History - Day 1

First off this is my first adventure into 3D printing.  I am a complete newbie but since pre-ordering on Indiegogo back in May I have been diligently watching all videos and reading all articles on 3D printing I could.

I don't intend to knock MonoPrice in any way.  I chalk all my problems up to my inexperience, and my mistakes.


This is an ongoing story.  But I intend to continue until I get this thing to work.

I received my MonoPrice Mini Delta 3D Printer on Monday 7/31/2017.


Packaging was fine.  Machine looks and feels sturdy.

Unboxing was uneventful.

I loaded a roll of HatchBox ABS 1.75MM
Navigated through the very easy menus and nice screen to "print" and selected the auto00.g file (which was the only thing that looked like it might be printable).

First result was:
 Then it broke lose of the bed and started spinning around.

I figured it was an adhesion problem.

So I had read that glue sticks work so I got one of my daughters glue sticks and lightly wiped it all over the bed and tried again.



Farther but it still broke loose and started spinning around.

So I really gooped it up w/ the glue stick and boom.  Whoo Hoo Out came this perfect cat.



I don't know how long it took probably an hour.  But I figured I'm in business then.  Time to head to Thingiverse...

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OK, This is obviously not working well.  I read some more last night and evidently ABS is hard to print.  So I open a box of white PLA. I go to Thingiverse and pick something appropriate to try to print in PLA.  I scale it down to 25%.   After a few false starts and increasing brim sized I get a good little: Thats right a little Turd emoji.  It worked but looks like a pile of strings.  The resolution is obviously off. So I try again and make it a little bigger. Much better.  Still a little coarse and not smooth.  But I get a marker and give it eyes and lips and hand it to my 11 year old as she heads out for her first day of school. I go back to the Pagolin and pick the other feet and print them after a couple tries: Not very smooth but at least the worked.  I try to print a Tinkerbell next at 25% and it makes it to her head then breaks lose from the bed.  I try different brim sizes and start playing with the temperatures...
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