Ants! There is always exactly one major issue with my printer at all times.

Ants!

There is always exactly one major issue with my printer at all times. If this isn’t a law, it should be. This machine has only produced around 10 “good” prints. In that time, I have experienced:

  • Overheating poly fuses
  • Seized bearings
  • Skipping steps on retraction
  • Non-horizontal cracking
  • Adhesion issues

And now Ants! I woke up this morning to find the desk covered in ants! There was a cardboard vent hood surrounding my machine to catch vapors through a charcoal filter, but also to keep the machine warm, baffle any cross breezes, and provide additional structure for mounting. Just last night, I tested ventilation with dry-ice (it worked great!)

Mere hours later ants take up residence in the folds of cardboard making up the structure for the hood. A small problem really because tomorrow the whole office will be sucked into a singularity.

Ants hate bay leaves and dryer sheets.

Also talcum, they absolutely loath talcum, and it should help keep your printer dry (though from the sounds of it that is far from a concern)

As far as your galling it sounds like you’re your ball bushings are probably running on soft shafts linear ball bushing are designed to run on hardened shafts and nothing else