![\"IMG_0886\"](\"https:\/\/www.davesrocketshop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_0886-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve had my 3D printer for a while, with high hopes of integrating it in to my rocket building program with mix results. It’s been such a mixed bag of incredible success and absolute frustration. The path has not been smooth.<\/p>\n
Part of this is that 3D printing has a higher learning curve than you might realize, so it needs to be your primary focus until you have it figured out. That isn’t what I intended. This was meant to be an enabling technology that allowed me to explore other creative possibilities. It was just a tool. That was a mistake.<\/p>\n
Some is poor documentation. I was having bad prints for a long time because my print head wasn’t properly calibrated. This was never mentioned in the beginner guides, or in the documentation. It is well covered in the forums, but for a consumer technology, that’s not where it belongs. It took me far longer to figure out what the problem was than it did to fix it. A simple troubleshooting guide would have cut that time considerably. They exist online, and are easy to find once you know what you’re looking for, but that doesn’t help the beginner.<\/p>\n
Some is bad luck. I had my heater in the printer heater bed fail. Replacing this was easy for me as someone with both hardware and software experience, and I upgraded it in the process. You could get a direct replacement from the manufacturer, but what I have now is more robust and capable. Heaters fail… but not often. Lucky me.<\/p>\n
I also had a print detach from the print surface. Again, this happens. By the time I noticed, my print head and fan were encased in plastic. Le sigh. Again, bad luck.<\/p>\n
So this is my 3D printer. It’s a Robo3D R1+. Despite my issues, it’s a decent 3D printer. Any printer I would have bought at that time at a similar price point had the potential for similar issues. Bear that in mind.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve had my 3D printer for a while, with high hopes of integrating it in to my rocket building program with mix results. It’s been such a mixed bag of incredible success and absolute frustration. The path has not been smooth. Part of this is that 3D printing has a higher learning curve than you might realize, so it needs…<\/p>\n