I am the most penny wise pound foolish motherfucker to ever live.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

I am the most penny wise pound foolish motherfucker to ever live. I bought a 3D printer a while back, on sale, because I seem to me like the kind of person that would have a 3D printer and it was cheap. It was cheap because people didn't like it because it's hard to put together, among other things. I read the reviews saying it was hard to put together, and thought, "There are people who think Ikea is hard to put together. Those people are dumb."

Friends, it is very hard to put together.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

Endless misery. The docs are impossible to read, with arrows pointing in conflicting directions and diagrams that are impossible given the shape of the pieces and location of the holes. Every screw is hard to reach and underneath something so it's not visible and I have to feel around for it. Leveling it is obviously going to be a nightmare. Getting the print head gantry thing mounted square is going to be a nightmare.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

It is a Longer LK5 Pro, if anyone wants to know which 3D printer not to buy. I thought I liked the idea of a larger format printer, for some reason. It's an old model at this point, so it's unlikely anyone has it in their shopping cart, but they're still selling it, so I guess somebody's buying it.

[bryan@dusty.ninja]

@swelljoe
Have a friend that threw his 3D printer in the garbage (don’t remember the model). He said the hobby ended up keeping the printer functional, and he was always too burned out keeping it working to print anything.

(I asked why he didn’t give it away, and he said it wouldn’t be kind to give anyone the misery he experienced.)

Anyway, good luck! 😝

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@bryan on repeat in my head for the past four hours. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLRwG86sE4s

[bryan@dusty.ninja]

@swelljoe
Do you have to print parts out to finish setting it up? Some of these 3D printers are shipped incomplete and you print the rest of the parts. 😂

Or they have a revision of a part, and you just “reprint it,” and if it isn’t perfect, the printer can’t print correctly.

If I’m remembering correctly, he had to have a coworker print a part because his janky old parts couldn’t print the new parts to tolerances needed.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@bryan lol. Not so far. But, I have only just gotten all the pieces put together and plugged in. I have to level it, but that requires adjust the limit switch and I'm tired of squinting into the dark underneath the printer to find a tiny screw, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow. But I already hate the hobby. Maybe it'll improve. I suspect I'll probably print the three things I need to print (things I need because I'm penny wise and pound foolish) and then never touch it again.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@bryan turns out: yes! I need to either print a new head/fan housing or buy an upgraded dual fan kit, or it will print hot garbage. I am doomed by Projects!

[bryan@dusty.ninja]

@swelljoe
Glad you know they are projects. At least you’ll go in knowing what’s happening. So easy to add new 3D printing printer projects.

Next step is not liking something on the printer and spending weeks messing with iPhone lidar scans of the old part, tweaking in a 3D tool, and printing at least 5 times before deciding the first or second print was fine.

I looked up your printer and of course it isn’t enclosed. There is a patent on the idea of keeping the printer in a temperature stable box / enclosure. So one way to keep costs low is to not enclose. Once the season changes you might need to either recalibrate a bunch of annoying stuff or build an enclosure. This will require many pieces besides some simple plexiglass: a bunch of small printed plastic hardware. Save yourself a project and just burn more money… 🤑
https://www.longer3d.com/products/longer-3d-printer-constant-temperature-enclosure

[swelljoe@mas.to]

3D printing is my passion.