I was in the Garage when I was doing a print and noticed that the 3D printer was giving off a slight burning smell. The smell was kinda strong and I started looking around and found that the connector to the heat bed had melted some and had turned black on the side of the connector.

Here is a picture of the burnt connector.

So I did a quick check and found numerous other articles on the internet about this. It sounds like the connector is not able to properly handle the amperage the heat bed uses. For now I decided to do a quick solder job on the power leads to the heatbed and see how it lasts, but with the bed moving back and forth I am not sure if it will stress it to much.  I am still using the connector for the center pins. The solder job was not very easy as the heatbed does absorb a lot of the heat from the soldering iron. I then taped it up. Not sure if this is really any safer with the bed moving around. If you decide to do this, I take no responsibility for what happens. This may not be the correct solution and may not be any safer. This is just what I am trying for now.  I do not leave it plugged in anymore, and I also am not doing any unsupervised printing as I consider that to be just too risky. This puts a damper on those long prints.

Summary:

Now I know this was a cheap 3D printer, and issues can arise. While I have enjoyed using it to make prints, this does change how I will use it. I will not be using the printer unsupervised anymore (i.e. like while I am sleeping at night). I do not leave it plugged in except for when it is under supervised printing.  I double checked to make sure the fire extinguisher close by in the garage and let the family know where it was. I also plan to get a welding blanket or something fireproof to have it sit on that and use it protect what’s around it.  I do have a webcam in my garage, so I can still see it from my phone if I am not directly in the garage. If you have one of these printers I recommend you be careful as well. I am also going to look into some other solutions and I will let you know if I find any. If I end up doing a lot of 3D printing I may just purchase a better model that I feel more comfortable with the safety level. 

Thanks and be safe!

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With prices dropping for 3D printers I decided to give one a try, the Anet A8

[UPDATE : I ran into a safety issue with the printer see here. I don’t feel safe leaving it plugged in or printing when I am not around to monitor it. I am not sure if this issue has been resolved or not with newer version. Please be aware. I am contemplating buying a different brand 3D printer.]

This is not a detailed step by step assembly of the printer, as you can find the instructions online, or even watch a video of it being assembled (That’s what I did). But I thought I would just post a few pictures as it may help you decide if you are looking into a 3D printer if you would want one pre-assembled ( They tend to cost more) or you want to try to assemble one yourself.  I chose to assemble it myself to save a little money and also learn how it all went together. But to be honest, it was a little more time consuming then I expected. That may be due to this being one of the cheaper models. Also I should come clean and mention I thought they forgot the instructions so tried to do it without instructions, then resorted to online videos. But it turns out they do include instructions, they are just soft copies and you can find them on the included micro SD card. I did not find this out until I went to make my first 3D print. The instructions would have saved me some time and frustration in assembly. No one to blame but myself for that 🙂

Here is the unboxing. It was nicely packaged neatly in the box.

The black plastic frame pieces all had brown protective tape on them. This was a time consuming process to remove all this tape. Seriously it was kind of a pain. I put the kids to work on it.

Here it is spread out on the table. ( Luckily we have a large table )

Here is the frame coming together nicely.

Even after the frame was almost done, you can see there are a lot of parts left.

Getting it wired up.

Here you can see I was using the laptop to watch videos to figure out the assembly, As I was not smart enough to find the included instructions. The videos were really good though. Even if I had found the instructions, I might have used the videos to supplement them.

We have power…….

One of the leg pieces was broken.  But luckily we found the file online for parts and we just printed a new part to replace it.

Once we go the printer running it was just a matter of printing a new part to replace the broken one. Reminds me of something from a sci-fi movie with the machine fixing itself.

As for finding things to print, there are many websites that just allow you to search and download the files. I use thingiverse a lot. You should check it out if you are thinking of getting into 3D printing. It will give you some ideas of what you can do. I will post some pics soon of things I have printed and programs I am using.  It has been a fun experience for me so far.

One thing to note. I do the 3D printing in the garage which is well ventilated, as I am not sure about how the fumes would be in the house. I am also printing with PLA instead of ABS.  That may be something you would want to look into first before purchasing if you plan on doing it indoors.

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