It is majorly disheartening to get home and discover a print didn’t even try because the printer started complaining about the readings it was getting from the left thermocouple, the part that measures the temperature. Especially disheartening when I considered that I had only a month ago replaced the whole extruder assembly, but it was the thermocouple connectors on the board that I damaged and had to replace. The thought of having to remove everything from the board so I can remove the board so I can re-solder the connections brought with it a very low feeling.
Fortunately I cannibalized the thermocouple from the old extruder, hooked it up, and the problems went away, which means the thermocouple itself had gone bad. Simple fix.
Every time these fixes come up I do a little cost count in my head. Is this pain and headache really worth having a 3D printer? The answer, of course, is yes. Every time. The expense itself has been covered by my various ventures, and just having those ventures is something I could not do without 3D printing. Having a 3D printer has changed my life in a very good way. I’m not saying having a 3D printer will change everyone’s life but it’s definately been worthwhile for me to spend a couple hours jimmying a fix out of the ol’ bot.
Of course if anyone ever builds a 3D printer that works well and takes no more maintenance than my inkjet printer, I wouldn’t complain about owning one of those.
