3D printing addiction

3d Printing / Slicers / Setup / Problems
1

I knew when I first heard about 3D printers many years ago, I was thrilled to try one out one day. Due to financial reasons, I could not buy one till last year. Ever since, I have been addicted. I bet I am not alone.

I wake up, and the first thing which comes to mind is to switch on the printer, which makes my hub laugh. He hates 3D printing and all which surrounds it, despite that he’s an IT expert, heheheheh! But he’s amazed at what it can do. When I need to go out the door, I actually feel sad for the printing time lost. How bad am I?? Lol!

Designing items, finding better ways to improve ideas, creating storylines for my results as I print miniatures mostly for my dolls, sifting through filament options, looking for the best filaments, looking at YouTube vids, it sure is a pleasant way to bring back the creativity skills I lost due to disability!

I find it strange when I read that most guys “need to convince” their wives to buy something for 3D printing. You can show them this topic, lol, because I’m a woman and love it!

2

That’s a great story. And, as I was reading, I was thinking “this is a bit of a role reversal” and then you confirmed it. I don’t play with dolls :smiley: but I do like to use 3D printing to create things that solve problems.

3

Definately “a bit of a role reversal”. Also great to see that men are not the only ones into 3D printing. While my CAD and design skills are minimal, it is nice to know that some problems can be solved by designing and printing one or more items.

4

As slicers improve and 3d printers become easier to use I expect 3d printers will become a regular addition to many crafters’ toolsets. I often combine parts from a 3d printer with wood or metal. I can see people combining 3d printers with sewing.

We are getting close. A number of 3d printers selling for under $250 now have auto bed leveling — one of the hardest things for some people to navigate – and I find that Cura 5.x right out of the box produces excellent prints.

5

I agree that’s the hardest part. But I had 1 of those printers in the past year. “Auto” is “Semi” in comparison to the Prusa i3 mks+ I have. What a staggering difference.

I needed to relevel every 3 to 5 small prints and it doubled my grey hairs, lol. I swear, even my first printer, an Elegoo Neptune 2 with manual leveling was easier to level than the Ender S1 with the semi-automated leveling, how utterly annoying. My Prusa was installed about 2 months ago and I didn’t have to relevel at all so far. Amazing. Although I see a lot of people who have a hard time even leveling a Prusa too on Facebook. Once they can get that process completely fully automated, more people can use a 3D printer with ease.

6

I agree. My MK3S+ is door knob simple to level. It does a bed mesh before every print, which I don’t mind because it’s really quite quick.

7

Here we go again. My Prusa MKS+ had issues. It started throwing blobs. I started hearing many crash detections. Blobs got bigger, so big eventually, that prints got knocked off on their first layer even. Helpdesk gave me the new beta firmware which solved that thermal issue, as far as I can see, because my Superpinda is shafted.

I already suspected so a while back, as I suddenly had to start doing a regular re-calibration of the first layer and it’s time intervals increased, up to a point where it printed way too high after the calibration was redone perfectly. Luckily, there is a test program which throws out data to prove it.

Although I am happy that their helpdesk will send a new Superpinda, I am not pleased on how they handle emails. Yes, they have live 24/7 chat. I’m disabled due to MS and am dyslexic, I can’t do live chat. If they ask me to go and fiddle with parts, I need my hub, as I lack strength to handle certain tools. When he’s available after work, my brain is too tired to do chat. And don’t even start me on the dyslexia, lol. I am slow, and I have yet to meet a helpdesk person who can keep focused waiting for an answer, lol.

Emails have less priority and get no automated reply. I had to beg 3 times on chat to respond, or to see if they even got it. Also, they get no “ticket”, meaning it does not seem to get logged into a system to keep track on help desk problems. It would be so easy to refer back with a case nr. I used to be a quality or IT manager in the past, or both, depending on the job requirements. This makes me cringe!

Now, I wonder how long it will take to get that Superpinda here. Anyone have any experience with that? I am literally suffering from withdrawal.

Oh, yes, I have plenty of hobbies to keep busy, but I also have a big project which I was printing and want it to be finished, it’s been ongoing for almost a year. Luxury problems, I know, I know. Just consider that I live in the EU, everyone I know turned their heating way down because of higher energy prices, except us out of necessity. I can’t visit people because of it, as I get horrible pain when I am cold, even wearing 5 layers of clothing, so my “golden cage” is it 9 months a year. I need my printer, lol!!

8

@irvshapiro1, @Ender5r, thanks!

The Superpinda arrives today! But it means it has to be installed, and I can’t even undo or tighten screws, so hub needs to come to the rescue. Hope he can do it within the next days. He often has to log back onto work in the evenings when something goes wrong, his job has priority over my addiction, looool.

Since my diagnosis, I take as much vitamin D extra per day as an MS patient requires, which is higher than non MS person. My bowels don’t absorb vitamin D well, it has been a must to take extra since I was a child. Thanks for the links!

Yep, I am open about having MS. And several other illnesses. My friends know I joke about being constructed from parts out of the sales when they put me together, rofl. But they did put in the optimist gene luckily for me, glad that one was on discount that day!

9

Well, I am not addicted to 3D printing, but sometimes I find my self lost in thoughts sitting in front of my printer watching it move around. :smiley:

Watching it move around has something relaxing.

10

@Geit, I fully agree!

@Ender5r, there is a danger in taking too much. My level is checked every 6 months doing bloodwork, so I stay at the level prescribed by several MS specialists.

11

Well, the Superpinda works, but I had a weird problem after. First layer calibration perfect, yet printing failed, as the nozzle started wayy too high. Pinda test numbers show that the pinda is not flawed this time, but had to do a large amount of “live adjust z” to get it printing. Then, I noticed that heir new beta firmware, which they asked to install, was supposed to solve the blobs and drooling, and it was even worse. It now drools like a rabit dog. Plus, under and over extrusion at the same time. They are now sending me a new Einsy board.

12

Einsy installed, took 4 hands to do that, wew. Glad hub does not have sausage fingers, or that would have been even harder. I had to assist to hold cables out of the way top be able to reach inside the small Einsy container to unplug and plug items back in.

Problems persist, and we now have more problems. Leadscrews now wobble despite never touched by us. Did not notice that before, till now, as it keeps doing an enforced z-calibration and it seems to get worse with each one. They said that it now needs to be shipped back to be repaired. Shipping of at least 14 days, 4 weeks repair, return shipping, it will be gone for almost 2 months, sigh.

Still, don’t they check if leadscrews are straight during assembly, by rolling them across a flat surface?

So glad we obeyed our hunch to buy a preassembled printer, as this would have been a costly adventure. I quote their helpdesk: “In the case of Assembled Printers, most of this return-repairs are covered under warranty as the assembly is done by us.” Well, we treated it like precious porcelain, so “most” means “all”, lol.

13

That’s a lot of trouble for an MK3S+. Mine hasn’t had anywhere near that number of issues.

As far as the leadscrews go, a little wobble wouldn’t likely have much effect. That’s why the 2 guide rods are there, to keep the vertical movement straight & smooth. It’s also why the tops of the leadscrews are not attached to anything – they’re supposed to be free moving. That said, they shouldn’t have too much wobble.

As regards those leadscrews, they almost certainly were checked at the factory. Prusa is well known for quality checking every component before it goes into a printer. They even test the power supplies to ensure they are fully to spec.

14

Yes, indeed, lots of troubles. Forgot inconsistent over-underextrusion. No partial clog.

15

Before one gets a shipping label, you need to follow strict instructions, take pics, and get approval. That said, I also needed to order black wrapping foil to keep it dry during transport. Finally, it was just picked up. Now, 2 more months patience max before it returns.