My dearest MK3 - a sad story with no happy ending (at least for now...)  

My dearest MK3 - a sad story with no happy ending (at least for now...)

This is a sad story about my short and turbulent relationship with my MK3. I wish we could be together for years – printing happily ever after, but the harsh reality is that it may be over... but starting from the beginning.

I first saw her in April, somewhere on the Internet and immediately desired to have her with me. Not thinking to long I made and order one and get her in pieces in June.

During first few days I was getting to know her, assembling every part of her body carefully and meticulously, and there she was – ready to be bring to life!

First tests and calibrations went well and she informed me that everything is OK – even her axes were perfectly perpendicular!

At that moment I really felt that we could move this relationship forward. I invested time, money, thought and emotions to make sure that she would get everything she needed. I build the nice, elegant enclosure just for her, made custom spool container ensuring smooth filament feed.

I even treated her with the best perfumes (which from the time perspective show my growing obsession about her).

Unfortunately soon after those moments, things started to go wrong…

She started to be capricious and unpredictable to such extend that I wasn’t able to print almost anything correctly. Even if she started almost
perfectly (first layer) within minutes and sometimes hours she started to ruin everything that we hope to create together. It was like playing a Russian roulette with her.

I was really trying to find out what’s going on and the only thing that I could observe was that at some point the filament was not extruded correctly or at wasn’t extruded all … but she didn’t seem to notice and was pretending printing like nothing happened and that everything was OK … when it wasn’t!

After many days of constant struggles I said enough and went to look for help and support from other people who I heard, had some also hard times with their MK3s. And I found the solution – at least I thought so.

I’ve decided to disassemble her extruder and the hottest part (nozzle, heatsink, heater block etc.) and following other guys advices checked her internal parts. That was it – a missing hotend collet clip! Being thrilled I assembled her once again waiting impatiently for our next prints – I had so many plans and ideas what we still could achieve together..

First prints after the surgical operation went well – we printed together Prusa logos, spool holders, new hard feet just for her.

Everything was fine so I thought I would try to print something more sophisticated again (after I think five of six failures before her surgery). I prepared her carefully for this task – treated her with newly bought IPA, calibrating again and making sure that she would have everything she needed.

And the day has come, Thursday, 13th of Sept. The day I will always remember. I started the print that should last for approximately eight hours and left her with the task. I came back after 5 hours and from the moment I saw her I knew that something wasn’t quite right…

At first sight she was still working but when I approached her I saw that something terribly wrong is happening to her! I saw an unnatural, horrible plastic tumor on her body that was probably growing on her delicate body for hours! The tumor was made of melted PLA that covered the whole hotend and heater block, partially affecting the printed parts of the extruder. The view was too painful – I couldn’t watch her agonizing … so I switched her off.

I immediately started disassembling her delicate parts, so terribly affected by the cruel plastic mass. I was still hoping that there’s a chance to safe her, removing the tumor with the surgical precision. Unfortunately damages were too severe … it was simply too late, I was too late to save her from this terrible fate.

Well - that was horrible the only consolation is that my place was not burned to the ground ...

And now ... I still can’t cope with my loss. All my hopes and dreams are lost. So many hours, money and effort invested in something that was supposed to be the happy and productive relationship. Everything turned out to be just the illusion that disappeared this fatal day. I feel sad, angry, disappointed – honestly said - simply devastated. I almost have no hope that I’ll be able to build a satisfying relationship again with any other Mk3 🙁

Unless…

Unless there is a force in the Universe that has the power to change this tragic fate, bringing back the hope and joy in my life, turning my sad tale into the love story with the happy ending ..

Maybe good people from Prusa Research, maybe Mr Josef Prusa himself would be willing to bring back the light into my world … we shall see … I still have the last glimpses of hope…