3D Printing

3D printers are available for use free of charge* to Trinity students, staff, and faculty in room LITC115 as part of The Hatchery. We have 2 Prusa MK3s, 2 Prusa MK4s and a Raise3D pro printer available.

To get started, contact the Student Technology Assistants for help getting your model ready and sending it to the printer. You may email the STA office at sta-help@trincoll.edu, or make an appointment online (schedule either General Services or 3D printing).

We ask that you are present for the start of the print. This way, an STA can walk you through the process and make sure color, size, and supports are optimized for your purpose. The STAs will flip trays for faculty and staff printing multiples of trays, but otherwise, we want you involved in the process. It’s fun! You can also look into getting certified for 24/7 access for the printers so you can print independently.

A general outline of the certification process is:

Meet with an STA and be walked through the printing process
Look through a Moodle course with more information and specifics
Have a follow-up meeting with an STA where you show us you know your stuff
We update your ID card so you have 24/7 access to the print room!

Contact an STA for more information.

Printing and appointments are available during STA office hours.

Don’t know what to print?
There are several sites such as Thingiverse and Printables that offer free models designed for printing. You can also design your own models using software such as Tinkercad, Fusion360, or SketchUp. The models must be in STL format and within the dimensions 9.9 x 7.8 x 5.9 in (25.1 x 19.8 x 14.9 cm).

See our gallery for more ideas.

*Are there any limitations or restrictions?
We want to encourage people to experiment so we aren’t putting strict limits on what can be printed but we do request you keep your prints reasonable. Large prints can easily take 24hrs or more to print.

Academic projects take priority over personal projects.
Students considering large projects should first consult with a Student Technology Assistant (STA) to make sure that we have sufficient filament and staff time to support their project.
Students whose work consumes over 1kg of filament in an academic year (for a single project or combined over multiple projects) will need to either:
- reimburse LITS for filament costs (currently $25 per kg but subject to change), or
- purchase and use their own filament (Prior to purchasing filament, students should consult with an STA to confirm that their choice of material is compatible with our printers and meets our quality standards. Currently compatible filament materials are PLA, PETG, and TPU in 1.75 mm diameter.)

We reserve the right to refuse to print items we deem inappropriate or that may require a large amount of resources in terms of both time and materials.