Kit

• 3D Printing Failures - How to diagnose and Repair All Desktop 3D Printing Issues
• Creality Ender 3 Pro
  • BL Touch
• Marlin Firmware
  • Download
  • VS Code
• Raspbery Pi 4
  • Heatsink case
  • Pi Camera
  • Pi Camera Bracket
• PLA - Polymaker PolyMax
• Software
  • AutoDesk Fusion 360 Personal License (3D modeller)
  • Utilimaker Cura (Slicer)

Great Start

I firstly bought the Ender 3 Pro and assembled it with my 12 year old son.  We had great fun doing that - took our time, about 2 hours.  Successfully started printing with an inexpensive PLA from Amazon.  Created a few models, everything worked really well.  I followed the sage advice of my friend: keep your PLA dry!  Then for one reason or another, a month passed before I went to print again and I realised I had left the PLA out, on the printer.

You might think - Is it raining in your house?  How dry does it need to be?  PLA is extremely thirsty, and will extract all moisture out of the air, which when heated to 200°C turns to super-heated steam, which disrupts the print and potentially damagers the heater itself.

This is exactly what happened.  And then started the journey back to printing success...

Journey