My Prusa got a tumor  

My Prusa got a tumor

Hi,

I think I have gone through the worst things that can happen to a Prusa and I wanted to share the story.

One day, I found this when I got home.

https://goo.gl/photos/xjXHVgfJfsTaZKAU8

I know the filament gets stuck in the nozzle occasionally. But have you seen something like this?? The ABS got stuck to the nozzle itself in a terrible way. The larger the chunk got, the easier it would get molten filament like a snowball, I guess. But I didn't know how it started from the first place.

I might have guessed that bed leveling might have led to filament not sticking to the bed and somehow it got stuck on the nozzle. However, I did confirm that the first few layers were printed OK so I suppose printing conditions such as the temperatures were OK as well.

I also investigated all the 3 axes. I couldn't find any weird behavior.

So, what happened? I still don't know. But I was not really disappointed even if I was left there without a clue. When you get used to new things, stupid things always happen.

I reported the case to the CS but they were not to investigate such a messy case. As they said, clogging during printing were not even covered by the warranty. Fair enough (Really, I think so. I'm not sarcastic yet). So I ordered parts to be replaced. As ABS was much more effective in transferring heat than the air, all the parts that had been covered by the ABS chunk were broken (wires cut, parts badly deformed, etc).

After waiting for a few weeks (guys you know) I finally got the new parts and I replaced them. While I was at it, I upgraded it to MK2S with the kit. And it was working perfectly ... until I found this.

https://goo.gl/photos/a7L3oKWxaFR7jvfW6

It could be a symbiote (Spider-man) but it was not moving at all. It turned out that the same thing had happened again. The ABS chunk was formed on the nozzle. This time the filament was black so it looked more devastating.

This time, I thought it was weird. Why again? I have been operating three printers: an M2, a Prusa and a Cubicon. None of them except Prusa had caused such troubles. I was a bit upset and disappointed. After a couple of days, I ordered the damaged parts again. After I found that the two options I had were investing $100 in reviving my Prusa or no additional cost with a dead printer. And I chose the former.

I suggested (with slight hope) to the CS that there would be any chance they would get my unit replaced or something as it might be defective. They said no (fair enough) so I ordered the parts again.

To make a long story short, my Prusa has developed the tumor for the third time. And I think I will quit this time. If I keep trying, I feel like I would get a tumor as well.

I still don't understand why it happened. At first, I was pretty sure I had done something wrong by mistake. But I highly doubt that now as my other two printers have never caused anything like that while my Prusa has done it three times.

Any suggestion would be appreciated, especially on how to discard the machine properly.