1

Topic: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

I have an order for my client to print 8 models, I've already printed one of these models for the same guy and it took 18 hours to print yikes Should I even attempt to print 8 models in a row, would this printer hold up going for 120+ hours? Or should I just out source at this point.

2

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

I printed a 26 hour print on my 1.0 with a stock head. I had no issues. I do use rep firmware and host however. But it still did 26 hours. The issue is can you watch it all that time or do you have a steel box it can be placed in. There is a fire hazard with any 3D printer and long prints like that tend to have people start and leave which is a bad practice I myself am guilty of sometimes.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

3 (edited by amaterov 2015-03-10 18:20:18)

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

carl_m1968 wrote:

I printed a 26 hour print on my 1.0 with a stock head. I had no issues. I do use rep firmware and host however. But it still did 26 hours. The issue is can you watch it all that time or do you have a steel box it can be placed in. There is a fire hazard with any 3D printer and long prints like that tend to have people start and leave which is a bad practice I myself am guilty of sometimes.

I was planing to set up a web cam, I do tend to start a print and leave sad

I guess a webcam would do no good unless I rig some sort of extinguisher and a smoke detector right above it lol

4

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

amaterov wrote:
carl_m1968 wrote:

I printed a 26 hour print on my 1.0 with a stock head. I had no issues. I do use rep firmware and host however. But it still did 26 hours. The issue is can you watch it all that time or do you have a steel box it can be placed in. There is a fire hazard with any 3D printer and long prints like that tend to have people start and leave which is a bad practice I myself am guilty of sometimes.

I was planing to set up a web cam, I do tend to start a print and leave sad

I guess a webcam would do no good unless I rig some sort of extinguisher and a smoke detector right above it lol


The smoke detector is a good idea. but as others have said. If you have smoke, then you usually have fire and it is too late for the detector then. The best course is to stay with it, or put in a location that if it does catch fire it won't spread to anything. Or inside a steel box so it will be contained. I now one guy who keeps his in his fire place that he never uses. That way if it catches fire, it can just burn up in there and not do any real harm other than smoke and toxic fumes which you you can wait out somewhere.

Then again you could be stupid like me and take your chances. I have left for work and left a print running many times in the last 8 years. Guess I am just lucky nothing has happened.

Unless the fire hazard is over hyped just for safety.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

5 (edited by amaterov 2015-03-10 18:54:01)

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

carl_m1968 wrote:
amaterov wrote:
carl_m1968 wrote:

I printed a 26 hour print on my 1.0 with a stock head. I had no issues. I do use rep firmware and host however. But it still did 26 hours. The issue is can you watch it all that time or do you have a steel box it can be placed in. There is a fire hazard with any 3D printer and long prints like that tend to have people start and leave which is a bad practice I myself am guilty of sometimes.

I was planing to set up a web cam, I do tend to start a print and leave sad

I guess a webcam would do no good unless I rig some sort of extinguisher and a smoke detector right above it lol


The smoke detector is a good idea. but as others have said. If you have smoke, then you usually have fire and it is too late for the detector then. The best course is to stay with it, or put in a location that if it does catch fire it won't spread to anything. Or inside a steel box so it will be contained. I now one guy who keeps his in his fire place that he never uses. That way if it catches fire, it can just burn up in there and not do any real harm other than smoke and toxic fumes which you you can wait out somewhere.

Then again you could be stupid like me and take your chances. I have left for work and left a print running many times in the last 8 years. Guess I am just lucky nothing has happened.

Unless the fire hazard is over hyped just for safety.

I was just gonna ask, has anyone on here had a fire yet? I can see how this sort of thing can be hyped just for safety purposes. What would actually catch fire? I can imagine a short may cause a spark other than that I can't imagine that thing catching fire from the extruder.

6 (edited by browning54213 2015-03-10 19:09:17)

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

I know it is possible to have a fire start, but it is slim... I have had the head caked in abs and pla for hours on end during a failed print while I was away and it didn't even come close to starting a fire. This is because the temps we are printing at are not anywhere near the flash points of the materials we use therefore they can't and wont catch. The one thing that could cause a fire though is the printer or firmware hanging and the temps running out of control, but typically something will burn out before it starts a fire (ie small self extinguishing electrical fire).

Long story short don't worry about it. lol

7

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

I have a camera on mine and it's plugged into a Edimax IP switch that allows me to turn the printer off remotely.

I've never used this for fire prevention, but have used it multiple times to shut the printer down when it's become obvious that it's a failed print.

While I can agree that my solution isn't as good as actually being there, it is good enough to suit me safety wise. After all even if I ran it only when I was physically there, I am never constantly watching the thing. I go do other things after the first layer is done and let the camera watch the machine. I tend to drag some kind of "monitor" (phone, tablet, or computer screen) where ever I am and look over at it every so often.

8

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

Back in January, I started a long print and then went to a house party on the other side of the city. I came home late that night and it was still happily plugging away...

Win 8.1
Improved Da Vinci 1.0 with Firmware 1.2.5 and stock extruder
Arduino cartridge resetter and after-market ABS filament
TinkerCAD, Netfabb, Simplify3D

9

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/6608/bew … use-fires/

Printit Industries Model 8.10 fully enclosed CoreXY, Chamber heat
3-SD3's & a Workbench all fully enclosed, RH-Slic3r Win7pro, E3D V6, Volcano & Cyclops Hot End
SSR/500W AC Heated Glass Bed, Linear bearings on SS rods. Direct Drive Y-axis, BulldogXL
Thanks to all for your contributions

10 (edited by carl_m1968 2015-03-11 00:20:49)

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

It still could be just careful over hype for the sake of safety. This is just one person that has reported a fire out of how many millions of printers used daily? I know the risk is there but it is also minimal with some easy protection measures. Electrical fires are on parts designed to self extinguish
once power is removed.  So remote monitoring with ability to kill power is best option. Then a steel enclosure is an option.  There are other measures but again this is a rarely seen or reported issue from millions out there.

Not trying to pass it off, just curious if the risk is that real. Been printing myself 8 years and leave the house with printer running daily. Still lucky I guess.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

11

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

carl_m1968 wrote:

It still could be just careful over hype for the sake of safety. This is just one person that has reported a fire out of how many millions of printers used daily? I know the risk is there but it is also minimal with some easy protection measures. Electrical fires are on parts designed to self extinguish
once power is removed.  So remote monitoring with ability to kill power is best option. Then a steel enclosure is an option.  There are other measures but again this is a rarely seen or reported issue from millions out there.

Not trying to pass it off, just curious if the risk is that real. Been printing myself 8 years and leave the house with printer running daily. Still lucky I guess.

I hear what your saying and have in the past left my printer running unattended.
Then not long ago things froze with heaters full on for no explainable reason.  No big deal since I was right there but it sure makes you rethink the issue.  I would like to think I keep some of the best running and well maintained printers around.  Just imagine all the hacked up wiring jobs out there.  You'll notice I stayed out of the whole "beware" thread, I'm sure because I feel a lot like you about the issue.  That being said I think it is very important that the overall message be not to leave your printer unattended.

Printit Industries Model 8.10 fully enclosed CoreXY, Chamber heat
3-SD3's & a Workbench all fully enclosed, RH-Slic3r Win7pro, E3D V6, Volcano & Cyclops Hot End
SSR/500W AC Heated Glass Bed, Linear bearings on SS rods. Direct Drive Y-axis, BulldogXL
Thanks to all for your contributions

12

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

Weekend Avenger wrote:

I have a camera on mine and it's plugged into a Edimax IP switch that allows me to turn the printer off remotely.

I've never used this for fire prevention, but have used it multiple times to shut the printer down when it's become obvious that it's a failed print.

While I can agree that my solution isn't as good as actually being there, it is good enough to suit me safety wise. After all even if I ran it only when I was physically there, I am never constantly watching the thing. I go do other things after the first layer is done and let the camera watch the machine. I tend to drag some kind of "monitor" (phone, tablet, or computer screen) where ever I am and look over at it every so often.

could you elaborate, I am really considering getting some sort of remote shut off app. I am away from the printer for the most part and would love the ability to shut it down after its done printing or failed to print. Nothing worse than coming home to a web of birds nest.

Its been over 10 hours now, everything is printing fine. I do however notice a strange screeching sound that comes and goes on certain layers. Maybe its the filament running low, anyone else notice any scrapping/screeching noise when printing?

13

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

amaterov wrote:

I have an order for my client to print 8 models, I've already printed one of these models for the same guy and it took 18 hours to print yikes Should I even attempt to print 8 models in a row, would this printer hold up going for 120+ hours? Or should I just out source at this point.

I have nearly 700hrs on my Davinci, still going strong, printing as we speak. 

The only issues I have had:
- broken connector to hot end (5 mins to solder xt60)
- 1 clogged nozzle (removed, used torch etc)
- some issues with my poor filament holder solution. That's on me
- xyzware crash glitch which does not affect printing

So really... only a broken connector.

Itll last 120 hrs no problem. smile

14

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

antimattercrusader wrote:

Itll last 120 hrs no problem. smile

He means in one print. lol I mean im touching 2k hours on my first davinci and it still runs like a champ lol.

15

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

antimattercrusader wrote:
amaterov wrote:

I have an order for my client to print 8 models, I've already printed one of these models for the same guy and it took 18 hours to print yikes Should I even attempt to print 8 models in a row, would this printer hold up going for 120+ hours? Or should I just out source at this point.

I have nearly 700hrs on my Davinci, still going strong, printing as we speak. 

The only issues I have had:
- broken connector to hot end (5 mins to solder xt60)
- 1 clogged nozzle (removed, used torch etc)
- some issues with my poor filament holder solution. That's on me
- xyzware crash glitch which does not affect printing

So really... only a broken connector.

Itll last 120 hrs no problem. smile

I've also took apart my extruder to clean, acetone bath, torching etc. As it turns out it wasn't the extruder that was the issue, it was the filament that the printer came with lol


browning54213 wrote:
antimattercrusader wrote:

Itll last 120 hrs no problem. smile

He means in one print. lol I mean im touching 2k hours on my first davinci and it still runs like a champ lol.

I did mean in one print, well a series of 8 prints in a row totaling about 100 hours. So far I am on print number 2, all good.

16

Re: Printing for 120+ hours, what can possibly go wrong?

Well, I have the power for my solidoodle on a Z-Wave appliance switch, so if I did notice smoke on a webcam I could at least cut the A/C power (what I really use the switch for is automatically turning it on when I plug the USB cable into my linux box using some udev scripts :-).