Why and how you should find your 3D printer’s weaknesses to avoid disaster

[@hinkenborp]

Klipper input shaping "uses magic" got a kick out of me. I loved how you said it was magic and moved straight onward no questions asked hahaha

[@TeachingTech]

When I covered it in two videos the process went over people's heads so better just to describe it as magic.

[@edumaker-alexgibson]

@@TeachingTech Arthur C. Clarke's third law in action.

[@VictorLopez-ws4iq]

Luckily I wasn't drinking coffee when I heard that.

[@aaronrobinson7878]

Michael I want to thank you for what you’re doing. I’m about six months in on 3DP and after the day it’s been I’ve been thinking of giving up. Although this hobby is the most exciting thing I’ve found in my adult life, I notice it also lets me down a lot. However, your videos and that incredible website inspire and inform in a way that helps me maybe look at my situation differently. Thats what happened this evening as I was I deciding I was going to give my printers away and just stick with VR and PS5. I’m not going to do that though cause you’re right…complacency. I was counting on the fact that the inductive sensor would prevent the nozzle from crashing into the bed. However, I know as well that for whatever stupid reason the manufacturer’s can’t uncomment a word or crimp wires together without cross-crossing them so I should know better than assume it’s all good. (Reliability) Anyways, this is really just my long-winded way of letting you know I’ll be signing up as a Patron. Thanks again.

[@jonj4419]

Well done. You sum up the home 3d printing experience in all its glory. In the end, you buy what your budget allows, and live with problem solving the unknown shortcomings.

[@mrdoohickey4824]

Great vid Michael. Happy to share the reasons for a slow degrading of my trusty Ender 5s performance over a period of several months. Good printer carefully upgraded over 3 years become increasingly erratic. Random over/under extrusion with layer issues. One print fine, the next a mess. Finally dissembled and rebuilt the whole machine. Discovered two mechanical causes: 1) Layer issues due to worn wheels on the carriages producing flat spot bumps at regular but widely spaced (ie circumference of contact area) intervals. 2)Extrusion problem due to roller bearing failure in dual geared extruder. The hobbed gear was twisting out of true and had machined itself into the aluminium housing. The friction generated creating the over/under extrusion. How I missed that was just complacency! Cheap to fix but wasted many hours on duff prints, filament, and frustration. Keep up the good work.

[@ygalion]

I got my first printer it was printing fine, after i learned need some bed adhesion. Then i got another printer and both suddenly end to work properly. Spend some time fixing and could not, and left it all for half year. Now slowly try again and it start to work. Its sad when you want thing to work as intended, but at some point its nice to feel that you finally manage to fix it

[@MAGA_Patriot2024]

Another video added to my favorites...tyvm, Michael! 👍👍

[@Stephane1995]

As someone who's just spent the entire week before nye guarding and fixing my printer on the go so it could finish the lithophane I was gifting to someone this video hits close to home!

[@dagda825]

My CR 10 has recently gone from a toy to a tool so these videos are a great help. I struggled with a problem that, in hindsight, was trivial: the extruder is interlocked with the hot end. I was trying to set the e-steps and panicking; the extruder would not run. Fortunately for me, the answer was on the CR10 reddit page and all is well. I'm not sure if this is feasible or not but a video on how the parts of a printer are interconnected would be youtube gold. Thanks for the great content, I'd probably have given up on 3D printing if not for this channel :-D

[@Chad.The.Flornadian]

Nice and thorough along with a nice broad range of topics covered. Always food for thought in your videos.

[@rehon101]

Could you make a video about ptc air heater for a mains powered chamber heater

[@coryrreed]

been watching your videos for a long time thinking about getting a printer, couple of weeks ago i got an ender 3 and lived on your page getting it setup and dialed in. great channel, great content, easy to use, and the supplemental web pages to help get everything up and running are amazing. though i have to say, you sitting behind that desk makes it look like you are about 4 foot 9 inches tall lol.

[@blackwater7183]

That is his height...whats wrong with it?

[@blake_schwanke]

lol

[@TeachingTech]

For the record I'm 6'1", not that that is impotant. THe desk is really tall. It's designed to stand rather than sit when you work on stuff.

[@coryrreed]

@@TeachingTech nope, i fully get it, just funny looking sometimes, wasnt making a comment on short people either. personally im 6'5"

[@blake_schwanke]

@@TeachingTech yeah tall desks are much better than short ones

[@MakerMeraki]

Great video and info! Thank you!

[@GaryGraham66]

I have a CR10pro, Geeetech A10M, CTC MakerBot clone and an RS (Weistek) printer. All have different uses, some are faster for prototyping or small repeatable parts for sale (Weistek), larger prints come from the CR10pro, accurate tolerances or dual colour prints I use the A10M. The CTC clone has been modded with a new mainboard (Marlin) and hot tends but will find its niche. Could have a "non-working" QIDI one for £4 coming soon as a hobby project for a very small bed but a lot higher Z-axis prints.

[@orac229]

Reliable and measurement accurate most important, speed can be slow as I set a print before I go to work or bed so no need for 1 hour when 8 is fine. I manually level the bed twice a year and only adjust/check Z height when changing role but 80% of the time no adjustment is needed. Still using Marlin 1.1 and Slic3r 1.3 been printing 6 years with great results. Original Reprap Mono Mendel.

[@brandonwatts5435]

HAHAHA @ clipper's input shaping uses magic.... cracking me up man

[@MrHeHim]

First thing i did with the last printer i bought (Duplicator i3) was a test print which was bad :) THEN, i completely disassembled it and redesigned some horrible ideas, printed out the new parts on my old printer, flashed to board to firmware with temperature runaway and marlin, calibrated the voltage for the stepper motors (printed a spiral vase and large square while reading and adjusting), perfectly squared the machine, and lubed it up with Teflon grease on the lead screws and "gun oil" for the bearings, and last calibrated the heaters. The machine rarely goes out of level, maybe after 20+ prints

[@timdare0831]

I am curious about leveling sensors. Which one do you prefer I know that there are several. Thank you for your help.

[@thesinofthetin]

Very useful video!

[@DoubleG1960]

brilliant episode thank you

[@yassinelessawy6101]

Will your 3d printer let you down when you needed the most? My printer:yes

[@skaltura]

5:50 what is that you are using for filament drying?

[@TeachingTech]

Just a big food dehydrator. I know filament specific ones exist but this was cheap and can fit about a dozen rolls at once.

[@skaltura]

@@TeachingTech guessed as much :) Doesn't matter what it was originally for; just it functions for the task. and in this case that device also looks good and looks like it's made for this specific job. Subbed @ patreon too. Thanks for your content and site tools :)

[@AlexHuebi]

One thing to note: Even though the printer does have a filament runout protection, It might not always work. Best example: My Printer does have one but it is puffering the gcode in some wierd way so if the filament runs out or even when I want to pause the print it takes a few seconds to *react*. But: It only really is a problem if the print has long straights. If there are curves (that are multiple gcode commands) the puffer is cleared much quicker.

[@edumaker-alexgibson]

There is indeed a GCODE instruction buffer present in most firmwares. It can often be tuned - for example in Marlin in Configuration_adv.h There are often physical ways to avoid this being a problem - like moving the filament outage detection further 'upstream' from the extruder.

[@LisaHarsh]

Thanks. I am just getting started and have finally gotten my first good print. I made the mistake of upgrading my Ender 3 pro before getting it to work. After two prints my BLtouch is doing weird things. I’ve been watching yours and other videos trying to teach myself how to fix the issues. One of which you have the print on your site, stringing.

[@TeachingTech]

THe video for this didn't get much traction, but this page may be helpful too: teachingtechyt.github.io/troubleshooting.html

[@stevesloan6775]

So many wise words... especially the complacent factor. Seems to be a human weakness that has been a hindrance and exploited for the longest time, if I’m not correct. Wise words a many!🤓🤜🏼🤛🏼🇦🇺🍀🍀🍀

[@pqpq6479]

Michael you are so thorough.... a little too thorough lmao Great job!

[@trontekkenproductions2975]

great video, thank you

[@Yavorh55]

"They may spend more time customizing it"... Thank you for justifying this for me hahaha

[@sourc3C]

Do you happen to know if there's a way to decrease the sound that the stepper motors make? I presume it would entail replacing them, unfortunately it will be difficult for me as the printer i want to do this to is all proprietary (Makerbot Method X) - all the other hardware on it is great, but its just far too loud. Sounds more like a CNC machine than a 3d printer.

[@MiJuMoritz]

Interesting. What's up with the 18650 lion block?

[@Otakunopodcast]

"Demonstration prints are not indicative of print quality." Very good advice. I would like to add that sometimes this is also true, but in the opposite way to what you would think. I've worked with some 3D printers where the included pre-sliced test prints were *absolutely horrid*. At first I thought that the machine was defective and/or maybe I messed up during the build. But when I went and sliced my own test print, it came out beautifully. So yeah, even though you would think manufacturers would go out of their way to make their test files look good, a lot of times they don't. So just because the test print came out horrid, don't assume the machine is broken or a piece of junk. Another tip: when printing test prints -- either ones included by the manufacturer, or ones you sliced yourself -- use silk PLA filament. Preferably silky black, but if you don't have that, then any other silk (besides white) will do. IMHO silk filaments (especially silk black) do a great job of exposing print artifacts or other print issues, much more so than regular (non-silk) PLA. Also, when running test prints, don't choose that as the right time to try out a new unfamiliar brand of filament. Use a brand you are very familiar with and have printed with often when printing test prints. The reasoning behind this should be pretty plain to see. If you print with a filament you know well, you'll know if your prints are looking correct or not.

[@TeachingTech]

Very good point, thanks for sharing. I've also reviewed machines where the SD card print was ok but anything on the bundled slicer profile was horrid.

[@francistaylor1822]

Love the shirt!

[@SoccerFury08]

Can you make an informative video about 3d printers and safety. I am specially doing research on the fumes produced by PLA and ABS. An informative video on how to properly ventilate or what steps one must take for printing from home would be awesome thank you.

[@dylanlasky2389]

I know this video is old now but I just ran issues that this video would have prevented. My hot end aged to the point of falling apart and it's the only printer I have. I bought replacements but I needed to print parts to put it all together. Turned into kind of a pain but I'm almost finished now.

[@TwilightSparkel16]

I'm having a problem with my ender3v2 that every time I home it I have to re level the bed and I literally haven't touched anything not even let it cool and reheat. iv re built it a few times like tensioning and cleaning the v rollers and I cant figure out the problem and its driving me nuts and I just want it to be reliable. Iv only printed petg and pla

[@Cfontes82]

What's up with those airbrush nozzles I see on Aliexpress all the time now? what is the purpose of those?

[@TwinsCustomsCA]

print quality, accuracy, reliability

[@michaelleff1158]

Hoping you can help! Unknowingly you have mentored me thru my 3d printing journey. I have come to an impass and cannot get my printer to print anymore! After spending the past month trying to figure it out, I am hoping you can put me on the right path. I have an Ender 5. I was having problems with my endstops and at at the same time, my laptop died. New motherboard. New Windows X laptop. Now my slicing software cannot find the printer (can't print via usb). Printer recognizes when I put in the micro sc card, (card inserted prompt), but will not open it (no tf prompt). Now I have a giant paperweight. I have read everything I can and watched everything I can. Tried many cables, many sd cards. Trying to update firmware, but of course, printer won't recognize the sd card. HELP!!

[@aikokiss9529]

I would love to see a comparison between the mosquito, magnum plus and the dragon high flow hotend.

[@ameliabuns4058]

This should rather be "how your 3DPrinters identify your weaknesses just to break in the worst moment in the worst way possible" I just had my heaterblock fall out of nowhere (yes fall, no no collision) in middle of a printer I was so excited for. On the middle of a holiday. It happened 3 days ago and I gotta probably wait another 3 for a replacement. Curse you no name 0.5$ Chinese clones! (I'm in Iran so I don't get a choice..)

[@Filmman586]

Michael, can you recommend a good mid to large size printer? Looking at around 300x300.

[@Ian.Smith44]

My extruder is still encased in plastic from last year

[@TeachingTech]

Heat it up and wait, the plastic mass should soften and then you can start to remove it. The hard part is any delicate wiring encased inside.

[@Ian.Smith44]

@@TeachingTech wow, it worked, I also used a heat gun to soften the plastic while I removed it Edit: also if you could do a video on how to hide the seam on 3D prints it would be helpful

[@TommiHonkonen]

The worst weakness in 3d printing is the manufacturers race to sell you the same ender 3 clone for less and less. I've been almost pulling the trigger on various creality printers but good thing I didn't. I bought ratrig instead. Cheap will always get you cheap and if it's even cheaper than the last what do you get then? Even cheaper printer that barely prints after you fiddle with it for days.

[@redheadsg1]

Linear advance is really not an easy or free thing to get since you need specific TMC drivers and better board which not all 3d printer have out of the box (for example Creality printers).

[@TeachingTech]

Creality boards with TMC2208s in standalone are the ONLY boards which are tricky, not the the way around. With a Klipper conversion even this hardware will work.

[@korneljadeit5353]

Daniel Riciardo ?, as a F1 fan i realize You're Aussie too . ;)

[@TeachingTech]

I have a dog named Ricciardo and previously one called Webber :D

[@SuperDeinVadda]

Hey My Z-axis stepper does funny movements. For the same amount of e steps it sometimes moves 0.1mm and sometimes 0.01mm. On all prints I lose 0.3mm of build hight in the first few layers. After that it seems accurate. Calibrating the e steps doesn't help. Is the motor defective or am I missing something?

[@ColinDyckes]

Just a suggestion, but typical z-motor step is 0.04mm (depending on machine though). If layer height isn't a multiple of 0.04mm then you're likely to get strange Z steps.

[@TeachingTech]

Not sure if you're talking about Z steps or E steps as you mention both. Perhaps check grub screws in the pulleys. If they are loose, you will have play and inaccuracy.

[@makewithmegma]

Nice💕👍

[@atharvbadkas5452]

My 2 Reasons for switching my E3Max from Klipper to Marlin 1 It doesn't support power resume function like marlin(not even using btt ups recovery function) 2 It doesn't support hardware PWM (for my laser) Besides this everything is great although using Input Shaper on Bed slinger printer is quite useless...I didn't saw any big difference in ringing in my prints on different accelerations

[@Urist_Mythrilforged]

The 3D printed gore made me wince.

[@WillofNewZealand]

The biggest weakness in 3d printing is all websites have now gone down. No operational business services such as the most important and critical servises like license transfers and sales.

[@arthurmorgan8966]

I needed this video one year ago Michael, where were you? Oh, the horrors. Edit: typo

[@jeremywood959]

My printers biggest weakness is the user

[@kelvin1316]

I hate the term "zits" for extrusion blobs, just makes me feel a bit nauseous and brings back bad memories. Why can't they just be called "blobs"?

[@TeachingTech]

I'll try to remember that :)

[@YourBuddyDinec]

Did you just call the ender 3 a tweakers printer? 😜

[@MatthewHanson1]

Commenting for the algorithm

[@barenekid9695]

Running low on subject matter?

[@Ron_Ventura]

YOU may have seen every video Michael has released, but this is useful for newcomers to the channel, who may not have waded through his whole back catalogue.

[@TeachingTech]

Not every video is for every person. If it's not for you just move on with your day. No need to be negative.