[Geschlossen] Last time I ever buy a Prusa  

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

No idea how much this is going to cost to put right.  Came home to find the print welded to the print head, and in tring to temove it the carriage has broken, and my jeans are covered in grease.  Started my own business 3dprinting last year.  Have decided to jack it in.  This printer is written off, and I don't need the hassle anymore.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

In all fairness, looks like the part came loose from the print bed. That can happen on any printer. 

Most of the time that is recoverable with a bit of work; best case printing a new fan shroud, typical case new thermistor and heater cartridge, worst case, a new v6 hot-end. 

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

Blob of Doom can happen to any printer. Did you at least mount a sock to minimize the chances? Are you leaving prints to run unmonitored when away? Are you aware of the Spaghetti Detective plugin for Octoprint?

If you're basing a business on 3D printing, you really do want to be up on these issues. Blaming the printer for this is like blaming your toaster for burning toast. You're part of the equation.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

Prusa has an article on the proper way to clean the blobs off. Curious how you got grease all over yourself working on a Mk3!

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

@apromain

Good decision. I think a 3D printer with a service contract is the best options for you business. No jeans will be covered in grease anymore.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

I'm just very cranky - I went downstairs to get my pizza out of the oven 5 mninutes after this, and the oven door shattered!

Ok - yes I do leave my printer unattended - anyone that says they don't is either a liar, or has way too much time to sit and watch a printer on a 35hr print!

The grease was from one of the slide rods.  Just a small build up.  From lubed bearings. 

I did have a sock fitted for about a week - I found it was more hassle than it was worth.  If they're that necessary, why not fit them as standard.

And finally, revel in my misfortune as much as you like.  Smart alec comments don't help.  I was being benevolent and printing out something for a disabled friend, life should have taught me years ago not to be nice to people. 

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

I know it's not the printers fault.  But with a few thousand hours of printing behind me, this is the first time this has happened.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

@apromain

My comment may sound sarcastic but it's not. If failing printer is bringing you down that much then go for a service contract. Prusa printers are failing like any others. It's just a matter of time. Sometimes this fails are easy to fix, sometimes not. In this case it's around $100 max for parts and 1-3  hours repair time(depending on your skills) to make the printer print again.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

@nikolai-r

Hey Nikolai, I'm sorry I snapped back - just feeling a bit sore at the moment.  My full time job is a Senior Tech Support Engineer (Electro-Mechanical), so you can see the irony.  My capabilities more than enough cover getting this thing back up and running, I'm just impatient and don't need the diversion.  My 3d printing business is a spare time venture, and I'm hoping to build it up (5 printers and counting), and I have just landed a very lucrative contract, so it couldn't have come at a worse time.  Weekends are my printing window, so time is of the essence, but thanks for your response, sincerely.  The oven, my jeans, and the Prusa can be rectified, could have just done without the expense and time.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

....and we all know it's not the last time I'll buy a Prusa.....sorry for the hot air!!

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

After seeing what happened to you and it could happen to any of us, I'm printing a complete spare set of parts for my printer as I only have the one printer.

I've already got spare fans and other electronic parts, but no spare extruder parts.

As Aesop once said : "Better be wise by the misfortunes of others, than by your own."

Sorry, I know this doesn't help you, but I hope you can get back up and running again quickly.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

I hope you didn't take my comments as any sort of reveling in your misfortune. I was posting a quick summary of useful precautions on mobile, so had to be terse. I lurk in most of the 3D printing reddits, and Blob of Doom incidents are one of the top problems posted regardless of the printer hardware. These are earnest suggestions, particularly if you're going to be doing a lot of printing as a side business.

• If you regularly have to leave prints unattended, definitely check into some sort of remote monitoring and the ability to abort jobs-gone-wrong.
• The Spaghetti Detector plugin can abort jobs going bad in some cases.

FWIW, you may be able to recover parts, but be prepared to replace:

• Heatbreak
• Heater block
• Thermistor
• Heater cartridge
• Fan shroud and other 3D printed parts damaged during the incident

I keep a spare hotend assembly on hand after going through a damaged heater block. Not as dramatic looking as yours, but recovery was the same. Doing the job the first time (sans cleaning off the blob) took 2-3 hours, about an hour once I'd done it.

• The sock is a bit of a hassle, but I've found that securing them with a bit of wire is well worth the effort. I've had a couple of spaghetti messes, but nothing has stuck to the block since adding the sock. It also helps maintain stable nozzle temps as well.

Finally...

• Always watch that 1st layer go down. The 3D printing gods are easily angered at any hint of arrogance and will punish offenders.
• The odds of something going wrong go up proportionally with the importance of the print, and inversely proportional to the time available. 

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

@bobstro

Thanks Bobstro, I'm currently in the process of dismantling everything.

I have remote monitoring of sorts - I have smart sockets and an IP camera directed at the printer so I can watch and abort if necessary.  I also did watch my first layer go down, and it was a fantastic first layer, in Pet-G, and didn't look like it was going to shift at all.

This Mk3S was my second, and right from build was an 'enfant terrible' compared to the first - the frame was skewed (the vertical piece was not true) right out of the box (it took an hour in the workshop to true it up), and I want to make sure that everything else is in order. 

I wouldn't mind so much, but I am getting hit by Prusa's delivery charges more and more frequently, and they aren't cheap (that's not a complaint, just a matter of life).  Prusa #1 is on another job with 34hrs left, and I have had a customer order come in this evening for Monday.  Looks like it may have to be another Mk3S added to the shopping list for contingency!  This credit card is never going to go away at this rate!

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

Well, I have got it all apart, looks like the hotend is ok, heater is ok, damaged the thermistor cable getting the plastic blob off, and I need a lot of printed parts, but otherwise ok.  I took the hotend off completely, took the 2 pin connector off, wired it to my bench power supply and put it in a vice to get some heat to it internally, and then used a flow solder heat gun to soften it from the outside.  A bit of perseverance and it all came off. 

An expensive evening, with the new oven and jeans factored in!!

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

There's a saying in many cultures along the lines of "the devil craps on the same pile three times" (The English variant is "bad things come in threes", but I find it rather dull) ... I think you're OK for now; you got your three - the blob, the oven, and your jeans 🙂

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

Posted by: @apromain

[...] I wouldn't mind so much, but I am getting hit by Prusa's delivery charges more and more frequently, and they aren't cheap (that's not a complaint, just a matter of life).  

If you're in the US, PrintedSolid and Filastruder carry most of the Prusa and E3D hotend parts. You can save some in shipping and probably speed up deliveries with them.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

Note to self: Topics like this demonstrate the importance of having spares on hand.

I have no spares of any kind - but I do have a lot of connectors. Time to get printing. And maybe an order to E3D.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

Posted by: @robert-rmm200

Note to self: Topics like this demonstrate the importance of having spares on hand.

My heater block stripped out right before I had to travel. Ordered a replacement and fortunately added some other parts to the order "just in case". Wound up using all the parts, but fortunately had the right bits to repair it the next weekend. I took the opportunity to upgrade to a copper heater block and titanium heartbreak.

I've now converted to the "keep spares" mindset as well. Hadn't appreciated how quickly the hotend can go bad.

RE: Last time I ever buy a Prusa

Posted by: @bobstro

Blob of Doom can happen to any printer. Did you at least mount a sock to minimize the chances? Are you leaving prints to run unmonitored when away? Are you aware of the Spaghetti Detective plugin for Octoprint?

If you're basing a business on 3D printing, you really do want to be up on these issues. Blaming the printer for this is like blaming your toaster for burning toast. You're part of the equation.

This is 100% true.  I would not rule our the Prusa based on a single failure.