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Home » When you and your 3D Printer need to work on your friendship

When you and your 3D Printer need to work on your friendship

Becoming friends with my 3D Clay Printer

Being new to the 3D Clay Printing scene, I have had to prove myself. Not to anyone specifically, mainly to myself and my printer. Things going awry with the machine will happen and I have had to deal with the punches as they come.

Testing with the 3D Printer has been an uphill battle. Don’t get me wrong, I am loving it, but at the same time the level of patience and determination I have needed has levelled up a bit.

Previously I mentioned how a cover was pulled off some wires. You would think it is an easy fix… well not, if like me, you have no technical experience whatsoever.

The support team at WASP was very helpful… with the first response from them being that “honestly they had never had that happen before” and yes, they were being honest.

Long story short and three weeks later, I had to manually fix the pins that were attached to numerous coloured wires by bending them back into place using a tweezer (because well that was all I had).

I always talk about the pottery kiln gods, and when your pottery goes into the kiln you hold your breath and make a silent wish. When the pottery comes out, you will have your answer. Small changes like how you handle the clay or accidently moving it incorrectly can have a huge impact on your final pottery work.

As I switched the machine back on this was what I had flashing through my mind, wishing the electricity flow was working properly and that I had not completely broken the conductor by connecting the wires incorrectly.

After going through a methodical process of testing everything, it seems I had finally won and was back in business with a workable 3D Printer.

Two days later I loaded my clay into the container ready to be attached to the 3D printer and I noticed a slight problem… a part was missing where the plastic pipe connects to the container.

It had broken off. I stood there looking at this situation for about five minutes trying to figure out how to solve this problem… and I could feel the panic start to set in. It was 08:20 in the morning.

By 08:35 I was at the Machinery Mart down the road asking for a replacement. I was told they could not help me because they had never seen that part before, but kindly directed me to another place.

08:40 I was in my car letting out a four-letter word quite loudly… so loud in fact that the teen that walked past my car heard it. He stared at me like I was absolutely nuts and then promptly acted like he had not just witnessed the scene in front of him. Granted I had not brushed my hair and I was covered in clay spots because I had rushed out of my studio without giving a thought to my appearance.

09:05 I arrived at the next shop, with little hope. Thankfully they had the part that I was looking for, which stopped my imminent meltdown in its tracks.

I had no idea what the part was called, and I was surprised when I looked on the invoice and the item was named “male stud”.  Go figure… all the previous male studs in my life had made me cry, but on the bright side they were totally replaceable… and there you have it.

09:25 I was back in my studio, tested everything and found that the printer was as it should be.

10:40 I made myself a coffee and let out a sigh of relief. Another catastrophe averted in a not so elegant way… story of my life.

The next day I was chatting to my business coach, and he made a comment that made me think. He said – “Sounds to me like you and your printer need to work on becoming friends”.

And there it was. After the session found some googly eyes that I had in my craft box and stuck them on the printer. You may think that I am one cashew short of a nut, but it worked to cheer me up and to just get on with it.

My 3D Clay Printer and I are currently working on our friendship, who knows what she has in store for me, but I am excited to keep going (even if I aged an extra ten years in three weeks).

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