I downloaded it and set it to printing. Everything was going great and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful miniature. Then suddenly I come back and from the waste up, it was just a blob.

Ok, obviously my profile was messed up and I screwed this up. Let’s make some changes and do it again. It starts printing and I am happy because it looks great. It fails again with a blob of filament after the waist.

Ok, I obviously didn’t fix the problem, lets change some more settings. If you are here reading a blog about 3D printing, I am assuming you are smart enough to know what happens next. The same failed print.

I had printed this thing 3 times and it kept failing so I decided to print something I had already printed with the same profile to see if that was the problem. It printed fine. So imagine my surprise when I figured out, just because it is on thingverse.com doesn’t mean it is a good model.

I put it aside and went on printing other things.

About a week later, I came across a reddit post talking about netfabb. This is a free online service that “fixes” bad stl files. I have no idea what it does to them, but I thought I would give it a try. I uploaded the stl and tried to print the fixed stl file. It finally printed.

So know this, not all models we download are actually good no matter how good the non printed example looks. It may just be a crap model and you shouldn’t chase your profile settings to fix it.

I found videos and posts of some very respected people who were putting out some amazing quality minis on the same printer I had. Excited, I was. I downloaded those profiles and imported them into my Cura Slicer. I was ready to print the D&D world.

I printed my first and……

It looked like shit. Now, in full disclosure, I had not done esteps or flow control calibration at this point. I was still disheartened because my test print dog looked so good. What I soon learned is this.

The best profile you can use is one you create that is tailored to your printer, your nozzle and what you are printing.

Can you start with a base from the people that know way more than us about 3D printing? Absolutely. My current miniature profile is an edited version of Fat Dragon Games Ender 3 profile.

The thing you have to remember is, that profile was created on his 3D printer, not yours. All 3D printers are different. He may be using:

• Different filament
• Upgrades you don’t have
• His belts may have different tension
• His z-axis may be better lubricated
• His bed may be leveled to perfection
• His extruder wheels may have a different tension than yours
• He may have been doing this before you knew 3D printers were a thing
• He may have sold his soul to the devil to be as good as he is.

The takeaway from this is, learn from him but if you want better prints, you have to know what the profile settings do and how to adjust them for what you are printing. Also keep in mind, one profile does not rule them all.

Now that you have your printer assembled and have printed your first awesome test print that came with it, what do you do? You should actually do this before your first print, but hey we are excited and want to print something right?

• First and this is probably the most important thing – Level your print bed. Your print bed most likely will not be close to level coming from the factory. This is the video I watched to level my print bed. I have also come to realize this isn’t a set-it and forget-it exercise. I leveled my bed and things were great. Then I started having weird issues with my prints. After spending days trying to track it down, I realized my bed was no longer level. I now have a white board by my printer I use to mark when I last leveled my print bed, along with other important information.

• Check your 3D Printer Esteps and Flow Rate. This is how you calibrate your printer and make sure it is putting out the amount of filament that it should be. I used this video.

Those are some essential first steps with your new 3D printer. Save yourself a lot of time, frustration, and filament by doing them.