I regret to inform you guys I don't think I have honestly ever posted this on LMR. I have posted numerous blogs about it but never have posted this on LMR.
Description
It all started three years ago. This guy named Jinxy who is no longer an lmr member gave me some 3D printed parts. I was so excited when I had heard he was giving away parts to build a rostock mini... I never built it... Even to this day... I was so upset that I couldn't build it that my shop teacher was releived to know that my dad was giving me a 3D printer kit for my birthday because I was harrassing him to help me during his lunch breaks, and we didn't have all the materials to build it simply because 3D printed parts wasn't enough to build this thing.
So my dad decided to give me a Geeetech Prusa i3 Pro B printer early in june because I would be home alone with nothing to do for months on end during the summer.
Early Printer Days
It all started when I came home one day and I saw a geeetech truck in my drive way trying to leave my house. Who new they had their own delivery service lol? My parents decided to go for a walk that I don't remember why they did and so while they were doing that I ripped open the package and didn't make sure everything had arrived. That is when my parents had doubts I would ever get this done.
It had been a month of assembling it. I was beggining to lose hope I would ever get this done because I had lost 30% of the parts to build this printer which were mostly nuts and bolts scattered everywhere. I would like to thank LMR for bringing back on my feet. They motivated me to stop at the hardware store to keep working on it and to see if I can find the right bolts for it. I eventually got it assembled. It was a miracle.
I began doing some printing on it and I managed to do a bunch of test hexagons that I drew up in google sketch up when something bad had happened. The motherboard was defective. I later found out that the company didn't do the best soldering job on it thanks to someone using it to make a safe cracker but that is another and a very long story. I ended up spending 40$ in microcontrollers trying to fix it but that did nothing. I ended up just getting a ramps 1.4 motherboard. It was another year before I began printing again.
Present
It had been a year before I began printing again. I don't really need to go over what happened during that year since it is lengthy and pretty boring. Just not really worth sharing.
I finally got my printer working again. I ended up doing some soldering to my endstop and doing a major Marlin update because Geeetech's firmware is very out of date. I sent them a few emails about it and they were very kind as to help me update a fresh batch of marlin. I have nothing against the people of Geeetech for that even to this day. Unfortunately in the process of updating my printer I ended up breaking two LCD screens and so for a few months I would use none.
After I had built it I 3D printed toys for kids at school and I even 3D printed my science teacher and my dad a human skull. It got to a point I taught a 3D printing club at my school. It was loads of fun doing it on my 3D printer since my school had none. My printer wasn't reliable though. It kept breaking once a month.
It was my birthday again. My 19th birthday to be exact. It had been three years since I got my printer. I decided to ask my parents for parts to make a bowden extruder, e3d hotend, and e3d hotend mount. I realized after doing that I unfortunately was having a few problems. It wasn't going to work because I didn't have the right parts for a connection between my mk8 extruder and my e3d hotend. One of my friend at my makerspace actually showed me how to hack my old hotend for my printer and turn it into a connection. I still use it to this day and it works great. I am forever greatful for this person.
It had been a year since I broke both my lcd screens. I had asked my dad to purchase me a new one on amazon. I did another major update on the firmware while I was at it and the lcd screen worked great. I use it everday now.
Because my 3D printer never came with a fan on the extruder to cool 3D prints I never was able to print PLA plastics untill now. I can print pla plastics because I 3D printed on my prusa i3 a fan to cool 3D prints.
I also a few months ago bought a wear resistant nozzle so I could print materials like Pla steel, Nylon, and carbon fiber nylon. Cool right!!!
UPDATE 11/20/2017: I have decided to 3D print a spool holder for it. For it is now so reliable it can be left unattended for hours on end.
Conclusion
There is a lot of cool things I have in mind with my 3D printer. Such as 3D printing something to making a business with it and doing cool designs and bring them to life. (UPDATE 11/20/2017:) I have realized what is currently causing the z wobble on it. It will need lead screw replacing since my current ones are bent. My 3D printer is the best thing I have gotten from my parents. For that I am forever greatfull!!! (UPDATE 1/19/2018:) I have installed new leadscrews and that totally solved the problem. Thanks!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lyff2O-t3sc