1.7 Taking over a printer

Module 1 · Part 3: Your print, step by step · Lesson 7 of 14 · about 3 min

Prints often finish while their owner is away, so you will often find a printer with someone's finished print and spool still in it. That is normal, and clearing it is part of starting your own job. A completely free printer is empty: no plate, no print, no spools in the AMS and no nametag. If the printer you want is in any other state, here is how to clear it.

A build plate pulled out of the rack, with a finished print on it and the owner's nametag beside it

Someone's finished print is still on the plate. Take out the whole plate, print and all, and put it in the build-plate rack. Put the owner's nametag on the plate next to the print. Take a plate from the rack for your own job, and wash it before you print (1.8 Build plates).

Someone's spool is still in the AMS. Lift it out, secure the loose end in one of the holes in the spool's rim so it can't unwind and tangle, and put it in the "This week" section of the filament shelf. It usually lifts straight out, because the printer pulls the filament back automatically when a print finishes normally. If the spool won't lift out, the filament is still threaded into the printer, which means that job was cancelled or stopped by an error. Use Unload on the screen first (1.9 Loading filament into the AMS).

A print is still running. That printer is taken. Use another one.

A nametag is on the printer, but there is no print and nothing is printing. Someone has claimed it, perhaps while they slice their job. Pick another printer if one is free. If the printer seems abandoned, look around the makerspace for its owner before you take it over.

A print has obviously failed, like spaghetti or a printer printing into the air:

1. You may stop it. Any member may stop an obviously failed job.

2. Tell the owner: tag them in the Slack channel #3D-Skrivare and say what happened. Do the same if a print has stopped with an error or run out of filament. Don't post a photo: Slack is not private, and a print may be someone's unpublished design. If the owner asks for a photo, send it to them privately.

3. Leave the failed print on its plate and put the plate in the rack, with the owner's nametag beside the print, so the owner can see what went wrong.

4. Run Unload on the screen, then put their spool in the "This week" section of the filament shelf.

Step 4 matters because when you stop a job yourself, the filament stays loaded in the print head, and the spool won't lift out until you run Unload.