this is a 1100+ word report in 3d printing AI was not used except to generate a cover photo. I have worked hard on this and always appreciate a like or a boost also if you would possibly like to see more of this content you can follow me. Also if you find an error or question feel free to leave a comment and I will try to reply. 😄  3D printers are extremely fascinating to watch and to work with. In this report I will talk a little bit about how they work, when they were invented, and what they are used for.There are two main kinds of 3D printers, ones that use filament, FDM (Fused deposition modeling) also called FFF (fused filament fabrication), or resin printers, SLA (stereolithography), DLP (digital light processing), and LCD (liquid crystal display). I will mainly be talking about the ones that use filament, FDM or FFF.A 3D printer works by forcing plastic 1.75 mm through a nozzle usually .4mm in diameter heated to about 210 degrees Celsius or 410 Fahrenheit. The first layer, which is usually .2mm high, is extruded onto a print bed which is normally heated to 60 degrees Celsius to help the layer stick better. The layers after that are stacked on top of each other. There are three coordinates X Y Z. X and Y are the length and width of the model and Z is the height. This is used to make gcode which is a file containing coordinates that is sent to the printer telling it where to move next. A gcode for a 6-hour print which is about average size is roughly three miles long.There are many different kinds of filaments, the most basic and popular is PLA. PLA stands for polylactic acid which is made from fermented sugars from sugarcane or starch to generate lactic acid and made into pellets and then melted down into filament and put on spools. Because it is made of sugarcane it is biodegradable and is technically food safe, but it is still not recommended to eat. One of the down sides to PLA is it melts at a low temperature and if set out in sun for a while it will deform.PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol-Modified) is another more common type of filament. It is made from the same plastic that soda bottles are made out of with Glycol added. It will bend more under stress instead of cracking like PLA which makes it a popular choice for springs and other parts under tension. It is also more UV resistant than PLA.ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) is the same plastic that LEGOs are made of. It gives off fumes when printed that can irritate the skin so it must be printed either in an area with good ventilation or in an enclosed printer with a carbon air filter. Many people prefer to print it in a printer that has a heated chamber to keep it from drying too fast and warping or cracking.TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) is like rubber. It can be bent and stretched to more than five times the original size. It is somewhat hard to print because it can bend while printing. It also can absorb water from the air which can cause it to bubble while printing and make the print look ugly and stringy.Finally, PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol) is a filament that is water soluble meaning it will dissolve when submerged in water. It is used to print supports so you can submerge your print in water get a cleaner finish on overhangs instead of having to break off the normal plastic supports which can be a pain, however you do need a multi color printer in order to switch colors which can add another two hundred dollars to the printers cost. Because it dissolves in water it must be kept in a sealed bag with desiccant to keep it from absorbing water out of the air and making a mess.Now I will talk about the invention of 3D printers. The first person to make a 3D printer was Dr. Hideo Kodama. In 1981 he created a machine that polymerized resin using UV light, however he never finished the process of getting a patent and in 1984 Charles Hull, also known as Chuck, patented an idea similar to Dr. Hideo Kodama's idea. It was a printer that used UV light to cure a resin. Then in 1987 he created his machine which he called the SLA 1. It used a UV light to cure photopolymers. Before this there were a number of patents that were filed for machines similar to 3D printers, but they were never actually built. The first FDM(FFF) printer was made and patented by S. Scott Crump and Lisa Crump in 1989. Owning a 3D printer around this time cost around $650,000. Nowadays a beginner's printer can be bought around the $150 to $200 range. But for a larger more advanced multicolor one it can cost anywhere from $500 to $5000.3D printers are used for many different things. Many people own them for a hobby or just to mess around with in them in their spare time. Just figuring out how they work can be entertaining. More recently they have been experimented with to print food like crackers, pasta, chocolate, and candy, however it is difficult to ensure that everything is food safe when doing this and due to some health concerns it probably will never become super popular.3D printed houses are also being experimented with. A giant machine extrudes a concrete mix layer by layer allowing the house to have curves that could be difficult to make with wood. Also, the houses can be built in only a couple of days which would cut down on labor costs. A medium sized house 1800-2500 square feet costs around $300,000 - $550,000. One downside to these houses is that it is not easy to be able to put in the plumbing and electrical when your wall is solid concrete and if you need to work on it later on it is quite difficult.In May of 2013, Cody Wilson, a worker for Defense Distributed, designed a .380 pistol he called the "liberator". It was completely 3D printed except for the bullet and a nail used for the firing pin. He uploaded the model onto a 3D printing website but a few days later it was demanded that Defense Distributed take it down however it had already gotten 100,000 downloads. After this the idea emerged that 3D printers could be used to cut weapon shortages for the military. Also resin printers have been used by dentists to create dentures and retainers. In closing 3D printers are very interesting. Being able to create your own parts when something breaks is very helpful. Also, it can help to teach basic computer skills and CAD (Computer Aided Designing). I hope this was interesting. Thanks for reading