Ender-3 Maintenance

The 3D printers at Hackberry Lab should be operated and serviced ONLY by trained lab assistants who know what they're doing, or failing that, can take accountability for their screw-ups.

This document is intended as a manual aimed at Hackberry lab assistants for guidance on maintaining the ever-growing fleet of printers. Knowledgeable lab assistants are encouraged to add their wisdom as more issues arise and new problems are solved.

This section is for maintenance tasks that should be performed at regular intervals.

Lab assistants should regularly ensure that the printer beds are leveled properly. Improperly-leveled beds cause print failure and damage to the beds and nozzles. Bed leveling can look different depending on whether or not a touch sensor is installed for automatic bed leveling. A printer bed is level when the nozzle is the correct height from the bed across the entire surface. At a good height, the nozzle should leave behind a solid line that isn't too thin but can't be rubbed off with your finger.

In essence, leveling a bed manually involves adjusting the height of the bed until it is an ideal distance from the nozzle at each corner and the center. The four wheels under the bed adjust the height of the bed.

It can be hard to remember which way to turn the wheel to raise/lower the bed. If you think of the bed being closer to the nozzle as “tighter”, and further from the bed as “looser”, then the “righty-tighty lefty-loosey” rule applies from a top-down perspective.

This section is for maintenance tasks that should be performed periodically.