MakerGear Forum

Slic3r 1.2.9 has had a gap fill issue for a while now. Small gaps get overfilled and cause these irritating little bumps on thin walls that build up over a print. Eventually the extruder will start to scrape against these bumps and occasionally cause the print to be shifted a little bit because the motor slips on the track. You can see lots of people with this issue here:
https://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r/issues/2960

Well yesterday those bumps ended up breaking the motor mount for the extruder in half. It caught on one of them enough that it knocked it out of alignment and then just cracked it in half. I went and looked for info about it and found that issue tracker thread, where nothing has been done for over half a year. So I'm done with slic3r. I'm giving Simplify3D a try once I get my replacement part in.

Totally sux! Sorry to hear that.

If you have any PETG or ABS on hand, you can print your own replacement parts so you don't have to wait on shipping from MakerGear. (One of the nicest things they do, IMO.)

http://makergear.wikidot.com/m2-components#toc0

Of course you'd have to glue or strap together the cracked mount in order to print the replacement part, but a lot of guys here have done it. (Just something to keep in mind for future replacement parts. It's something to pre-print and have ready for when you need it.)

You'll like S3d - it makes a lot of otherwise impossible prints a lot easier with that manually generated support feature.

mehmeh wrote:So I'm done with slic3r.

That and the bridging failures (https://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r/issues/3175) are definite problems, but I think you'll find every slicer has nasty gotchas lying in wait... if not now, surely in the next release!

That's why I always preview the G-Code before sending it to the printer: tweaking the model or slicing parameters can work around slicing failures.

More often than that, though, the preview helps me avoid an obvious problem with my solid model that wasn't obvious until I saw the extrusion paths... [sigh]

I noticed the same problem but didn't realize that it was a Slic3r issue. thats a shame. guess its time to move on

I think you'll find every slicer has nasty gotchas lying in wait...

True enough. Each one has problems, and there are still a bunch of little buggies in S3D as well. (It still sometimes closes a layer where you don't want it closed, and has a "b" of a time with rounded (filetted) edges.) The trick is to know how to work around whatever the issues are, and that just comes with getting to know it.

I fused it back together with some acetone and a heat gun. Seems to be doing okay right now. Will do until I get my replacement part in.

Does the motor mount stay cool enough to use PLA to print a replacement? I don't feel like switching out my filament to ABS, and am just curious.

I'm not sure. I would have said that PLA wasn't strong enough, but I saw a really nice stress test comparison (can't remember who did it but it was thorough) a while back that showed PLA is actually pretty damned strong when printed at high infill.

But it also depends on how hot your motor gets, and I've never measured that. There's a reason they print them from ABS, not PLA though. So you probably do need ABS at least.

I'll just leave this LINK here. (well worth the money just for never having to worry about that issue again.)

I can comment on printing a mount in PLA and would just do it for a temporary fix.

I broke my original mount as well and the replacement PLA mount I printed did not hold up well. The screws holding the motor mount to the base plate could not keep a tight grip on the mount. The screws compressed the PLA and/or there was just enough heat transfer from the extruder head combined with the force of yanking the extruder head left and right for hours while printing causing the mount to become loose. I quickly became tired of retightening it.

A reprint in PETG solved the problem.

However, I ordered a metal mount a few weeks later, because I wanted the problem eliminated permanently. I would recommend the same.

mehmeh wrote:I fused it back together with some acetone and a heat gun. Seems to be doing okay right now. Will do until I get my replacement part in.

Does the motor mount stay cool enough to use PLA to print a replacement? I don't feel like switching out my filament to ABS, and am just curious.

I have one printed in ePC I'll never use, hit me up if you want it.