Over the years, Iāve learned a fair amount about maintaining (or coddling) a few different models of 3D printers:Ā Makerbot (Cupcake, 2, 2x, 5th Gen), Printrbot (Simple Metal), Bits from Bytes (3D Touch and Cube), and Ultimaker (2+, Go, and Original+). Like the book about maintaining motorcycles, you can either buy a top of the line printer with awesome customer support and expect it to work amazingly, or you can get to know one intimately because you built it from a kit or from scratch and/or you found yourself elbow deep in a machine trying to troubleshoot with the help of Google, user forums, willpower, and luck. Desktop 3D printers are not āplug and playā ā I have almost never been able to simply turn on and use a 3D printer without any frustrations.
Iāve spent the past two weeks in close proximity with two Ultimaker Original+ kit printersĀ (built by Brearley students a few years ago). For better or worse, I removed and rebuilt the feeder assembly on both printers, and Iām still not satisfied with the feeder on the one sitting on my desk right now. I feel like I need to either remodel the studentsā designs, change the Ultimakerās settings, buy newer filament, and/or only print one thing at a time, as having the extruder āretractā during the print is causing problems with an already problematic feeder. I think Iāve narrowed it down to possibly needing a new ball bearing on the feeder clamp. When I notice filament isnāt advancing properly, I manually apply force to guide it from the spool to the opening of the feeder. Itās beyond tedious, and Iām sure the fumes (even from PLA) are making me stoopider.
Iāve taken to making tick marks on the filament with a permanent marker and anxiously staring to see if the filament advances properly. Essentially, Iāve learnt that the trick is to continually glare at it. As soon as I convince myself itās working and walk away to attend to something else (or gloat), it fails. Every. Single. Time. Iām officially naming this oneĀ Christine.
But, oh, the satisfaction when it worksā¦
(āI wrote a similarly titled post about 3D printer nerd-ery in 2013 here: https://karenblumberg.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/zen3dtouch/)
Ā Zen and the art of 3D printer maintenance redux. @BrearleyNYC #MakerEd #STEAM Over the years, I've learned a fair amount about maintaining (or coddling) a few different models of 3D printers:Ā
