3DPrinting

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3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

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What are some dumb mistakes you have made with 3D printing? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world

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I'll start off with a recent one. I forgot to connect the hotend cooling fan when remounting the hotend. After a while the printer jammed and the whole toolhead got so hot that it started to melt. The brass inserts were coming out of their sockets and the hotend stood at an angle instead of straight down.

I also noticed that the "teflon" tube connecting the extruder to the hotend was not in fact teflon. The slowly melting ABS was blowing a bubble in that tube and it was clearly starting to melt.

It was quite a pain in the ass to fix as I did not have a second toolhead nor a second 3D printer to print a new one so I had to fix the extruder/hotend in place using 2-part glue hoping that the printer lasts long enough to print a new toolhead.

I should probably have either a thermal fuse or a smart filament sensor that notices jams as well. When your hotend cooling fan fails, or the operator forgets to connect it, the filament will jam in the heatbreak and if it goes long enough the whole hotend will be plastic-meltingly hot. A jam sensor should see it before the toolhead starts to melt.

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[–] Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 weeks ago

A few years ago I used glass beds. Not fancy ones, I got a large cheap mirror from the hardware store and a glass cutter. Both combined were cheaper than a single bed meant for 3D printing and for PLA they lasted multiple months. PEI is just more practical since it won´t randomly break and is flexible making part removal very easy.

I ruined it by trying to print PETG on it without any adhesion layer in between. It took out a nice chunk of glass from the center.