Essential 3D Printing Tools and Accessories

Flush cutters take supports off without tearing the surface: cut proud of the part first, then deal with the remaining nub separately rather than trying to shear it flush in one go. A deburring tool clears the raised lip left by an elephant’s foot or a support scar in a single pass, and it squares an edge far faster than sanding will.

On resin parts, work gently — cured resin chips rather than curls, so take shallow passes and support the piece in your hand instead of levering against it.

Sand in order and do not skip grits. Start at 120 to knock down layer lines and support scars, move to 220 to remove the scratches the 120 left, then 320 or 400 before primer. Resin parts are better wet-sanded: it keeps the dust out of the air and stops the paper clogging.

Then let filler primer do the rest of the work. Two or three light coats fill what remains of the layer lines far more evenly than more sanding will, and any flaw still visible under grey primer is a flaw the paint will show.

A heat gun is genuinely useful for reflowing a warped part back into shape, softening a piece so it can be curved to fit a body, and burning stringing off a print in seconds.

It is not a reliable way to smooth layer lines on PLA. In practice thin walls and fine details slump before the surface ever goes glassy, and the part loses dimensional accuracy on the way. Solvent vapour smoothing works on ABS and ASA, not on PLA. For PLA and resin the answer is mechanical every time: sand, fill, prime.

Match the glue to the load. Cyanoacrylate gel is the right default for small parts and quick alignment — it grabs fast, fills a small gap and will not run down the print, but the cured bond is brittle and it gives up under heat.

For anything structural or load-bearing on a large multi-part print, use two-part epoxy: slower and messier, considerably stronger, and it fills the gaps between imperfect mating faces instead of just wetting them. Keep E6000 for joints that need to flex, or for bonding prints to fabric and foam — it is a flexible adhesive, not a structural one.

Magnets are what make a large prop transportable. Design the pocket into the model from the start, with 1–2 mm of wall around it and a press fit, and mark the polarity on every magnet with a marker before it goes anywhere near a print — one reversed magnet in a glued pocket means reprinting the part.

Fit them after printing with cyanoacrylate or epoxy, or pause the print and drop them into a side-facing pocket where the nozzle cannot catch and drag one. Keep them away from heat: neodymium begins losing strength above roughly 80 °C, so no hot glue and no heat gun near a finished pocket.

Nitrile gloves for resin, alcohol and adhesives. Safety glasses any time something is being cut, sanded or snapped. A half-face respirator with organic-vapour/P100 cartridges for resin handling and spray painting — with the caveat that it only protects you with a clean seal against bare skin, and that cartridges are consumables with a service life rather than permanent parts of the mask.

Ventilation comes first and the respirator second, not the other way around. A silicone mat under the resin work area is worth the few dollars, because cured drips peel straight off it.