Everything's broken!

I just calculated, I've been in garage, having either my or my wife's car serviced or repaired, fourteen (14) times since the start of October 2023. Fourteen times in mere six months, that is. And 15th visit is due next week's Tuesday, although that's technically already further April then.

Okay, my car was getting old. It had been serving faithfully but the mileage caught up with it, and my trusty T31 started requiring more 'extra' work outside regular servicing. But my wife's car, more a victim of contemporary, delicate technology, was more a handful case. For starters, a major powertrain component broke earlier in summer '23. A component we've been used to trust for lasting FAR greater mileage. But the winter and colder weather brought up more annoying problem, an electrical one. And on top of it, the authorised service started solving the problem by swapping a 450eur plastic tube in the system, which did not help. In the end I decided to buy an OBD scanner of my own, and once I googled the codes, three-minute search revealed the actual culprit was 40eur sensor. This is typical in my country, when most authorised garages are involved. They are not allowed to find the problem, they're told to just swap parts and hope for the best, by manufacturers.

My wife finally traded her rubbish car into more fresh one this February, and a month later check engine light went on. It was because modern cars are required, by European Union, to sport far too complicated and far too delicate emission control technology. My father's van went through similar routine this winter, with constant issues in AdBlue system. I traded my car about a week ago, only to fail its MOT few days later, and that repair marks my 15th visit to garage. Needless to say, I have been away from my workshop for quite a few hours over the past six months.

What's more? Well, everyone's sick. My wrist is worse than last summer, and my bruxism got also pretty bad in February. My son's ADD medication, or all of them actually, have been useless. And hence, his school year hasn't been exactly stellar. Then there's the house. My wife wants kitchen remodeled, and also complains about that creaky tile on kitchen floor. Oh, and one of the corners, our bedroom one of course, needs new insulation, as the floor there was icy cold during the freezing winter this year. So that's going to digest a week or two during the upcoming summer, I reckon.

You'd think that's it, but no. 3D printing sucks now. Well it doesn't suck, but it's frustrating. Over the winter, my printers have been doing lousy job. They have constant nozzle clogs. Serious delamination. Heat creep, and you name it. After doing some common fixes and tweaks in setting perhaps, the machines work for day or two, only for the problems to resurface again. These all are just challenges, you may say, and educational, but the best lesson I've learned so far is to avoid punching the printer out of frustration, when it's not agreeing to work after days of meticulous tweaking. These things are not old TVs, so they will go kaput if you smack them.

This was especially frustrating, because I had been printing so well for SO long time already, months after months without an issue, perfect prints after another. After almost everything was tried, I started wondering if the conditions in my workshop are less favourable for delicate process of 3D printing. And I'm becoming more and more sure they indeed are. The winter this year was harsh, and temperature inside my workshop fluctuated about 10 degrees of Celsius (from +14 to +24C). There's also lots of draft, because my garage door is made out of cheese. On top of things, I have been carelessly storing my filament spools on the table, as-is. So they have been sucking moisture like thirsty camel. I have a filament dryer, but never really used it properly.

How come this is such a big surprise now, after I have been successfully 3D printing for almost two years? Well, last year I was on sick leave for three months, and those months were exactly these difficult winter ones I'm now having most problems with. I simply wasn't in the 'shop experiencing this trouble. Which is why I'm now starting a major workshop overhaul, and moving my 3D printers into special 'cabinet' where I can control the environment better. There's no way to stabilise the conditions inside my entire garage, as long as the stupid door is there, but I might be able to confine the more sensitive operations into more controlled section of their own. Or at least that sounds easier way to get past this problem.

With that established, my next printer (or printers) are not going to be 200eur 'hobby' grade machines. Instead, I'll spend a bit more for 'prosumer' level printer, with an enclosure. These hobby machines are clearly not built for such a huge number of printing hours I'm putting them through, and their average lifespan is only about a year, maybe 18 months on a stretch.