How important is it to upgrade hardware to upgrade for longer 3D printing projects?

[Simple Jack]

Hey everyone. How important is it to upgrade your hardware for a longer 3D printing project that may go beyond 72 hours? I recently stepped into the 3D printing hobby community and it's awesome. I got myself an Anycubic Mega I3 S. I'm just trying out random prints here and there and I've found that prints that are slower come out much nicer than if I were to rush it (duh). My current print right now, if my calculations and Cura slicer are correct, should be running for several days. I only have the stock hardware on the 3D printer and haven't upgraded anything. I have my bed set at 69 degrees C (nice) and my nozzle printing PLA at 208 degrees C. I imagine the hardware will handle for now but I don't imagine it holding up long term with sustained, higher temperatures like that for several days. What are your thoughts on upgrading hardware for 3D printing? If you do suggest that I upgrade, what hardware would you suggest I consider for an upgrade? Thank you everyone.

[For Science!]

On 12/6/2021 at 7:52 AM, Simple Jack said:

Hey everyone. How important is it to upgrade your hardware for a longer 3D printing project that may go beyond 72 hours? I recently stepped into the 3D printing hobby community and it's awesome. I got myself an Anycubic Mega I3 S. I'm just trying out random prints here and there and I've found that prints that are slower come out much nicer than if I were to rush it (duh). My current print right now, if my calculations and Cura slicer are correct, should be running for several days. I only have the stock hardware on the 3D printer and haven't upgraded anything. I have my bed set at 69 degrees C (nice) and my nozzle printing PLA at 208 degrees C. I imagine the hardware will handle for now but I don't imagine it holding up long term with sustained, higher temperatures like that for several days. What are your thoughts on upgrading hardware for 3D printing? If you do suggest that I upgrade, what hardware would you suggest I consider for an upgrade? Thank you everyone.

IMO, its not so much the hardware that's the issue. You can likely keep your hotend and bed at that temperature for weeks on end. The thing that you should be concerned about is the fact that you have a heated source operating unsupervised. So safety features like thermal runaway protection, min temp, max temp, should all be confirmed to be working in case something does fail the firmware can detect it.

[Salacious B Crum]

On 12/8/2021 at 10:13 AM, For Science! said:

IMO, its not so much the hardware that's the issue. You can likely keep your hotend and bed at that temperature for weeks on end. The thing that you should be concerned about is the fact that you have a heated source operating unsupervised. So safety features like thermal runaway protection, min temp, max temp, should all be confirmed to be working in case something does fail the firmware can detect it.

^this is the way

 

search the specs on your machine to confirm thermal runaway is enabled and I would consider putting crimped ferules on you mainboard wires if the are solder tinnned and in screw terminals as this is a notorious weak spot and potential fire hazard