Bad Bearing

There was a sound that wasn't right with my Prusa printer.   It's fairly new but I work my printers pretty hard so I looked around and thought I'd identified the problem: a bad bearing.   The bearings are tricky because if they're over-tightened when installed they can deform and over time, even over a short time, they can fail. 

One of the bearings was giving off black residue and after taking the print bed and sub-bed I could reproduce the grinding sound in the area of the bearing in question, so I set about replacing it.   There are bearings in all three axes and I think I lucked out that I had the easiest axis to get apart.   The machines are easily repaired and are even sold as a kit for people who want to experience the full build themselves.  And when I say full build, I mean a day-and-a-half's work, building the machine screw by screw, piece by piece with comprehensive documentation. 

It wasn't hard, it just took a bit of time.   I'm now recalibrating to make sure the first layer is at the proper distance from the extruder nozzle.   I didn't get anything printed today, but I learned a lot about the machine.   It was sort of fun in a way.   I don't want to work on cars or other large pieces of machinery, but I do like working on 3D printers. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son's birthday is later this week and for the first time, we won't be going to celebrate with him at school.   For his school, we send in homemade something or fruit, prepared safely.   For my daughter's school, it has to be pre-packaged and this year can't include food at all. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is very happy it's now cold enough so she can turn the fireplace on.   She gets cold easily and if we didn't put a temperature requirement on it, she would have it on when it's fifty-eight degrees outside.