Print Got Ruined - Can I salvage it?

Hey everyone! I’m looking for some advice here, and hopefully you can help out!

We tried printing off a large version of this design: Pinshape

The print was set to take about 67 hours, and when we left everything was going great. When we came into the office on Monday, we found this…

It looks like our Ultimaker 2 had some issues with the feeder assembly and started to grind down the filament instead of continuing to feed it to the extruder, and as a result, the top of the head wasn’t printed properly, even though the printer didn’t recognize there was an issue and continued to completion. So the problem is that we have a print that is 80% complete, but we don’t have the head.

Is there any way to salvage this and get the top of the head printed? Any thoughts are welcome!

Nick

I’ve ran into a similar issue too recently. Ended up there was hidden vertex issues not caught by netfabb with the design which created issues in my generated gcode that I hadn’t caught prior to starting the print.

On the ruin print I ended up cutting the ruined part off plus a couple millimeters extra. Then imported the stl file into my 3d software where I sliced the model into two halves. Made sure my slice matched the changes I did on the ruined print. Printed the remaining half and used a hot gun to glue the two pieces together. With a hot knife I carefully touched up the seam and my print was saved.

If you do something similar to what I did you should be able to to save the print.

How did you determine where to slice the .stl file to match the ruined print? Did you just eyeball it or did you worry about making it as precise as possible?

Best way I can explain it is I sliced the model based on what I thought would give me the cleanest seam and use minimal supports. I made sure my changes on the ruined print were reflected as accurately as possible in the modified 3d file.

Based on what I can see of the lion, reprinting from the marked greenline up should involve minimal repair work an minimal supports. Not sure what your first layer adhesion height is but setting up rafting may be something to consider.

Hey all

Another option is to remove the dodgy bits from the article - you may need to carve/machine/sand flat to a plane parallel to the bed (probably not easy to do). Measure the height of your salvaged article. Slice the original model as normal but edit the G-code - delete anything between the prep code and the part where it says “z###” (where ### equals the height of your salvaged article).

If you understand the G-code and edit it correctly, and you’ve measured the height of the article correctly, the print will continue from where it should have.

To position the article, you’ll need to print an outline that is offset outward from the original model, then fasten the article to the bed (with diluted PVA?).

Granted, not an easy solution.