Got my MK2 running....so when will it all go wrong?
I built my MK2 on Christmas eve day and started running prints on Christmas. I printed the batman, martian, vase and a keychain fob and all of them came out beautiful in the Prusa PLA that came in the kit. I am very impressed.
Putting the kit together was easy but I did have a couple issues. First one was the holes on the main frame were all undersized. Yes I could get the screws to thread about halfway through before they started binding. Fearing the possibility of a screw breaking off, I decided to drill them out a little bit larger. Second problem came from the Rambo box. The hole for the cover screw, the 40mm long one that keeps the cover closed, was oversized. So now I have zip ties holding the cover closed. If anyone know where there is a cover file so I can reprint it out, that would be great.
Alright so now I have printed a few files and all of them look awesome. When is it going to fail? Seems like everything I see or read on the internet is all 3D printers are unreliable and prints always fail. So why have none of mine?
Re: Got my MK2 running....so when will it all go wrong?
Many factors are involved. I think 3D printing is like photography. Most of the time you just hit the button and it works. But now try to photograph the solar eclipse and have it look nice.
Once you start making your own designs then the fun starts.
As an overview you will see more failed prints base on these factors:
-The bigger the print, the more complexity.
-Printing with different filament types ( eventually you may want parts that can be used in your car, so PLA is not an option).
If you are starting out with the MK2 with the Slic3r from Prusa as your 1st printer you will not hit many of the road bumps, however when you do, this forum is a great resource to help troubleshoot the issue.
I think that there is a saying that a 3D printer is a person, not a machine, because the MK2 is like having a high end DSLR camera. The machine can mitigated many of the problems, but once a problem arises then you have try different things to get the results you want.
Best Regards,
David
Re: Got my MK2 running....so when will it all go wrong?
I was surprised that I managed to get mine built square enough to where the software didn't need to do any compensation.
I did try to run some g-code without flushing it through the Prusa Slicer and saw it coming out like garbage so I stopped it, ran the same STL through the Prusa Slicer and it looked awesome. Obviously the Prusa Slicer has some good programming.
Re: Got my MK2 running....so when will it all go wrong?
The screw for the electronics box cover is intended to go in to a square nut that you insert in the fixed part of the box. There is a small slot to insert it into. See the assembly guide, chapter 8, step 3, the second and third pictures. Note that the pictures show a hex nut but a square one works better and was what was supplied in my bag of bits for this step.
If you have misplaced the square nut, or you didn't get one for this step, there are more in the spares bag.