Month: December 2016

(STORY) I had my first two printer fires last night. hear my tale of woe.

When I first looked at the heater cartridge on my Replicator 1 clone, I thought to myself, “That’s an accident waiting to happen.” (They look like this, but the insulation doesn’t quite reach the base.) “The two leads would short out if the cartridge was rotated, and cause all kind of trouble.”Well, that exact thing happened last night. I had dismounted the hotend to clear a clog, and I forgot to double check the heater cartridge before starting it up. As soon as I did, I heard a sharp BANG, and smoke and flame rose from the cable harness. Thankfully, the heater cartridge apparently acted as its own fuse, and burned clean through its leads before serious damage could be done to the controller.I had a second heater cartridge on hand, so I installed that one. And here’s where fire #2 happened. Turns out that the no-name Amazon seller I had used had sent me a 12V heater, instead of 24V. Within seconds of powering on, the heater was GLOWING RED HOT, and smoke was jetting out of the nozzle. The thermistor read 350C before the safeties kicked in. (PTFE fumes aren’t that bad for you, right?)So I’ve got another heater cartridge on the way, and I’m damn well going to check the resistance of this one before installing it, but yikes! This hobby is more dangerous than advertised. http://ift.tt/2fDUq74