3D Printer Owners Say These Are The Most Catastrophic Mistakes You Can Make

These days, 3D printers are capable of manifesting objects seemingly out of thin air with nothing more than heat, filament, and a digital 3D model — from life-changing resources like prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs to less important, but still useful objects like coasters, figurines, and playable vinyl records. Not all is perfect in the 3D printing process, however, and what starts off as an idea or can spiral into a disaster. Printer owners have reported a number of errors since the device's invention relating both to the printing process and its aftermath.

If you aren't careful about where you place objects near your 3D printer, it can consume them. One Reddit user recounted the moment his glasses lost a battle to the printing machine. "I was manually leveling the bed on my FDM printer, and took my glasses off so I could see the gap between the nozzle and the glass better," the user said. "When the process was finished, the bed automatically homed... and crushed my glasses, which I had cleverly placed on the bottom of the printer." Users from the same thread reported incidents like bruising their noses leveling the printer bed, accidentally engraving the printer's glass bed with its nozzle, and changing out the filament too quickly, thus frying the BTT board in the process. One Redditor even printed a project directly on the device's heat bed after forgetting to reinstall a plate. "Did you know you can print directly on the heat bed of an A1 mini?" the user asked. "Only problem is it doesn't release well when cool and ended up pulling out chunks of the foamy heat bed." These mishaps show how small errors can yield catastrophic results both for your printer and the area surrounding it.

3D printer issues stem from a variety of inciting incidents and factors. One Reddit user pointed out that, like other forms of technology, printer problems are often the result of users error. "The most common point-of-failure in 3D printing is the user," the Redditor said. User error can not only result in bad prints, but also cause harm to the user, themself.

The 3D printing process can also spark incidents outside of the immediate printing area. Per How-To Geek, users harm themselves while using a printer in ways like touching the nozzle while it's in use and burning themselves. Faulty printers could also start fires if they aren't closely supervised, and prints, in general, can emit harmful or irritating gases which may cause issues if they aren't performed in a well-ventilated area.

The prints, themselves, can also cause issues, regardless of how creative or well-intentioned they are. In general, there are certain things you should never 3D print, like objects designed to come into contact with food, medical equipment, or protective safety gear. These objects may have a positive intention. However, they'd ultimately do more harm than good because of the materials they're made out of and structural integrity.