My first Marvins with a BeeTheFirst printer

[Arnoldas]

So I have recently joined the 3D Hubs team as a Community Intern and immediately dived into the oceans of filament and started printing my first projects. Now my prior knowledge of 3D printing was purely theoretical and I was so happy to get my hands on these printers. Since what is in the books (and the videos) also stays there I had some trouble with the practical matters (like setting up the printer, putting the filament in and so on). However, there was one printer that was waiting for me. Our eyes met unexpectedly. I was just a shy little intern who wanted to print something nice and she(the printer) was this wonderful machine that was able fulfill my wildest fantasies. We were a perfect match, we clicked like we were meant to be together. Her name was “Bee the first” and after our heart-warming first dates she gave birth to many of our little Marvins.

So this is my family now. I hope it will grow over the years to come.

Let me just give you the overview of what I went through to get these babies.

So “Bee the first” has a nice overview on how should the printer be set up with all the instructions clearly provided on the computer screen. I managed to configure it in a very short time and started printing my Marvins. I used PLA filament . At first,I just wanted to check what kinds of settings can I choose from and apparently there were only a few important options that you could play around with : Density and Resolution.

What I wanted to achieve was to try all the options out and see which Marvin is going to be my favorite.

Naturally, I started with MAX on everything. So “high +” resolution and 42 on density. I must admit, I have failed to understand that density will not change the appearance of the Marvin so I tried one with low density as well. Here’s how they look:

So these were my first Marvins! I was pretty happy. They are obviously looking the same even though of a different density.The edges seemed alright, but from their faces they seemed to have had a pretty rough night. So I did not stop. I have tried the other extreme.

Everything on low:

So now instead of a sleepy Marvin, I have created a mummy Marvin. Mummies don’t fit in my family, it’s just the way it is.

The Perfect Marvin

This is it! This was the best one of them for sure. You know how close-up pictures makes you insecure about those little details in yourself. This Marvin is also a little shy about his “Lines” , but in real life he’s a pretty handsome fella. Also, in this resolution there seems to be something hanging between his legs, which can be considered both a flaw or an increased chance of reproducing.

Summary

• Printer: BeeTheFirst
• Filament: PLA true purple
• Resoliution: Medium
• Density value: 15%
• Print time: around 1 hour
• Download Marvin here

So here’s my first print story! I am very excited to print more. I am happy to have brought this Marvin to life and this one is going to be the leader of my uprising armies of future Marvins! Now, it’s time to get to know some other printers! (I will never forget you - my first love “Bee the first”)

However, I still don’t understand the whole world of filaments, but do you think that there would be a big difference depending on which plastic-based filament I use when printing with this printer?

[wizechatmgr]

What resolution were these printed at? They look nice

[Arnoldas]

I’ve been playing around with the 3 out of 4 possible resolutions with this printer. First picture was on “high” the second Marvin was printed on “Low” resolution and the last (and the best) was in “medium”.

[wizechatmgr]

Seems those are 50,100,200,300 micron choices on that printer. Nice output

[dmarques]

Hi Arnoldas,

Thank you for sharing with us your experience with BEETHEFIRST. This is probably the most plug & print 3D printer available. Within a few minutes after unboxing, any user is able to start printing.

Concerning the filament option, we give freedom of choice to our customers. Despite that, we still recommend the use of our BEESUPPLIES, because each colour has an associated profile in BEESOFT that was specifically developed for the features of BEETHEFIRST.

We can’t wait to see more printing experiences from you.

Diogo Marques
BEEVERYCREATIVE team

[ThunderCreek]

You will find interesting differences using different filaments - some of which you didn’t expect. For example, I have a nice ABS filament that has a glossy finish on the spool. After printing, it has a very matte finish, which I quite prefer for some jobs. Taulman Nylon had a very shimmery look to it, and semi-transparent (no surprise) but had almost an air-bubbly type feel to it (e.g. not super smooth and consistent). PLA responds to temperature changes - higher temps tend to have a shiny finish, lower temps have a matte finish. But, above all, my experience is that cooling has the biggest impact on part quality. For PLA, ideally, you lay down the plastic, and cool it immediately. Having warm/hot, soft, squishable PLA doesn’t work well for accurate printing. ABS tends to shrink when cooled, so it prefers to remain warm for a long(er) time. All of these variables are important to understand - by knowing how your filament behaves, you can optimize for successful prints and minimal failed prints. Congrats! and have fun!

[Arnoldas]

Nice summary! I am starting to understand more and more of these variables. It takes some time, but I think I am getting there both from experience and getting myself informed! Thanks