I've been 3D-printing for around five and a half years. So I'm not a rookie, but I just made a #rookie #mistake.

I've spent the last couple of weeks making compartments and dividers and such for the toolboxes I take to the Repair Cafe. Lots of test #prints to check fits and footprints, full prints, changes to design based on lessons learned during use at the last cafe, etc. I've put around three kilograms of #filament through my printer in that time.

Then, in the last couple days, I started having various problems. At first they only showed up on big prints - #adhesion and #curling, which I've had before when pushing the limits of my bed size. But prints seemed to be getting #sloppier, and I had a couple of spaghetti explosions.

Tonight, I finally took the #hotend apart and looked at it closely - it's very difficult to do when the printer is fully assembled, because it's a #delta printer.

Lo and behold, the nozzle appeared worn. And that can account for all the problems.

I should have checked this sooner - but I've only been printing plain #PLA, nothing abrasive, so I didn't think of it. Lesson learned.

Pardon the shitty photo from a cheap digital magnifier. The old #nozzle #orifice is about 1.5x the diameter of the new one - so 2.25x the area. No wonder plastic was going everywhere but where it should go!

Seems to be printing *much* better with a new nozzle.

#RookieMistake #LessonLearned #3DPrinting #FDM

Anyone have any good tips other than “just scrub” to get #Bambulabs #ThermalGrease off your hands?

Replaced the thermistor and heater on my #HotEnd for the first time and it took me ages to get most of it off my hands however there’s still tiny little flecks left…

A Look at Full Spectrum 3D Printing

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/04/15/a-look-at-full-spectrum-3d-printing/

Had my first complete catestrophic #3dprinting #failure… looks like the #primetower stuck to the hot end somehow and got dragged diagonally across the build plate.

Cleaned up but I’m gonna need to clean the #hotend out as well as review the #adhesion issues this print was plagued with