3D Printing is free of charge for all faculty, students, and staff at Macalester College.
For student prints that are not academic in nature, students will need to come to the DRC to print themselves. For academic prints and prints for faculty and staff, requests can be submitted online via the Academic 3D Printing Request Form (folks can also come in to 3D print themselves).
Regular office hours will be posted after add/drop is finished. You will also be able to sign up for appointments soon! If you have questions about how long an appointment you might need, you can reach out via email!
You have a few options for printing in the DRC: Printing with assistance from a 3D Print Lead, Self Service Printing, or Academic & Research Print Services.
Students, faculty, and staff can visit the DRC during office hours or make an appointment to get help 3D printing something without going through training.
Make an appointment with a 3D Print Lead or drop in during office hours. They can consult with you on finding files to print, and can help you slice your print for one of our printers and get the print started for you. If you have a good idea of what you’d like to print and already have a file selected, this is usually around a half hour long appointment. If all of the printers are busy during your appointment, a 3D Print Lead will start your appointment during an open time.
DRC staff will let you know if your print fails and there ended up being an issue with your print that needs to be resolved. DRC staff can help you with troubleshooting print settings for prints that fail.
Come by the DRC to pick up your print once it has finished. Your print will either be on the printer still or in the 3D Print pickup bin.
Anyone who would like to utilize the 3D printers in the DRC on their own will need to go through a short training and pass a quick quiz on 3D printing. Once a patron is 3D Print Trained, they will be able to use TechCheckout to book time on a 3D printer in the DRC. You’re able to either reserve a printer in advance or drop in to see if a printer is free.
Before you’re able to reserve a printer, you’ll need to go through some basic training on the DRC printers and how to 3D print (even if you’re already familiar with 3D printing). You’ll need to come to a 3D Printing Workshop, come by during office hours, or set up a one-on-one training with one of our 3D print leads. Training usually takes an hour or less. Scheduling with our 3D print leads will be available after add/drop each semester.
For 3D Printing Permissions, you’ll need to go through a quick certification quiz and do your first print with a 3D Print Lead. You can complete your first print at the end of your training session or schedule it for a later time.
Log in to TechCheckout and navigate to Create a Booking>3D Printing, then select a printer and book a time. If you drop in to print, be sure to check with staff about future reservations or create a booking when you arrive.
Be sure you’ve reserved your printer in advance OR be sure to check in at the desk to see if a printer is free when you come by to print. Please also write your Macalester username on the blue tape in front of your printer with a dry-erase marker. This will help us keep track of which print is on which printer and allow us to update you on your print’s progress. We ask that you stay for around 15-30 minutes or until the first couple of layers of your print are completed in case immediate troubleshooting is needed.
DRC staff will let you know if your print fails and there ended up being an issue with your print that needs to be resolved. DRC staff can help you with troubleshooting print settings for prints that fail.
Come by the DRC to pick up your print once it has finished. Your print will either be on the printer still or in the 3D Print pickup bin.
The DRC will slice and print files for academic projects and for faculty and staff for both academic and non-academic projects. It’s easiest to make an appointment to consult about your print, but if it’s very straightforward you can submit a request online. If you are a student and the print is for a class where learning how to 3D print is part of an assignment, you’ll need to come in rather than submitting a file for us to print.
Please fill out the Academic Print Request Queue form. You’ll need a copy of your 3D file (preferably an STL or OBJ file), dimensions for the final print, and will need to share color and printer preferences if you have any. Turnaround time for academic prints may be 1-2 weeks depending on how many prints are in our print queue and how large prints are. Individual large prints may take more than 12 hours to complete; if that print fails partway through we may need to wait until the next day to restart the print process. If you have a hard deadline for classes, please let us know–and please reach out to us early in the process of finding or designing your 3D file to let us know to expect the request and so that we can help ensure that the file is printable.
Once we’ve received your request, DRC staff will look through the request and let you know if we have any questions or foresee any issues with the print. We’ll work with you to try to resolve possible issues.
DRC staff will print your request and let you know when it’s ready for pickup in the DRC!
No. Prints should adhere to the standards set out in the Student Handbook. Additionally, we utilize FDM printing in the DRC, which is not foodsafe. Prints of items meant to contain or interact with food or beverages are not allowed or recommended except as prototypes that will not be used to consume food/beverages.
Additionally, we do not have the facilities to print with materials such as ABS or ASA, so are limited in which materials we can print in.
We ask that you keep in mind that the printers are a shared resource; please don’t monopolize the printers throughout a whole semester. If you do have a big project that will require a lot of printing, reach out to us via email and we’ll figure out a schedule. If you have a very big project or very large amount of prints, we might ask that you buy and bring in your own spool of filament.
All of our printers are FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers, which means that especially tiny pieces of prints can run into issues. For D&D minis and other prints with small parts, we recommend using a higher resolution print setting and you may need to scale up prints if they have especially small pieces (staffs, wands, and sometimes bows, for instance, are most likely to break off).
Models developed as digital assets also sometimes run into issues. If something was designed for a video game, for instance, it may have hollow spaces or overhangs that will not print well.
A couple of the sites we recommend are Printables.com, Makerworld, and Thingiverse. When looking at files in these repositories, be sure to read notes and descriptions to find the most up to date versions of the files and any particular print instructions for different prints.
One good place to get started with 3D Modeling is TinkerCAD, a free, online application from AutoDesk.
We have five printers available in the DRC:
The Bambu X1 Carbon is one of our fastest printers and the only one with an automated material switcher that allows for automated multi-color prints*. The Bambu is easy to work with and we recommend using the Bambu Slicer for this printer. This printer also has a built-in enclosure, which means it can more easily stay at a constant ambient air temperature when printing, and can deal better with prints when it is humid.
You can reserve a printer in advance on TechCheckout under “Book by Category > 3D Printing” or you can stop into the DRC to check one out if one is available. Not sure how long to reserve a printer for? Slice your print first to get an idea of how long it will take to print.
We are able to print with three different filaments in the DRC: PLA, PETG, and TPU. We recommend PLA for almost every print in the DRC.
Polylactic acid (PLA) is a thermoplastic made from things like corn starch and sugar cane. It is relatively easy to work with and can be recycled into new filament or composted in an industrial compost facility. One downside of PLA is that it has a relatively low melt point (it can warp when left out in a car on a very hot day).
PETG is a bit stronger and more resistant to moisture and UV than PLA. It is less likely to fail when bent or twisted than PLA is, making it a better choice for parts. It’s also got a higher melt point than PLA. It’s less environmentally friendly than PLA, so we print with it far less and try to reduce scrap when printing.
Thermoplastic Polyurethane is a flexible, rubbery filament that can be used for parts that need some give and flexibility. It can be difficult to work with, and cannot be used when humidity is high in the DRC.
We have limited amounts and colors of PETG and TPU in stock at any given time. If you are working on a larger project, please reach out to the DRC via email to request a PETG or TPU filament in a particular color or amount.
If you’re printing on your own try slicing your file prior to booking a printer; slicing your file will give you an idea of how long it will take. You’ll use this information when booking a printer on TechCheckout and should book the printer for the amount of time it will take for the print to complete. You should slice your file for the printer you intend to use and should triple check that you have correctly selected the right printer, build plate, and filament.
If you’re printing with a 3D Print Lead, we’ll help you slice your file!
Please use Bambu Studio for the X1 Carbon and A1 Mini. Please note: our printers are not network enabled.
Please use PrusaSlicer for the Prusa MK3S+ and the Prusa MK4.
You can slice your file on your own computer OR come into the DRC.
