10 Useful Things to 3D Print for Your Home
One of the first questions new 3D printer owners ask is: "OK, I have a printer - now what do I actually make?" Decorative prints are fun, but the real magic h...
Read more →All Guides
Every article on Print3DBuddy - practical help for 3D printing on a budget.
Ideas & Inspiration
3D Printing for Cosplay: A Practical Guide
3D printing has changed cosplay significantly. Props that would previously take weeks of hand-sculpting and foam cutting can now be designed digitally and print...
Read more →15 Useful Things to 3D Print for Your Workshop or Garage
A 3D printer earns its keep fast in a workshop or garage. Most of what you need is free to download, prints in PLA or PETG, and solves problems that shop-bought...
Read more →Settings Guide
3D Print Orientation Guide: How to Get Stronger Parts
How you orient a model on the print bed has a bigger effect on part strength than almost any other setting - including infill percentage. A part printed in the ...
Read more →3D Printing Infill: Patterns, Percentages, and When to Use Each
Infill is the internal structure of a 3D print - the lattice of plastic inside solid-looking parts. Choosing the right infill pattern and percentage has a bigge...
Read more →3D Printing Ironing: How to Get Glass-Smooth Top Surfaces
If you've ever looked at a finished print and thought the top surface looks rough and lined compared to the sides - ironing fixes that. It's a post-processing...
Read more →3D Printing Speed vs Quality: How to Find the Right Balance
Modern printers advertise 500mm/s or higher. The marketing implies that faster is always better. In practice, printing at the maximum rated speed produces worse...
Read more →3D Printing Supports: When to Use Them, How to Set Them Up, How to Remove Them
Supports are one of those things that every 3D printer owner has a complicated relationship with. You need them for certain prints. They take extra time and fil...
Read more →How to Calibrate Flow Rate (Extrusion Multiplier) on Any 3D Printer
Flow rate - also called extrusion multiplier - is one of those settings most beginners never touch, and it quietly ruins their prints the whole time. If your to...
Read more →How to Calibrate Pressure Advance (and Linear Advance)
Pressure advance is one of the most effective calibrations you can run for print quality. It cleans up blobs at corners, fixes the slight over-extrusion at the ...
Read more →How to Reduce 3D Print Time Without Ruining Quality
A print that takes 8 hours doesn't have to. Most prints can be cut to 3-4 hours with the right slicer settings - without meaningfully affecting how the finished...
Read more →Input Shaper and Resonance Compensation: A Practical Guide
Ghosting and ringing - the faint echoes and ripples that appear on vertical surfaces after a sharp corner - are caused by vibration in the printer frame. Input ...
Read more →Safety Guide
3D Printer Fire Safety: Thermal Runaway, Smoke Detectors, and Safe Printing Habits
3D printers involve high temperatures, long unattended print runs, and electrical components that can fail. House fires caused by 3D printers are rare but real....
Read more →Is 3D Printing Safe Indoors? What the Research Says About Emissions
If you print indoors - in a bedroom, home office, or small workshop - the question of what your printer is putting into the air is worth taking seriously. The r...
Read more →Resin 3D Printing Safety: What You Actually Need to Know
Resin printing produces significantly more hazardous conditions than FDM printing. This is not scaremongering - it is just the nature of the materials involved....
Read more →Troubleshooting
3D Printing First Layer Problems: Every Issue and How to Fix It
The first layer is the foundation of every print. Get it right and everything else has a chance of working. Get it wrong and nothing you do later will fix it.
Read more →3D Printing Layer Adhesion Problems: Causes and Fixes
Layer adhesion problems are one of the most common issues across all printer types and skill levels. The print looks fine on the outside but snaps along a layer...
Read more →Prints Stuck to the Build Plate: Causes and Fixes
A print fusing itself to the bed is one of the more frustrating problems in 3D printing. What should take five seconds - lift the print off, done - turns into t...
Read more →How to Fix 3D Print Warping: The Complete Guide
Warping is a thermal problem. Plastic contracts as it cools. If different parts of your print cool at different rates, the uneven contraction pulls the base off...
Read more →How to Fix 3D Printer Grinding Noises
A grinding noise from a 3D printer is almost always telling you something specific. The key is working out where the noise is coming from - because the cause an...
Read more →How to Fix 3D Printer Stringing: What Actually Works
Stringing is one of those problems people overcomplicate. They spend an hour tweaking retraction when the real fix was dropping the temperature by 10 degrees. T...
Read more →How to Fix Elephant Foot in 3D Printing
Elephant foot is when the base of a print flares out wider than the rest, giving it a splayed bottom edge. For decorative prints it is mainly cosmetic. For anyt...
Read more →How to Fix Ghosting and Ringing in 3D Prints
Ghosting (also called ringing or vibration artefacts) appears as wavy or ripple-like patterns on the surface of a print, most visible near sharp corners, text, ...
Read more →How to Fix Layer Shifting in 3D Printing
Layer shifting is one of the more dramatic failures in 3D printing. The print starts fine, then somewhere mid-print the whole thing slides sideways and carries ...
Read more →How to Fix Over-Extrusion in 3D Printing
Over-extrusion is less dramatic than a spaghetti failure but it quietly ruins print quality and makes functional parts useless. Walls that bow outward, blobs on...
Read more →How to Fix Under-Extrusion in 3D Printing (Every Cause, Every Fix)
Under-extrusion looks different every time it shows up. Gaps between lines. Weak layers that snap if you look at them wrong. Prints that look almost right but f...
Read more →PETG on PEI: Common Problems and How to Fix Them
PETG and PEI sheets are a popular combination - but they come with a catch. Print too cold or too dry and nothing sticks. Print too hot or with the wrong settin...
Read more →What to Do When a 3D Print Fails Mid-Print
You come back to the printer expecting a finished part and find a tangled mess of spaghetti, a shifted print, or just a naked build plate with a pile of plastic...
Read more →Filament Guide
ABS and ASA Printing Guide: Settings, Warping, and Getting Reliable Results
ABS and ASA are the two materials most beginners are warned away from. That reputation is mostly deserved - they are genuinely harder to print than PLA or PETG....
Read more →Best Filament Brands for 3D Printing in 2025 (Honest Recommendations)
Filament quality varies more than most beginners expect. Two spools of "1.75mm PLA" from different brands can print completely differently - different tempera...
Read more →Best Filament for Outdoor Use: What Actually Survives the Elements
Not all 3D printing filaments are created equal when it comes to outdoor use. The plastic that works brilliantly for your desk organiser will crack, warp, or fa...
Read more →Wet Filament: How to Identify, Dry, and Store Filament Properly
One of the most frustrating 3D printing problems to diagnose is wet filament. The symptoms look like a dozen different things - stringing, poor surface quality,...
Read more →How to Print TPU Hinges and Living Hinges
A hinge that flexes thousands of times without breaking, prints in a single piece, and needs no hardware. That is what a living hinge offers, and TPU is the mat...
Read more →Nylon 3D Printing Guide: Settings, Tips, and Common Problems
Nylon is one of the most capable FDM filaments available - strong, flexible, abrasion-resistant, and genuinely useful for functional parts. It is also one of th...
Read more →PETG Printing Guide: Settings, Stringing, and Bed Adhesion
PETG sits in a sweet spot between PLA and ABS. It is stronger and more heat-resistant than PLA, easier to print than ABS, and has good chemical resistance. It i...
Read more →PLA vs PETG vs ABS: Which Filament Should Beginners Use?
Start with PLA. That is the short answer. It is the easiest to print, the most forgiving when settings are slightly off, and it covers most of what you will wan...
Read more →TPU Flexible Filament: A Beginner's Guide
TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) is the material that makes 3D printing genuinely useful for a whole category of things other plastics can't touch - phone cases...
Read more →Buyer's Guide
Best 3D Printer Enclosures in 2025 (Buyer's Guide)
An enclosure is one of those upgrades that sits on the "maybe someday" list for a long time - until you try to print ABS and it warps off the bed for the four...
Read more →Best 3D Printing Accessories Under £30 (That Actually Make a Difference)
Not every useful upgrade costs serious money. Some of the best things I've added to my 3D printing setup cost under a tenner and genuinely changed how I print. ...
Read more →Best Filament Dryers for 3D Printing in 2025
Wet filament is one of the most common causes of print problems that people don't diagnose correctly. If your prints are stringing more than usual, making poppi...
Read more →Best PEI Sheets for 3D Printers in 2025
If you're still printing on the stock glass bed or the original magnetic sheet your printer came with, a PEI sheet is probably the single best value upgrade you...
Read more →Best Tools for 3D Printing (The Kit Every Printer Owner Needs)
Most 3D printer owners build up their toolkit gradually - buying things as they realise they need them, usually mid-print at the worst possible moment. Here's...
Read more →Upgrades
Best 3D Printer Upgrades Under $50
Most budget 3D printers are good out of the box - but a few cheap upgrades make a genuine difference to print quality, reliability, and convenience. These are...
Read more →Printer Reviews
Best 3D Printers for Beginners in 2025 (Every Budget)
Choosing your first 3D printer is genuinely confusing. Dozens of options across a wide price range, and the specs don't tell you much about what it's actually l...
Read more →Best Resin 3D Printers for Beginners in 2025
Resin printing produces detail that FDM simply can't match. The layer lines you see on a standard FDM print disappear completely - resin prints look smooth and ...
Read more →Software Guide
Best Slicer Software for Beginners (Free Options Compared)
Before a 3D printer can print anything, it needs instructions - and that's what slicer software does. It takes a 3D model (an STL or 3MF file) and converts it...
Read more →Cura vs PrusaSlicer vs Bambu Studio: Which Slicer Should You Use?
The slicer turns your 3D model into the instructions your printer follows. Choosing the wrong one is not catastrophic - you can switch - but starting with the r...
Read more →How to Design Your Own 3D Models: A Beginner's Guide to Free CAD Software
Downloading models from Printables is great - but designing your own is what takes 3D printing from a hobby to a superpower. Need a custom bracket, a replacemen...
Read more →Resources
Best Websites for Cheap 3D Printing Services (Hobbyist Guide)
Not everyone wants to buy a printer. Maybe you have one print you need done, you want to try a material your printer can't handle, or you just want someone else...
Read more →Where to Download Free 3D Print Files: Best Sites in 2025
The best thing about 3D printing is that you don't need to design anything yourself. Millions of free, print-ready models are available for download - from pr...
Read more →Hardware Guide
The Complete 3D Printer Nozzle Guide: Sizes, Materials, and When to Replace
The nozzle is a tiny part with an outsized effect on print quality. Getting the right nozzle for your material and print style - and knowing when to replace it ...
Read more →How to Upgrade Your 3D Printer Hot End: What to Upgrade and Why
The hot end is the part of your printer that melts and deposits filament. The stock hot end on most budget printers is functional, but upgrading it can unlock b...
Read more →Beginner Guide
How to Calibrate Your First 3D Printer: Step-by-Step Guide
Most new printer problems are calibration problems. Warped bases, bad adhesion, gaps in layers, blobbing on corners - these all trace back to settings that are ...
Read more →The Fastest Way to Learn 3D Printing (Without Wasting Filament)
Every 3D printer owner goes through the same phase. You print something, it fails. You tweak a setting, print again, it fails differently. You search online, ge...
Read more →Resin 3D Printing: Complete Beginner's Guide
Resin 3D printing produces detail that FDM (filament) printers simply can't match - smooth surfaces, sharp edges, and fine features that look almost injection-m...
Read more →Finishing Guide
How to Finish and Paint Resin 3D Prints
A freshly printed resin part is not a finished part. It comes off the build plate sticky, slightly soft, and covered in support marks, layer lines, and surface ...
Read more →How to Post-Process 3D Prints: Sanding, Painting, and Finishing
Fresh off the printer, most 3D prints have visible layer lines, support marks, and a rough texture. Post-processing closes that gap between "printed part" and "...
Read more →Maintenance Guide
How to Maintain Your 3D Printer: A Practical Guide
Most 3D printing problems that seem mysterious - inconsistent extrusion, sudden layer shifts, stringing that appears after months of clean prints - are maintena...
Read more →How to Tension 3D Printer Belts: Signs, Methods, and Maintenance
Loose belts are one of the most common causes of print quality problems that appear out of nowhere. Layer shifting, ghosting, and ringing artefacts that were no...
Read more →Missing a guide?
If there is a topic you think we should cover, let us know and we will add it to the list.
Suggest a guide →Useful External Resources
Trusted sites we reference and recommend
Printables
The best place to find free 3D models - run by Prusa Research
r/3Dprinting
Huge community for troubleshooting, inspiration, and advice
Thingiverse
Largest library of free 3D print files - 3 million+ models
PrusaSlicer
Free, open-source slicer trusted by the community
Bambu Studio
Fast, modern slicer - works with any printer, not just Bambu
RepRap Wiki
The original open-source 3D printing knowledge base