There are all kinds of scanners that vary in size, brand, and price, and as 3D printing becomes more mainstream, they’re getting cheaper. Matter and Form is a company that makes a scanner, and they crowdfunded it a while ago. It’s a portable, affordable 3D printer scanner. The company had a big booth in the 3D printing pavilion at CES. It goes for about $600.
A spool of filament can last you a while, but just like any artist or creator, you want to have extra on hand, especially now that ABS and PLA filament comes in awesome colors and combo materials. Shown here is the Martha Stewart collection that MakerBot offers.
To smooth out the edges of the objects you make with your desktop 3D printer, you’ll need a scraper. Preferably, it would be metal, like this one on Amazon from Strong Finish with five different carving knives, but there are even some models you can download from Thingiverse to 3D print your own razor — how meta.
The extruder nozzle can easily get all jammed up with melted plastic, but it’s very delicate. You want to make sure you have the right tool to clean it. For $25, you can buy something like this cleaning kit from Amazon, which offers a few different sizes.
Some people like to swap out their default print beds for glass plated ones, because it won’t warp the printed parts as easily and works better with the heat. This one, made for the Robo3D printer, goes for $89.
Since most desktop 3D printers are small, they can usually only print one piece at a time. For bigger objects, you’ll probably need some strong glue to hold it together. This glue, Plastruct Plastic Weld, has been talked about on some forums as one that holds PLA plastic together pretty well. A two-ounce bottle is about $5.
So you need glue, a scraper, and want to make your build plate more sticky. There’s an all-in-one tool for that: the Makeraser, a successfully funded Kickstarter project that is currently in production. It’s supposed to cost about $30, and you can sign up here to find out when it will be available.
As 3D printing technology advances, the extruders for printers get better. The extruders also get worn out pretty easily if you print a lot. MakerBot has Smart Extruders for different models, and they are swappable so that when new ones are released, you can update your printer for more accurate print jobs.
3D printing with plastic filament can be a messy business. Use this waste bin with your Cube printer to collect the extra filament so it doesn’t go everywhere. Sounds simple, but it can save you a lot of time. MakerBot also makes its own waste bin that connects to its printers.
With ABS filament, it’s sometimes difficult to get the model to stick to the print bed. Several 3D printer brands offer their own adhesive to use to make sure your model sticks to the print bed while it is printing. One of them is this Airwolf 3D Wolfbite, which costs around $20.
Lyndsey Gilpin is a former Staff Writer for TechRepublic, covering sustainability and entrepreneurship. She's co-author of the book Follow the Geeks.
