Abstract
I hope no one would be so bold as to tell you that 3D printing is a carefree experience. While it is true you should expect your printer to perform as designed, a lot of your success will be whether you perform the necessary maintenance and know how to fix the printer when things go wrong. And things will occasionally go wrong. That’s part of the charm of owning a leading-edge innovation. In other words, your success should be measured by your ability to maintain, repair, and tune your printer, as well as your learned skills in producing quality prints.
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Notes
- 1.
I once had a car in college that would do that. Failures were random, always dramatic, and when you least expected or needed to rely on it for transport.
- 2.
Fearing the inevitable answer.
- 3.
Indeed, on first glance it appears all belts are nonadjustable, but this isn’t the case for the Replicator 1, 2, and 2X.
- 4.
I would normally write this in my engineer’s notebook, but I list it here electronically. Otherwise, you would need a decoder ring to read my handwriting.
- 5.
This is akin to throwing money at a problem. For example, don’t throw that clogged nozzle away without first knowing why it clogged and how to unclog it!
- 6.
Properly cooled, of course.
- 7.
Use that roll of tape with the logo imprinted, or that less expensive roll you were sure would work just as well as the one twice the price. At least, that’s what I do.
- 8.
I have not created any of these myself, but I recommend trying these if skirts or removable walls do not work for you.
- 9.
You should treat your printer the same as any other piece of equipment. Specifically, keep your hands, other robots, drones, and loose clothing away from the printer while it is operating.
- 10.
Normally early warning. Ignore them long enough and they become “told you so” sounds.
- 11.
Unpluggers unite! It’s one of my OCD quirks. I unplug things. There, I’ve said it.
- 12.
This is one of those “do as I say, not as I do” moments. Never handle electronics that are powered on unless you know precisely what you are doing.
- 13.
As in stranded wire. You would not choose solid-core wiring for components that require flexible wire.
- 14.
You checked to see it if is plugged in and the power switch is in the “ON” position, didn’t you?
- 15.
This was one of the original goals of the RepRap project—to be able to reproduce itself by printing a new set of plastic parts.
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© 2014 Charles Bell
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Bell, C. (2014). Solving Hardware Issues. In: Maintaining and Troubleshooting Your 3D Printer. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-6808-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-6808-6_7
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Publisher Name: Apress, Berkeley, CA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4302-6809-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4302-6808-6
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