Tuesday night I went to bed with my printer going - about 40 minutes left on a print. It finished beautifully. I had one more piece left to print in my upcoming project reveal! I have mentioned it a few times, but I will post pics and a write up when it's done.
Wednesday morning I set up the print in Cura, the software to control the printer, because i have just enough time to finish a 3-hour-print before work. Then I walked upstairs to make a quick breakfast. I usually catch up on my stories and eat a leisurely breakfast, snuggle the puppers, catch up on my Words With Friends, etc, morning stuff. I turned the TV on for the last round of Holiday Baking Championship, turned the tv back off without worrying about my DVR, cleaned my dishes and came downstairs. I figured I would have some Netflix and MTG card sorting before work.
"Let me check on that print and see how sexy it is," I told Charlotte the dog. I look at the printer and can't quite get my head around what I am seeing. Half of the print is completely finished. but the arm is jumping and twitching in a hardening puddle of plastic, the bed, I immediately notice is making a weird noise.
Why is the arm still down low, if half the print is already 2 inches tall?
Have you guessed?
I didn't take my print from Tuesday night off the bed before I tried to print again.
That's right, I literally tried to print over my print, so I could have a print while I had my print.
The second half of the story: I peeled the Cronenberg abomination print from the bed, strip it, clean it, sigh deeply.
(If I can interject on my own story on my own blog, the raft on piece one came away perfectly, like safefty guard on electronics... too bad the burned and weirdly melted pieces messed it up) I guess I could get the smaller of the two parts reprinted before work. Before I do that, I remember the weird clanking noise and check the screws on the bed for tightness. Everything's tight. I decide to print a calibration test - the standard 3mm square provided by printrbot.
Oh my. There is something definitely wrong with the bed's axis. I played with the pronterface - trying to move the x axis, hearing only thumps and whirring. I start to worry. I grab my coffee and set up shop in the office instead of the living room - it's going to be a long morning...
The story has a semi-decent ending, I promise. I unplugged it, disconnected from computer and removed the bed, dusting it off, nothing looked broken, the toothy belt that moves the axis was a bit loose. I cut the zip tie and tightened it, rezip-tying it.screwed all the screws back in, tried again. same problem.
I do it again. This time when I have the bed off, I live dangerously and turn it on, use the pronterface to move the x axis. it seems to be moving the belt, no thumping. I turn it back off and kind of "floss" the area, pulling the toothy belt back and forth for about 30 seconds. Reassemble the bed, turn it all on, try to move the x-axis. It works fine, the bed moves, no grinding, jsut the normal "whurrrr" as it moves.
I print another calibration square. this time it works perfectly. I write up a post and it's time for work!
During my down time on the phone i set the printer to go, printing the bigger piece, and then the small piece, It finishes about 30 minutes after I am done working and I tacky glue the two pieces together. The tacky glue worked just fine on the smaller pieces from the day before. I just gotta wait on that, and then I can takes pictures and write up my next piece!
