So one hobby wasn’t enough, huh? Now you need a hobby within a hobby? Welllll… me too, so follow me down the rabbit hole of 3D Printing for Board Gamers.
What is 3D Printing?
3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model.
Printers use a variety of media (think paper in your traditional ink printer; in 3D printing, it can be plastic, resin, metal, and more) to create almost anything. In board gaming, that generally looks like printing game organizers, minis, terrain, or upgraded game pieces.
3D printing requires
- a 3D printer
- media material for the printer
- a computer to prepare the 3D model for printing.
That sounds awesome. How do I start?
Before you dive all the way in, try it. Check your local library. Often they will have maker spaces with 3D printers (and a whole bunch more!) that you can use. If you find a print you’d like to try, bookmark the link and take it to the library to print.
Oh right, you’ve tried that already. Great.
The first thing you’ll need to do is pick a printer.
What kinds of printers are out there?
Psych! Before you pick a printer, you need to ask yourself: what will I print the most?
If you are printing inserts or bit upgrades, a filament printer (FDM [Fused Deposition Modeling] or FFF [Fused Filament Fabrication]) is king. This is a printer that takes spools of filament, heats it, and extrudes it onto a print bed.
If you want to print minis or other highly detailed objects, a resin printer is generally recommended. Resin printers use MSLA (Masked Stereolithography) to cure liquid resin using a UV light source. Note: resin requires gloves and a mask to use safely (with good ventilation recommended) and may have a slightly higher barrier to entry than an FDM printer.
There are several other methods of 3D printing, including Material Jetting, Sheet Lamination, and more. Those are all generally more commonly used in industrial manufacturing. For hobby printing, FDM and Resin printers are most common. For an in-depth overview, check out this article at All3dp.
Types of FDM printers
There are two primary architectures for 3D printers: bed slingers and CoreXY.
Bed Slingers have a moving print bed that moves back and forth along the Y axis of your printer, while the print head moves along the X and Z axes. Bed slingers can be slightly cheaper and generally simpler to troubleshoot because of their build. These machines are also noisier and can have slower print times due to the bed shifting during prints.
CoreXY machines have a print bed that stays stationary, only moving incrementally lower as the print head makes passes for each layer of printing. These machines can print more quickly than bed slingers because it is more stable, and are quieter than their bed slinging cousins. Maintenance on these CoreXY devices can be trickier because they are sturdier and may require more disassembly to get to the problem area.
Enclosed printers have a solid enclosure around the entire print area. The print head and bed are all contained within walls and a floor. This can limit noise, help maintain temperatures, and contain fumes from printing.
Open printers do not have a housing around the print surface. This can lead to a larger variation in print conditions (temperature, humidity, your dog just shed a whole bunch for some reason). However, these machines are generally more accessible for maintenance and slightly cheaper. There are accessories available to build enclosures around some open printers, similar to pitching a tent.
OK, so what actual printer do I pick?
There are a ton of options out there, and honestly the amount of choice can be overwhelming. For your first printer, there are some great entry-level printers that just work out there. Here are some generally highly regarded printers.
Elegoo Centauri Carbon – Great entry-level CoreXY printer, with an enclosed housing. (Full disclosure, this is the one I own, and I really like mine).
Bamboo Mini X1 – The best entry-level bed-slinger, open housing.
Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra – Excellent resin printer at a reasonable cost
If you’re like me and want to spend hours upon hours researching before you make a purchase, start your reading over at Tom’s Guide.
Note: it is worth watching each vendor for sales. You can often find the printer you’re after for a significant discount around holidays.
Print accessories: Bling bling baby
There are some add-ons that can be worth purchasing at the same time as your initial printer purchase.
Extra Filament – often discounted when you purchase in bulk, or bundle with your new printer. And it comes in lots of pretty colors!
Extra Print Nozzles – for FDM, 0.4 or 0.6mm nozzles work well for printing inserts. You’ll want smaller ones for mini printing.
A different print bed plate – this may be a secondary upgrade, but some print plates work better at different print temps and can impact your prints.
It’s here, I set it up; now what?
Send your printer through its regular health checks. Level the bed, tune the hotend, etc… Your printer probably has a “push me!” button in settings to run through these health checks.
Once that’s done, it’s time for your first print! Woohoo! Often this is a Benchy, where you benchmark your print settings. It’s a cute little boat that will stress test some of your printer settings.
Make sure your filament is fed to the extruder, then queue up the Benchy and press play!
While it prints, search for some other things to print.
Where to find print files
There are a ton of sites that host .stl files for printing. Many of these sites are associated with a specific manufacturer, and sometimes you can simply hit Print from the website, and it will send the sliced models to your printer.
There is a fantastic resource called BGG3DPrints where you can input your BGG username, and it will query your entire collection and provide all the linked print files for each game or expansion in the collection.
Otherwise, you can search any of the 3D printing directories. These are model libraries filled with all kinds of files created by modelers and available to download and print. Generally, this is free, though some models have a cost associated.
Yeggi – an aggregator, Yeggi indexes models across several different sites and allows you to browse them in one place
Thingiverse – The OG, a great starting place for hobbyist printers
MakerWorld – Bambu lab’s library, has nice features if you own a Bambu printer
Cults3D – More focused on the actual modelers and 3d files you can purchase
Printables – Prusa’s library, integrates nicely with Prusa machines
How to slice your print files
Very likely your printer has a manufacturer-recommended slicer. Start there! There are a number of other slicers available if you don’t get along with the first one you try. Of these, OrcaSlicer is generally regarded as the best.
Slicers are where you encode your print as .gcode instructions for your printer. Anything and everything is configurable. You can set the extruder temperature, fan speeds, print speeds, plate temperatures, supports, and more.
These can be overwhelming, because there are a LOT of options. Don’t fret, you’ve got this! Most of the default settings when you select your printer and filament type will work great. When you are ready to tweak those, here is a wonderfully explained guide to print settings.
Note: For 3rd-party slicers, BE CAREFUL where you download them. Check Reddit, validate links. Often you’ll download from GitHub or some other code repository, and some buttheads will host spoof links to trick you into downloading malware.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed, you’ll need to import the print files. Sometimes this is a .zip file if there are multiple objects. Sometimes it is just a .stl file for a single object.
- Import the file(s)
- If you are printing single color, this is a .stl file. For multicolor, it will be a .3mf file.
- Check your printer selection in the slicer! Sometimes (especially from the manufacturer-specific sites like Makerworld) the printer will be set to one of the manufacturer defaults. Reset this back to your printer and transfer all settings!
- Arrange them on your plate. Check for an “auto-arrange” button; this can be quite helpful.
- Note: most .3mf files come already arranged.
- Update print settings
- Print quality – editing this value can increase slice time, but often results in smoother prints
- Print speed – your printer can move. But sometimes that pace sacrifices print quality or adhesion. Dial this in for your prints. Inserts can usually be set to fast speeds, while minis or terrain should be slowed down a bit
- Supports – your slicer will automatically create these to support overhangs and prevent sag. There are tree supports or block supports.
- Filament type/temp – Define what kind of filament you are using, and set temperature parameters
- Slice the plate(s)
- Export the .gcode files OR send files to your printer via the internet
- (If multicolor) Define what colors should be used for each part of the print on your printer’s UI
- Send it!
You’ve sliced your model, you’ve loaded your filament, your printer is ready. Hit that print button and then watch your objects come to life!
Ack, something went wrong!
Yep, that happens sometimes. Pay attention to the print and see if you can track down the problem.
Did you load the filament correctly? Is the print adhering to the bed? Is the .gcode model correctly sliced? Is the print temp correct?
Search is your friend. Ask around on Reddit, Discord, etc. Lots of people do this, and they love to help.
Woohoo, you printed the thing!
Welcome to the world of 3D prints for board gaming! There are tons of ways this hobby can enhance your actual hobby. Hop in the comments and show us what you print, how it went, and what you wish you did differently.
