3D Printing Lab at Xerocraft

General Information

Xerocraft is equipped with several 3D printers of various sizes. These printers are best suited to small to medium sized objects and educational projects. We also have several Monoprice Select Mini 3D printers for loan out to qualified teachers. Contact the shop manager (below) for more information.

Our Printers and Equipment

Our printers run individually and autonomously via the SD cards or USB thumbdrives available at each machine. Please leave the associated SD card in it's printer since some printers require specific cards.

Available 3D Printers at Xerocaft:

Artillery Sidewinder X1: Maximum print volume 300mm X 300 mm X 400mm

BambuLabs A1 mini: Maximum print volume 180mm X 180mm X 180mm

Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro: Maximum print volume 235mm X 235mm X 250mm

Elegoo Neptune 4 Plus: Maximum print volume 320mm X 320mm X385mm

Print Settings

Print settings for common materials for use on our printers at Xerocraft is on the label of each spool of filament. Recommended print settings are posted on the printer.

Infill, adhesion and support variations are left up to the user. If in doubt, reach out to a staffer or the 3D Print Lab Manager via the contact box at the bottom of this page.

Important Shop Rules & Etiquette for 3D Printing

It's a good idea to put a note with your name and contact info on the printer running you job.

PLEASE pay for your filament. It's only $0.05 per gram for members and $0.10/gram for guests. Put your payment in the box on the wall above the PCs.

Please collect your prints when they are completed. If you are not available and a printer is needed, a staff member, shop manager or another member may remove your completed print to make the printer available. Xerocraft is not responsible for prints damaged during removal. Xerocraft will not restart failed prints for you. We recommend troubleshooting why it failed and changing settings before starting again.

A selection of PLA filament is available for personal projects as part of your membership. We ask that you bring and use your own PLA filament for larger projects and production runs. Label your filament spool so we know to remove it before another member uses the printer.

The PLA filament we support is MatterHackers MH Build Series PLA, BambuLabs PLA, and Polymaker PLA.

Please do not use experimental or exotic filaments in our printers. They are specifically configured to run PLA.

Note that “Not Safe For Work” projects are not okay. Please don’t make us get more specific. Using 3D printers or other equipment to make functional firearms or firearm parts is not permitted. Please do not invite controversy or legal issues into our community.

Recommended Software

Slicer and Design Tools

3D Slicer Utilities

A slicer is a program that converts digital 3D models into printing instructions for a specific 3D printer to build an object. In addition to the model itself, the instructions contain user-entered 3D printing parameters, such as layer height, speed, and support structure settings.

For all of our printers we recommend ORCA Slicer for slicing. Other slicers may work, but we may not be able to help as much with them.

3D Design Tools

Lots of different tools can be used to create 3D models. Listed below are the ones we like best.

For new users, Thingiverse , Printables and Makerworld are a great resource for ideas and ready-to-print objects. It has over 2 million user-created models online for free.

For parametric modeling, we recommend Fusion 360 or Freecad. There is a free version for personal and educational use.

For organic and generative modeling, Blender is free and open source.

If you feel overwhelmed with all of the above a good starting place for learning 3D modeling is Tinkercad from Autodesk. Designed for kids, it is even easy for adults. A not-so-complex object can be designed or modified in just a few minutes.

Pro Tip: You can also use Tinkercad to fix wonky Thingiverse objects by importing and then immediately exporting the file. Tinkercad utilizes a mesh fixer on every export.

3D Printing Lab

3D Printing & 3D Design