When it all goes wrong …

I had my first problem with my new Delta 3D printer today.

I was messing around with some of the settings, mostly relating to extrusion amount, retraction and speed. I found some settings online that someone else had posted and  adjusted my existing settings to match.

Then I did something silly. I started a print and left the house.

This is what I found when I returned:11426590_10152898672124856_1003553301_n

The glass print bed had come loose from the base. As I got home and walked in the door, it was slowly being nudged closer to the edge… I think if I’d been half an hour late getting home, it would have fallen off and smashed to pieces!

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One of the arms had snapped away from the hot end mount, likely due to the stress of pushing the glass plate around.

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The hot end was wrapped in filament.

Thankfully, I was able to glue the broken arm and clean up the excess filament. I’ll be purchasing some replacement arms, but regardless, the printer is back up and running again … with my old settings.

I re-calibrated the printer, and I think that I am now getting even better prints than before. It seems my nozzle height was too high.

Today I learned not to change settings and then leave the printer unattended! Also, if there is a problem, the answer is usually simple, and not buried in a settings menu 🙂

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