Excitement at work

[nerdyrcdriver]

So I was doing some upgrades on our Makerbot Replicator 2x (do not recommend btw) and walked away fro 30sec to get a temperature gun. I walked back into my office and found the makerbot on fire. I freaked out and ran to the shop and grabbed a fire extinguisher (apparently I ran right past a couple of them on the way) and put the fire out. It turned out that the wrong heating element got turned on for testing. I have no clue how the gantry ended up moving to the end of the makerbot, but the heating element melted itself into the plastic at the end and got hot enough for it to catch on fire. Looking back at it, I probably could have just blown the fire out like a candle. That would have avoided the huge mess created by the fire extinguisher. Luckily everything except the heating element is functional (im not risking using that element). 

 

Oh, btw the left extruder was removed for upgrading and I was in the process of loading filament into the right extruder that was already upgraded. I guess when I upgraded the extruder I put the wrong heating element in it. I should never have walked away from it in the first place. 

 

On the plus side, the office that I share with an engineer (I am an engineering student) is finally clean since we had to wipe everything down. The rest of my upgrade parts and the new heating core will be there next week and I will run it in the shop from now on until we know it is safe. We are not running it without someone in the office anymore and we are putting in smoke detectors. We currently have an older sprinkler system that basically requires the entire desk to be on fire before it does anything. 

 

[bob345]

That's unfortunate. There must have been a thermistor or something that broke. Most hot ends wont get hot enough to start a fire unless there is no form of temperature control.

[Trik'Stari]

Welder Pro tip: Buy a welding glove or welding blanket, they can be used to smother most small fires.

[nerdyrcdriver]

Welder Pro tip: Buy a welding glove or welding blanket, they can be used to smother most small fires.

We have some in the shop. But I didn't know that they were there or think of them. The fire extinguisher was pretty much the default reaction. 

[Trik'Stari]

We have some in the shop. But I didn't know that they were there or think of them. The fire extinguisher was pretty much the default reaction. 

 Yeah, whenever I work on flammable stuff in my garage, I keep a welding glove in my back pocket.

[nerdyrcdriver]

That's unfortunate. There must have been a thermistor or something that broke. Most hot ends wont get hot enough to start a fire unless there is no form of temperature control.

Yeah, so we had enough functioning parts to make one theoretically functioning extruder (someone destroyed the thermistor and cooling fan for the other extruder). In the process of combining everything I mixed up the heating cores and let the hot one hang loose. Completely my fault and dumb to do in the first place. I should have just unplugged it and removed it entirely. 

 

I did do some research afterwards and it turns out the makerbot's temperature stuff is entirely firmware based. Nothing physical. 

 

I did glance at the screen before unplugging it. The heat chamber lights were flashing and the lcd said something along the lines of "thermal failure". 

[bob345]

Yeah, so we had enough functioning parts to make one theoretically functioning extruder (someone destroyed the thermistor and cooling fan for the other extruder). In the process of combining everything I mixed up the heating cores and let the hot one hang loose. Completely my fault and dumb to do in the first place. I should have just unplugged it and removed it entirely. 

 

I did do some research afterwards and it turns out the makerbot's temperature stuff is entirely firmware based. Nothing physical. 

 

I did glance at the screen before unplugging it. The heat chamber lights were flashing and the lcd said something along the lines of "thermal failure". 

ah, that would do it. I overheated the extruder on my printer once. Its no fun, especially with an all metal hot end that will end up melting the whole mount. Hope you can get it working well again. Makerbots seem to be fairly robust machines, so they should be able to take a few small failures without needing massive repairs.

[nerdyrcdriver]

 Yeah, whenever I work on flammable stuff in my garage, I keep a welding glove in my back pocket.

The 3d printing stuff has never been considered flammable. Luckily we didnt cheap out and get a wood framed one. That would have been up in big flames by the time I got the fire extinguisher. 

 

I honestly didn't think that plastic would actually catch on fire. Melt and bubble, sure. But actually burn with flames, no way. My boss actually went out to the shop and set some of the same type of plastic on fire and tested how hard it was to put out. It was pretty easy. He told me to never use one of those big extinguishers again unless it was a big fire, in which case someone else would probably be there to handle it anyway. That was a huge mess to clean up. We are getting smaller ones that won't be such a mess as well. 

[Trik'Stari]

The 3d printing stuff has never been considered flammable. Luckily we didnt cheap out and get a wood framed one. That would have been up in big flames by the time I got the fire extinguisher. 

 

I honestly didn't think that plastic would actually catch on fire. Melt and bubble, sure. But actually burn with flames, no way. My boss actually went out to the shop and set some of the same type of plastic on fire and tested how hard it was to put out. It was pretty easy. He told me to never use one of those big extinguishers again unless it was a big fire, in which case someone else would probably be there to handle it anyway. That was a huge mess to clean up. We are getting smaller ones that won't be such a mess as well. 

All forms of plastic are flammable to my knowledge (my dad has extensive experience with plastic).

 

When it comes to heating elements, or anything to do with electricity, assume EVERYTHING is flammable. I've seen steel burn (it turns white hot, and "fizzes" shooting sparks EVERYWHERE). interesting side note, steel actuall burns before it melts, in the presence of oxygen, which is why smelting steel in your backyard is not economically possible, whereas smelting iron and aluminium is.

[nerdyrcdriver]

ah, that would do it. I overheated the extruder on my printer once. Its no fun, especially with an all metal hot end that will end up melting the whole mount. Hope you can get it working well again. Makerbots seem to be fairly robust machines, so they should be able to take a few small failures without needing massive repairs.

 

Should be pretty easy. The only damage was to the plastic on the left end of the gantry that clamps onto the belt to move the Y axis. And it is still functional, just melted. I already had upgrade parts on the way. Now I will just have to wait longer for a new heater core which was only $5-$15 depending on which vendor we ended up using. Unfortunately I can't find the plastic parts anywhere for replacement. If we decide we need to change them, we will probably just print them. 

[nerdyrcdriver]

This is the part that melted. Ignore the red dot and line. That image was pulled from the manual.

This is how it looks now.