What is 3D printing?

After I told you that I make my pieces with 3D printing, some of you have asked me: how does that work? what does it consist of? Well, today I'm going to tell you, in a very summarized way, what this is all about.

3D printing is a manufacturing process that involves layering molten material on top of each other. In other words, the machine creates very thin layers of material, one on top of the other, gradually building the object vertically.

There are several types of 3D printing; the one I currently use is called FFF, Fused Filament Fabrication (they didn't exactly rack their brains with the names), and as its name indicates, it works by melting filament that comes in spools weighing up to one kilogram, at least the ones I use!

The filament is melted through a metal nozzle, like a very small pastry bag, creating layers one on top of the other, which are then visible in the printed piece. The thinner the layer, the less visible the printing lines are in the pieces.

Depending on the printing method, different levels of detail can be achieved. There's a type of printing with liquid resin that has impressive precision, but I think that today the system that can give us the highest quality, so that the printing layers are almost invisible, is powder sintering. Quite a mouthful.

Imagine a vat full of talc (they don't actually use talc, just so you know!) and a laser that works layer by layer, solidifying the powder until you get a solid piece. It's amazing!

You can achieve a wide variety of finishes and colors, depending on the material you use for printing, and depending on the design we make and the position in which we print the pieces, we will have to do some processing afterwards (see sanding, polishing, varnishing... etc. hehe).

And that's where the whole manual process comes in, which has to be done with the pieces of the Carpenter, removing supports, sanding and polishing with different tools so that the finish is as perfect as possible and that they are very smooth to the touch.

I'll tell you more about my work processes another day 😉

A little hug!!

Adriana