The Surprise

Hmm, all those parts look so interesting... Alone they can do so little, together they can 3D print. After dropping way too much on a PrintrBot Play and waiting a week for it to be delivered, I was finally able to start putting it together. Like a kid on Christmas day I tore into the 17 pound box of parts. When you order a PrintrBot, you have the choice between a pre-assembled bot or kit. The special thing about this choice is that both options are the same price. They heavily urge you to order the assembled unit because "they're better at putting them together". Despite their advice, I ordered the kit, and it was not because I saved $10 on shipping that way. Tinkering is what I do best, and what better way to learn every nuance of the printer than to build it from its pieces. I did not, however know how frustrating some of the assembly would be.

There are step-by-step instructions on the PrintrBot website to follow to put things together, so I jumped in and got started.

The base and its stepper motors in place, before having to take it all apart again.

Things went fairly smoothly through the build process, with only minor frustrations arising from missing steps or putting the wrong stepper motor in the wrong place. One of the most annoying parts of the process came when it was time to work on the y-axis bar.

y-axis bar.

First, I managed to overtighten the plastic that holds the linear bearings to the extruder, and break the bracket a bit. This was easily mended with a squirt or two of super glue, and very carefully screwed back into place. The next step involved installing and tensioning the rubber drive belt. To hold the belt in place, each size was wrapped around and then zip-tied to itself. Some tensioning screws could then be tightened to pull the belt tight. The problem I kept facing was that the belt did not want to stay ziptied to itself, and would come loose when I tried to tighten it. Some swear words later, the last mechanical pieces were assembled, the last wires were plugged in, and I had a *working* printer.

 Next came the long process of calibrating the printer so it could print a little test cube without grinding the nozzle into the print bed. Unfortunately, in order to to this, the nozzle ended up digging to into the print bed time after time, while I tried to learn how to fix everything. 

Progression of failed prints, resulting in a successful 2cm by 2cm by 3mm test cube.

When I finally thought I was getting somewhere, I hit another setback. My nozzle clogged, and the plastic filament got stuck in the long heat sync on the extruder. I tried many different ways of unclogging everything, from turning the print temperature way up and forcing the filament through, to turning the temperature down and pulling the threat out the "in" side. Nothing worked and I was beginning to think "oh good, I broke this damn thing on the second day I got it". It was time to get serious, so I took a blowtorch, heated up the tube and heated up a needle, stuck the needle down the tube, waited for everything to cool (only burning myself 30 or 40 times) and to my surprise, was able to pull out the 3 inches of plastic that was clogging everything up. After this success, I was able to print the test cube, and with that successful, It was time for my first "real" print.

The product was a Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride vehicle, because Disney nerds gonna be Disney nerds. 

This 3D printer is going to be vital to the construction of the Mark VI monorail, and I plan to utilize the printer to get accuracy that I could never achieve by hand.

Conclusions:

• 3D printers are not plug and play
• 210 Degrees Celsius hurts when you touch it
• Sometimes you just need to walk away
• 3D printers are really cool, what a time to be alive