Morning Glory Printing Farm

This is about geting an used Prusa XL, and taking it only for satisfying personal needs. Clearly this is just a maintenance guide! No, you are the weirdo!

The moment her eyes got caught by this impressive silhouette, she felt relief. First time a contakt was made with the previous handler, about availability and payment, she got the impression this whole undertaking might be a little dubious. Not only from a buyers perspective but at least from a moral one. But now the doubts started to wither off. They met in a nice suburb part of town. smal garden, smal house and a very clean entrance hallway, in which she saw it the first time. Clearly it was put through its paces, it got used, did dirty things and was bound to a smal table on wheels, in order to get easy access to all of its openings.

She took her time and had a thorough look around. This massive body, well equiped with five tools no less, was a sight to behold. It was cleaned and elegant but used. As proud as it stood, one could guess already about its past and what it had to do. Although it was in exceptional shape, first smal details started to reveal what might have been. Never the less, the payment was made and a firm hand shake sealed the deal. There it was now. A little shaky maybe but otherwise quiet, straped down in a smal trunk, on its way to the new workside. 

First day on the new job:
On a smal table again, with its back to the wall, it stood there. Powered up, accessible, and happily awaiting what might be done to it. Getting touched, getting orders, getting worked on? everything was possible. 
Invited by its wellcoming demeanor, she just could not hold back. Not only because her own curiosity but because it was necessary. In the end this is a tool, right? And so it has to be used for satisfying ones own needs, this much seemed to be clear. So she started, wasting no time and began updating the firmware.

It started to feel light headed. rushing on all chanels. It felt the past life geting erased bit by bit, as the new firmware got flashed. While it still is unable to move or to articulate itself, bound in booting, she grabbed one of the old print plates. Clearly an offbrand one, never ment to be put in there, but the shape seemed to be just so right? She proceeded anyway. sliding it in. Slowly but confident, she pushed ahead. At first it was a little hard to aim for the little guide pegs, but as further as she got in, the easier it was. In the end it felt as if the plate got sucked in, and held by the strong magnetic forces. What a nice look, she thought to her self. As soon as the newly ordered parts are going to arrive, this is going to be taken care of again.

Extruder not spinning and electric feelings
Lets put you to good use, she cheerfully said to her self. Or was it directed to the printer? Who knows. It doesnt matter anyway, because as soon as the print file was uploaded, they started. The toolchanger grabbed its impressive tool head and she felt the heat immenating from the print bed down below. All homed, heated and ready to go, but suddenly everything stopped. Red alert on the screen and a little helpless beeping from the smal speaker. “Extruder not spinning”? Damn, did I demand to much to fast? what did I do wrong? Her mind was quickly put to ease with a smal search for this code. It seems that the cable harnes sometimes wiggles it self loose ever so slightly during use. Maybe it even was the rough transport. 

She took this opportunity to see some more of its inner workings and so she decided not only to reseat this cute little connector but also to have some fun with all the possibilitys of accessing the printer. With firm hands, she pulled the table from the wall. The screwdriwer was used mercyless on the smal little screws, holding the back covers. As the good little printer it is, it held still for her to undress its backside piece by piece. A whimpy antenna dangling limp from its socket, delicate electronics aranged in an clever way, thick and black cable harnesses routing to its five mighty tools. Just a delight to see. So precious, so exposed, so bare. Her fingers started to play around in there. Searching for left over filament pieces and for loose connectors. While swiftly reseating every of these countless plugs, a shiver ran down its main electronics. Maybe disconecting mains power first had been a better choice but it played along nicely. It seemed that both of them enjoyed it. Clearly, a strong connection was made this very moment…

Filling it up with force
It made sense to her that now, while she was at it, a general maintenance had to be done. As soon as her warm hands had put all the cold metal covers back in place, she just had to have a go with all the five big tools directly in front of her. They where basically held directly in her face all the time, so one by one was taken, almost greedily from their docks, an put on a big paper sheet, laying over the print bed for its own protection. In order to clean and grease the gearboxes, she started disassembling the first tool head. It tried to resist heavily but she showed no mercy. Although it was backed in old grease and grime, she took it apart with her bare hands. Piece by piece it gave way. A smal brush and some spirits washed all the dirt of years away from the planetary gears, laying dissasembled in front of her. It felt just great. She took a big finger full of grease and thoroughly lubed up every nook and crany before all got put together, now with basically no force needed anymore. She proceeded along all the other tool heads. Every single one of them, willingly presented and awaiting her treatment. It felt easier and easier as she worked along. Was it the printer not resisting anymore or was it herself? Maybe she was just becoming more and more concious about what buttons to press, in order to make this a fun little excercise.

Only one thing left to do, in order finish up this session. Greasing the linear rails it is. All was layed out in front of her. Paper towels, a big syringe filled to the brim with multi purpose lithium grease and a long but soft attachement on top, for injecting grease deep into the linear rail blocks. Quiet and a little shocked it watched while everything got prepared in front of it. This is, what is going to be filled in the bearings and pumped deep in? This grease is not even mentioned in the Prusa spec sheet for that! But frozen in place and a little bewildered it couldnt help but just let it begin to happen. She grabbed the syringe and searched for the cute little holes, all around the blocks to be filled. There they are, down on the soft elastomeric part of the block. So smal, tight and unprotected. She pressed the rubber hose against it, but it was slightly to big. Wiggling around a little was the solution and finally it slipped in. Deep. Deeper. All the way in. She startet pressing down the plunger softly and happily watched the yellowish grease come up the transparent hose, being pumped into this smal hole. Suddenly it stopped. She felt a lot of resistance. more and more force on the plunger was needed. Her hands shaking under the pressure, sweat dripping from her nose, down on the print bed. She was trembling but liked every second of it. More and more grease got pumped in, and finally! She saw the prior grease being pushed out on the side, replaced by the new lube. It started to ooze from every smal slit. The destinct smell of lithium grease, the bodily exhaustion and the shiney lubed up rail was so wonderfull to see. Every pressure got released and so she took her time, wiping all left overs away with some paper towels. slowly and softly, all parts got cleaned. But like everything on this big printer, one time is just not enough. So many more of these tight little holes had to be filled. It seems like it just needed this kind of treatment and so she proceeded. Hole by hole got pumped full of grease. Again and again the rubber hose got pressed against those cute, tight little holes. With only little force they gave way every time. What a good little printer you are…

An oozy little mess
Meanwhile the ordered spares arrived. So the off brand print bed finally gets replaced with an genuine one. She allready knew how it had to be done properly and the printer did not resist. It just was the right thing, to have this big but original print sheet firmly attached on its hot print bed. It looked and felt all so good. Driven by this wonderfull sight, she uploaded the next print file and watched as the printer started to do its job. Fast, precise and quietly. All lubed up so well that one cant hear even a single noise from any of the mechanical components. Linear, thrusting motions on all axis. Sliding and gliding on each other. Back and forth all the time. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower but always in a rithm that was nearly hipnotic to her. She just stood there and let it happen. Simply enjoing the show.

What is that?! In horror she realized what unfolded in front of her. This very moment no protection was used for the first time, and the virgin original print sheet was attached, it happened. All blocks on the linear rails, overfilled with grease and slowly heating under constant thrusting motion, just couldnt hold it any longer. The lube startet running down the rails onto the gantry. As the good printer as it is, it did as commanded. In constant rithmic motion, its thrusting gantry flung the grease everywhere. All the print bed got covered in little spots but the printer let it hapen. As soon as she composed herself and analyzed the situation, she took back the lead and canceled the print immediately. What a mess! She felt embarased about getting carried away, just a little earlier with filling all up so nicely. She couldnt help but smile a little, as she took a big jar of alcohol, starting to clean the still warm print sheet. You are clearly not virgin anymore, she laughed out loud.

Multi material goodness
All playing around the last days was just the beginning. Basically nothing more than grown accustomed to each other, in order to have the printer ready for its future purpose. Using all of its tools for maximum utilisation. Five spools prepared, five print heads preheated and ready to take all the long and colorfull filament. She started to feed the heads one by one. Her fingers softly turning on the smal rotary knob. The printer responded with snappy menue changes and followed all of her comands imediatelly. She was impressed. Navigating through all the settings basically felt like a curated experience. Almost as if, yeah wait a moment! Its almost like the printer now took the lead, guiding her through all the smal settings. But no. This thought left her the very moment she understood what really happened. The printer just took down its defences, showing her all the intimate little dirty things possible, deeply hidden in this now unfolding menue structure. All the thing it wanted her to do. It was no leading and following anymore. Not commanding and obeying. It got to be a hand in hand. Working together in creating new things to be used in the real world. What before was just a room to get work done, now felt like it was filling with genuine joy. 

All prepared again, with a hot bed and mighty tool heads, basically dripping with anticipation, the next file got uploaded. Finally, a full five tool print job…

This idea was conceived in the context of a “dare”, so be asured this only is ment to be a fun piece of background noise in the vast sea of internet weirdness.

cya