One of the first things people print when they get a new 3D printer is a benchy!  Printing benchy’s are great ways to stress test your machine and really get to know what it’s capable of.  In this tutorial we are going to print a Canadian Maple Leaf benchy in a nice Canadian red which is a new Select PLA by Natureworks LLC!

 

Setting Up

As mentioned in a previous tutorial, using blue painters tape is a great replacement to glue as it’s easier to apply and remove.  

1. Begin by taping the bed with painter’s tape before we begin the leveling process.

2. Once that’s completed, we need to heat up the bed and nozzle to operating temperature.  It’s best to level when heated just in case anything expands slightly because of the operating heat.  

Turn the Power Switch on, click the Navigation Wheel to open the menu and navigate to Prepare, scroll to Preheat PLA, and the nozzle will start to warm.  To warm up the bed, return to the menu and go to Control, then Temperature, then Bed, and turn the temperature to around 60 degrees.  

From there we wait as the nozzle and bed begin to heat to operating temperature!

3. Once heated, we can start to level the bed.  The first thing I suggest you do is navigate to Prepare, and then Auto Home.  This will home the X, Y and Z axis.  Make sure you have a little bit of clearance between the nozzle and the bed.

4. Once you have ensured clearance, return to the menu screen.  Navigate to Prepare, then Bed Auto Leveling, and then select Next Step.

5. From there, slide a single piece of paper underneath the nozzle to check the clearance distance.  You want there to be a little bit of drag, you can adjust the height with the knob underneath the bed.  

After doing the first corner, press the navigation button, and you will repeat this process with all four corners.

Printing Process

Now that we have ensured that we are level, and the nozzle and bed are heated, it’s time to load our filament!

1. Thread your filament between the small holes to prevent twisting and rolling off the line.  Snip off the first part of the filament to make sure you have a fresh filament.

I like to load my filament underhand, and then load the filament through the Filament Runout Sensor by simply feeding it through the sensor.

2. From there we will need to feed the filament through the hole in the lever next to the Z Axis Lead Screw.  Press the lever in to relieve the tension and feed it through the hole. If you’re having difficulties, try press and releasing the lever repeatedly and feeding it through the hole. 

3. From their raise the nozzle, and return to the navigation menu, and click Prepare, then Move Axis, then Move 1mm, then Move Z.

4. Go back to Prepare, then Move Axis, then Move 1mm, then Move Extruder.  This will start feeding the plastic through the system.  In a few moments we should see red plastic coming out of the nozzle.  

If you see a different color coming out, this is just the test filament that was run at the factory, and once that’s through you’ll see your red come through.

5. We’ll be printing this Benchy from an SD Card which we already have inserted.  If you don’t have your storage device inserted and ready to go, do so at this time.

6. To select the gcode go to the menu and select Print From SD and select your gcode file.

7. The gcode has a set temperature for the bed and nozzle.  It will automatically start heating up to the predetermined temperature.

8. Once the bed and nozzle have reached their correct temperatures, the 3D printer will begin printing our Benchy!

9. The printing process will take some time, but you will see the printer printing our project inch by inch on the bed!

10. Once your printing has completed you can take the project off the bed!  Use your pryer or scraper and gentle pry from the corner of our benchy and remove it from the bed!

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There you have it!  We have completed our printing of a Red Maple Leaf Benchy on the Creality CR-10s 3D printer!  Hopefully this process was extremely smooth and easy to follow. If you have any questions or have any suggestions of reviews or tutorials for 3D printers, let us know in the comments below!