The Trials and Tribulations of Trying

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Our subsequent prints have led to some rather interesting results...

 It is our thinking that the filament got tangled about half way through the printing process which led the extruder to be pulled and the calibration offset.

Although the print was not what we intended, we do believe it is a rather beautiful failure - almost a work of art!

I sent our images to the M3D tech support and they stated it could be an issue with the motor. They suggested we conduct an x-axis skip test and record the process.

Let me pause here and note the vast amount of learning acquired through our trials. So far as part of this project we have uncovered the extruder and examined the mechanisms, learned the logistics of calibration, and used the manual to navigate the software to perform diagnostics tests.


It is clear from our x-axis diagnostic test that our motor is skipping. We attempted to rotate the rod to a looser position as it states in the troubleshooting guide with no luck.

M3D tech support responded that a new motor should solve this issue and have sent a replacement.

We are in a bit of a holding pattern in terms of printing until our new motor arrives ...


Have our experiences been perfect so far? Definitely not!
Have we experienced set backs and frustrations? Absolutely!
What learning is perfect and free from set backs?

Although we are looking forward to successful prints, we recognize that failure is a part of learning and this is an important, and often uncomfortable, realization.

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