What Is 3D Printing? Methods, Process and Costs Explained Simply
are explained briefly when you hover over or tap them.
In 3D printing, an object is not made by milling or casting, but by building up material layer by layer. That is why it is also called additive manufacturing: material is added only where the part will later be. This makes shapes possible that would be hard to produce with other methods, and it makes one-off pieces affordable.
The three most important methods
| Method | Material | Typical for | For home use |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDM (filament printing) | plastic wire on spools | brackets, decoration, prototypes, spare parts | yes, the most widespread |
| Resin (SLA, MSLA) | liquid resin that cures with UV light | miniatures, jewellery models, very fine detail | yes, with care when handling resin |
| SLS (powder printing) | plastic powder fused by a laser | robust series parts without supports | no, industry |
In the hobby sector it is almost always about FDM. A plastic wire, the filament, is melted in a hot nozzle and laid line by line onto a build plate. When a layer is finished, the printer moves up a small distance and starts the next. Most content in this wiki relates to FDM.
Resin printers work differently: a screen exposes a whole layer of liquid resin at once. The details are much finer, but resin and cleaning are more involved, and when handling uncured resin you need gloves and good ventilation.
From model to finished part
Every FDM print goes through the same four steps:
- Get or create a 3D model. Ready-made models are available free of charge on platforms such as Printables, MakerWorld or Thingiverse. Your own models are created in CAD programs such as Fusion, Onshape or Tinkercad.
- Prepare it in the slicer. A slicer cuts the model into layers and calculates the movement commands for the printer from them. Here you set material, layer height, infill and supports.
- Print. The file gets to the printer via Wi-Fi, USB stick or memory card. A small part takes half an hour, a large one can run for over a day.
- Post-process. Remove the part from the print bed, remove support structures, and sand, glue or paint if needed.
What can you print with it?
The possibilities are broader than many think:
- Household: brackets, hooks, organisers, spare parts for appliances whose original part no longer exists
- Hobby: figures, cosplay parts, model making, board game accessories
- Workshop: jigs, templates, housings for electronics
- Business: prototypes, small series, personalised products
Less suitable are parts that get very hot, come into permanent contact with food or have to withstand high forces. That depends heavily on the material, though: PLA softens even in a hot car, while engineering filaments such as PC or nylon withstand much more.
What does getting started cost?
| Item | Rough order of magnitude |
|---|---|
| Entry-level printer | about €150 to €400 |
| 1 kg of filament (PLA, PETG) | about €12 to €30 |
| Accessories (scraper, side cutters, isopropanol, storage box) | about €20 to €50 |
| Electricity per hour of printing | usually a few cents |
Many small parts come from one kilogram of filament. A typical phone holder weighs 20 to 40 grams, so the material cost is in the range of cents to a low number of euros.
Current entry-level printers largely calibrate themselves. Today the biggest obstacle is rarely the technology, but learning the terms. That is what our glossary is for.
What next?
If you are just starting out, read next how the first print succeeds step by step. Which design suits you is explained in the article Bed slinger or CoreXY. Which printers there are and how they differ, you can see in the printer comparison.