities side cutters. They come with every Creality machine, virtually every Creality machine. These things are awesome. They're going to be used for cutting your filament. They're going to be used for helping take supports off, cutting zip ties, pretty much anything you can think of. You can use these for when it comes to helping you cut something or maybe helping with supports, that kind of thing. These things are awesome. It's a side cutters and you definitely need one of those. The next thing are your wrenches. Now these wrenches come with the Creality machines. They'll include everything you need to adjust everything from your eccentric nuts all the way down to the nozzle. Now this is a little nozzle wrench here. The next thing they include is usually a little flathead screwdriver like this. I suggest a little upgrade to this and I'll point that out a little bit later but this is what comes with a lot of kits is a little screwdriver like this. The next thing would be your Allen wrenches in all different sizes that you'll need for the printer. Most printers come with Allen wrenches that are needed and that is something like this right here. This actually is a bonus. This is a nozzle wrench. Now most of them don't come with this but I had one that came with a printer so I thought I would show it. This just allows you to get up there and get your nozzles out. It's actually a pretty cool little tool. It doesn't come with every printer but I did get one of those once and I like that a lot. One of the most asked questions that I get is what is this thing? It comes with the printer. Now this is a needle. It's actually an acupuncture needle and it's kind of hard to see. Let's see if I can show it like that. That's an acupuncture needle. It has a little spring on this side. It's a needle here and what that's used for is getting clogs out of your nozzle. So that is the perfect size to go into your nozzle. You want to keep the end of it in here. It will poke you. But this is the perfect size for getting clogs out of your nozzle heated up. Push this up in there a couple times and a lot of times it'll free out what's in the nozzle causing that clog. So very useful tool and it comes with a lot of them. Now that we've seen some things that come with most of the printers. Let's jump into some other things that I suggest you have. Now I almost forgot the spatula. Now this comes with virtually every printer that I have. There's only one that I've seen that didn't come with this. This is a spatula. You're definitely going to need this to help get stuff off the bed. Just be very careful. You don't want to cut yourself. It is kind of sharp. But the thing is I forgot to mention this in the previous video but the spatula very important. Wow. But the spatula very important and it most of the time will come with your printer. The next thing I recommend is something to clean your bed with. I like to use a 99% isopropyl alcohol. This stuff is great. You can find it on Amazon. There'll be a link in the description for most of the stuff I show today but I really like this. I like the spray bottle part that you can get for them and you just spray it on your bed once it's heated up. Wipe it down with a paper towel. That's something else you can use as a paper towel or a microfiber and clean your bed off with this. Now if you have a removable bed you can use soap and water in a sink. You can use Windex. There's a lot of different things you could use but I really prefer the 99% isopropyl alcohol. Next on my list is a needle nose pliers. It can be a little one like this. It can be a larger one with a longer nose. Whatever you want but I really like the needle nose pliers. If you have one laying around awesome it's not something you might need right away but you probably will find this useful going forward. A good set of needle nose pliers. So we talked about Allen wrenches earlier. This is an upgrade you could get. I really like the T handle Allen wrenches. I'll put this link in the description below like I said but I really really like T handles. You don't have to have this right away but this will be a great upgrade in the future when you need to get into places. It's a lot easier than trying to use a little Allen wrench that comes with a kit. A lot of times I put this on there and I spin it with my fingers like this and make things much faster to take in and out. But I really like this set. There's many different sets out there but it's something to consider as you go forward in your 3D printing journey. Something else to consider as you go forward is maybe a bit driver set like this. This has all the different bits from Allen to Star to Flathead to Phillips. Everything you're going to need and these kits are very cheap. This is actually not my favorite set because this piece keeps popping off and it bothers me. But a set like this will definitely help you in the future. It can definitely make it easier with the screwdriver style instead of the little tiny screwdriver that comes with the kit. But it's really cool to have all these different bits and you never know when you're going to need them. Now something else you might want to have is a multi-head screwdriver like this one. This is really cool because you can pop it open. You have Phillips and Phillips and this is a bigger size and that's a smaller size. And then each one can flip and turn into a Flathead as well on each side. So you really have great versatility in one tool. I like that it's the bigger size if you really need to get into those bigger bolts and screws. And this thing will actually save you some space too because it has the four different size bits in there. A bonus feature if you take the bit out and you look each side also has a socket on it. So you can actually use this as a driver as well. You don't have to have your bit end in there. You can actually put this right over the top of a nut and use this as long as that nut is the same size. The next one is just a Sharpie. This comes in handy when you want to write settings on spools of filament. When you need to mark filament for maybe getting e-steps later on. Overall the Sharpie comes in handy quite often and it's a pretty good bet that most people have one of these just laying around already anyway. Next is just a glue stick. It could be Elmer's. It could be pretty much anything. This one just happened to come with that Creality CR200B that you saw in the other shot of the video there. They set this glue stick along for the bed. Now I don't particularly use glue sticks a lot but a lot of people do and they find glue stick very useful. So something you might need in the future you can always grab this from Walmart or pretty much anywhere. The dollar store is a great place to find glue sticks but something you guys might need in the future is just a basic glue stick. Now this is kind of a bonus tool here. This is a nozzle cleaner and as you can see I use it quite a bit. This actually comes from the guys over at Maker's Mashup. Maker's Mashup.com I'll put the link in the description below. You can print this and then you put the little pad in here otherwise I believe they sell them for pretty cheap as well. But this side right here slides right through the nozzle as you can kind of see there and in the back side you can do the same thing you can kind of scrub your nozzle. So this is a nozzle cleaner. It helps keep all the gunk off your nozzle and off that sock. You can use multiple different things for this. I like this version because it's non-metal. There's nothing conductive about this and so you don't have to worry about hitting wires and anything like that. Also it's just very easy to slip under there and kind of give it a couple wipes and then keep moving. So check out Maker's Mashup if you want to find that tool. I believe they have this where you can print it as well. If not you can definitely buy it from those guys over there. And as you can see I use this a ton. Another thing you might want to get is a caliper like this one. Now this one is a now this one is kind of an inexpensive caliper but it works. It does millimeters inches etc. You can turn it on and off. You can zero it. It has everything that I need to dial in and calibrate a 3D printer. You'll use this on calibration cubes. You'll use this to calibrate E-steps and a bunch of different things and these are actually not that expensive and they work very well. If you don't get this right away that's not a big deal. This is something you can get. This is a bonus we'll call it. This is something you might want to get in the future but you don't need it right away when you get your first 3D printer. Now something that's super important to 3D printing is filament. This is PLA from Fullamint and I really like Fullamint matte colors. If you want to check those out there's a link in the description. But something that you'll need when you first start 3D printing is to order some good filament to get yourself started. Now there are a ton of different brands. There's a ton of different colors and all different ones out there. My suggestion is to start with PLA. That is the simplest filament to start with and then work your way up from there but grab yourself a couple rolls of filament. Make sure that when you first start maybe you just use the sample roll that comes with your printer or just grab a really cheap roll and then burn through that to learn and then jump into something like maybe this matte blue from Fullamint which you'll absolutely love when you start printing but don't forget your filament that's very important to 3D printing. The last thing that I can say that you will absolutely need with 3D printing is nothing right here because you can't see it. I can't give it to you. You can't buy it. It is patience. It takes a lot of patience to get these machines working and to get them working well. Once you do the reward is totally worth it when you get your very first awesome 3D print but I tell you what it's going to take a little bit of time and a lot of patience to get there so if you look at this empty table right here fill it up with your patience and get ready for a wild ride because that's what 3D printing is. 3D printing is truly an amazing hobby but it does take a lot of time. It takes a lot of effort and patience to get where you're perfectly comfortable with using your printer every day. So we just went through some of the tools that I think are essential for when you get your very first 3D printer or when you're beginning in 3D printing. We talked about some things that come with the printers. We talked about some maybe upgrade parts things that I really like here. We talked about cleaning supplies and measuring supplies and I tell you what this should really give you a great foot to stand on when you start your 3D printing journey. If you're watching this and you think I missed something drop it in the comments below. Let's get a great dialogue going for anyone watching in the future about what you think would be awesome for starters in 3D printing. Just let me know in the comments. Well I hope you guys learned something and as always keep printing. Hey everybody I hope you guys liked the video. If you did give me that thumbs up. Hit that subscribe button right here if you haven't already and the little bell if you want to get notified anytime we put a new great video out or when we go live on Monday night for hot makes. You guys rock.