How Form 2350 Jargon 2023-2024

To the terms abs, juice, hot end, and feet eager, confused? You will be confused no longer as we break down common 3D printing terms in this 3D printing 101. As a newbie coming to 3D printing, you may be somewhat confused by all the terms that you have to learn, many of which have been coined by the 3D printing community and you won't actually hear anywhere else. But what do they all mean? Hot end - This is the "business end" of your FDM 3D printer, where the molten plastic is extruded out and laid down onto your print bed. A hot end has a heater block, usually an aluminum block with a high current resistor and a sensor to regulate the temperature, and a nozzle which has a tiny hole in the end for plastic to come out in a controlled manner. This plastic may be fed via a direct extruder, which simply means the motor pushing it is on the head itself, or via a Bowden extruder, meaning the extruder motor is mounted on the printer's chassis instead and forces the filament through a long tube towards the hot end. It's important to note that in a Bowden design, the plastic still only melts in the hot end just the same as direct-driven. So how does this plastic get forced through your hot end? With your extruder gear, also known as a feeder or filament drive gear. This is what bites onto the filament and forces it forward as it rotates. Unless your 3D printer is fairly unusual, it probably uses what's called stepper motors to drive the axes and extruder. These motors are called stepper motors as they can be precisely controlled in what's known as steps, making them perfect for accurate control movements on...