3D Printing Introduction

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is the process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The MILL has two Lulzbot printers, the Taz and Mini. They are Open Source Hardware, thus all the specs and plans are freely available to the public. This means we can fix it ourselves and even 3d print new parts! We print using the open source software Cura.

3D Modeling

3D printers use 3D model files. The same types of files can be used in engineering, product design, video games, movies, or virtual reality. It is easy to find ready to print models on free sites such as Thingiverse or Sketchfab, but you can also create your own!

Modeling software:

• Tinkercad (easy to use online 3d modeling app)
• SketchUp (3d modeling software, free for education)

UIdaho models:

• Vandal Helmet
• 4-H coin