What should I print first?

Something you will actually use, in PLA. A storage bin or a hook teaches more than a calibration cube, because you find the errors while fitting it rather than while measuring it.

Why does a part for the car need ASA or PC?

Because a closed car in the sun goes well past PLA's deflection temperature, and the part sags in one afternoon. The heat deflection column for each family is on the spec table, with the test standard behind every figure.

Can I sell parts printed from these models?

It depends on each model's licence, and that is stated on the author's page. Many use a Creative Commons licence with a non-commercial term; some permit selling prints. Read it rather than assume.

The showcase, and the material behind each print.

10 prints, grouped by what they are for. Each says which material family it belongs in and why — because for most parts the wrong material is a failure, while the wrong settings are only a reprint.

Updated 06 September 2026

The photographs here are photographs of real prints; where there is none the tile stays empty rather than borrowing somebody else's. Model links open a search on the sharing site — each model carries its author's own licence, so read it before any commercial use.

01 / 5 groups

Workshop

What the printer makes for the shop it sits in. Usually the first group of parts that pays the machine back.

Gridfinity bins
No photograph of this print yet
Gridfinity is a coordinate system rather than a model: every bin is a multiple of a 42×42 mm cell, so a bin printed today still drops into a baseplate printed next year. It is the right first print because it teaches exactly three things — fit tolerance, how time scales with volume, and why anyone would want a print farm.
Material
PETG
Bins get pulled in and out daily and sometimes hold oily parts. PETG is tougher than PLA at a thin rim and does not embrittle in a warm drawer.
See the family: PETG ↗
Starting settings
Layer height
0.2–0.28 mm
Perimeters
2 is enough; the walls carry nothing
Infill
0–10% — most of the volume is void by design
Support
None, printed base-down as intended
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
What goes wrong first time
Print one 1×1 bin and drop it into the baseplate first. If it binds, take about 0.05 mm off horizontal expansion and reprint — do not edit the model.
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “gridfinity”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:PLA vs PETG vs ABS: choose by the job, not the hype ↗
Load-bearing wall hook
No photograph of this print yet
A hook loads in bending right at the root, and that root is a layer boundary if you print it flat. Stand it up and the load runs along the layers instead, and the same model takes several times more. Nothing cheaper demonstrates this in your own hand.
Material
PA-CF
For a hook that really carries, carbon-filled nylon keeps its stiffness at Vietnamese room temperature, where PLA starts to creep under a standing load.
See the family: Nylon & composites ↗
Starting settings
Orientation
Upright, back face on the bed
Perimeters
4–6; the strength of this part is in its shell
Infill
40–60%, gyroid or cubic
Dry first
Mandatory for PA — see the drying window on the material page
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “wall hook bracket”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:The print settings that actually change part strength ↗PA-CF: when carbon fibre nylon is worth the money ↗

02 / 5 groups

Functional parts

Parts with a job: carrying load, holding an alignment, or standing in for something nobody sells any more.

Electronics enclosure
No photograph of this print yet
An enclosure is four problems at once: screw bosses, vents, a connector cutout, and a lid that closes tight and still opens. The first attempt gets one of the four wrong — which is exactly why to print somebody's model early, before designing a case for a real project.
Material
PETG
A case sits next to a power supply in an unconditioned room. PETG holds up at that temperature, shrinks far less than ABS, and needs no enclosure.
See the family: PETG ↗
Starting settings
Layer height
0.2 mm
Perimeters
3, so the screw bosses have material around them
Threads
Heat-set inserts rather than a screw driven into plastic
Support
Only at the connector cutout; the rest is designed to avoid it
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “project box enclosure parametric”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:Gluing and threaded inserts for 3D prints ↗
Drill guide jig
No photograph of this print yet
Nobody sells a jig for the exact assembly in front of you. One hour of printing turns drilling by eye into drilling repeatably. Jigs make the case for a printer better than anything else, because the comparison is not with a bought part but with nothing.
Material
PA-CF
The bit rubs the guide bore and heats it. Carbon-filled nylon is stiff and does not soften there; PLA does. For a jig used a handful of times, PETG is enough.
See the family: Nylon & composites ↗
Starting settings
Infill
60% or more — a jig wants stiffness, not lightness
Guide bore
Press in a steel drill bushing; do not run the bit against plastic
Perimeters
4–5 around every bore
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “drill guide jig”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:Nylon or polycarbonate: choosing an engineering material ↗
Print-in-place hinge
No photograph of this print yet
A print-in-place hinge measures how well your machine holds a designed clearance. The gap is usually around 0.3 mm; if the hinge comes out fused, the machine is over-extruding, and that same error is shrinking every screw hole you print.
Material
PLA
PLA prints cleanest at a small clearance and strings least across the gap. PETG oozes more and tends to weld the hinge shut on the first try.
See the family: PLA ↗
Starting settings
Layer height
0.15–0.2 mm
Flow
Calibrate on a single-wall cube first
Retraction
Tuned enough that nothing strings across the hinge gap
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “print in place hinge”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:Common 3D printing problems and how to fix them, in the right order ↗

03 / 5 groups

Outdoors and in the car

Sun and heat are what rule PLA out fastest in this climate. Here the material is chosen before the model is.

Balcony planter
No photograph of this print yet
A planter outdoors meets all three at once: UV, surface temperatures past 60 °C at midday, and constant water. PLA goes brittle and cracks within months, PETG chalks and slowly loses toughness. ASA is the material that exists for this.
Material
ASA
ASA holds its properties and its colour under UV far longer than the other common materials on the catalogue page — that is the one meaningful difference between it and ABS.
See the family: ABS & ASA ↗
Starting settings
Enclosure
Required, so a large part does not crack between layers
Part cooling
Very low, or off
Perimeters
3–4, with a thick floor for standing water
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “self watering planter”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:3D printing for outdoor use in a tropical climate: sun, rain and humidity ↗ABS or ASA: they differ by exactly one ingredient ↗
Car phone mount
No photograph of this print yet
A closed car parked in Vietnamese sun goes well past PLA's deflection temperature, and the mount sags into a new shape in one afternoon. It is the cleanest example there is of choosing a material for an environment rather than for a model.
Material
ASA
It needs heat and UV resistance together, because the part sits behind glass. Where the load is higher, PC is the step up — see the heat column on the spec page.
See the family: ABS & ASA ↗
Starting settings
Perimeters
4 — it is small and vibrates constantly
Infill
40% or more
Contact pads
Printed separately in TPU and glued on
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “car vent phone mount”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:3D printed parts in a car: which heat-resistant filament to use ↗

04 / 5 groups

Flexible parts

What only TPU can do, and only once the machine has been set up for a soft filament.

TPU bumpers and tyres
No photograph of this print yet
TPU is not pushed so much as compressed along the path and released at the nozzle. The more free space between the drive gear and the melt zone, the less control you have. Print slow, retract barely or not at all, and accept that this takes three times as long as the same shape in PLA.
Material
TPU 95A
95A is the easiest shore to print and still clearly elastic. Softer — 85A — feels more like rubber but demands direct drive and very low speeds.
See the family: TPU ↗
Starting settings
Speed
15–25 mm/s
Retraction
Near zero on direct drive
Infill
Infill is how you tune the part's stiffness here, not its strength
Dry first
TPU takes on water fast; see the drying window on the material page
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “tpu tire wheel”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:Printing TPU: settings that stop tangles and blobs ↗TPU 95A or 85A: choosing the right Shore hardness ↗

05 / 5 groups

Models and display

Here the surface is the product. Choosing the process and the finishing effort matters more than choosing settings.

Articulated print-in-place model
No photograph of this print yet
Dozens of joints printed in one go, and a single fused joint stops the whole thing moving. If it comes off the bed and flexes straight away, the machine is dialled in — no calibration cube adds anything to that.
Material
Silk PLA
The surface is the whole point, and silk PLA gives a metallic sheen straight off the bed with no paint.
See the family: PLA ↗
Starting settings
Layer height
0.12–0.16 mm — the layers are what you see
Retraction
Tuned carefully; strings inside a joint are the number-one cause of a fused one
Support
None — these models are designed to avoid it
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “articulated dragon print in place”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
High-detail miniature
No photograph of this print yet
An 8 mm face needs resolution a 0.4 mm nozzle cannot reach, however thin you set the layers. This is the part worth borrowing or renting a resin printer for rather than fighting an FDM machine — and the part that must be washed and cured properly afterwards.
Material
Standard resin
In-plane resolution comes from the screen rather than a nozzle, so features an order of magnitude smaller still resolve.
See the family: Resin ↗
Starting settings
Layer height
0.03–0.05 mm
Orientation
Tilted so no support scar lands on the face that matters
Wash and cure
Mandatory — see the wash-and-cure note
Starting points to calibrate from, not measurements. Your machine, nozzle and spool will each move them a few per cent. The measured properties of each family are on the spec page, with the test standard and the published source. Full spec table ↗
Find the model
Search Printables Search MakerWorld Search Thingiverse
These open a search for: “miniature bust 3d print”. ZORVA publishes none of these models and hosts no files — copyright and licence stay with the author on each site.
Read more:Washing and curing resin prints: the process and the mistakes ↗FDM, resin or SLS — which technology for which job ↗

Frequently asked

What should I print first?: Something you will actually use, in PLA. A storage bin or a hook teaches more than a calibration cube, because you find the errors while fitting it rather than while measuring it.
Why does a part for the car need ASA or PC?: Because a closed car in the sun goes well past PLA's deflection temperature, and the part sags in one afternoon. The heat deflection column for each family is on the spec table, with the test standard behind every figure.
Can I sell parts printed from these models?: It depends on each model's licence, and that is stated on the author's page. Many use a Creative Commons licence with a non-commercial term; some permit selling prints. Read it rather than assume.

See the materials The gear list The handbook