3D Printing "Make" Iphone Case Epic Fail

although I had high hopes for this print when I downloaded the un-customized version from thingiverse it printed upside down and without support material the middle turned into spaghetti. 

Here in this instructable I show what happens when the print does not work out due to poor planning. It is important to know that on average only 2 out of 3 prints are printed without major errors requiring starting the print again from scratch.

Submitted by SFlettering for the Instructables Sponsorship Program

Step 1: Printer Control Panel Settings

Here are the basic printer settings when starting the print. 
notice how the print started with the side walls.
I actually printed this model twice to double check that the upside down order of printing was the failure point and it was.

I made it at Techshop http://techshop.ws

Step 2: Waiting for Print Head to Heat Up

When printing it is a good idea to act responsibly with the nozzle temperature. If you manually set the heat before choosing print you will notice a faster print where the PLA "behaves" a bit better. You can manually set the temperature level and choose set which will adjust the temperature level for printing. 

Note: the print level will fluctuate  bit above or below the desired temperature settings while it reaches the right settings. For most of the Type A Machines prints I found 185 to be a great temp. The makerbot is using a higher temperature and that needs to be adjusted when printing thingiverse downloads on a Type A Machine.

Step 3: Printing the Sides

Here in the images you can see the printing of the sides first. I was impressed that the 3D printer was able to bridge the gap between pieces without using support material. 

Step 4: Closing the Gap

Here you can see 3 distince parts before the printer attempts to print over the gaps which is not the failure point for the print. The only problem with the print is that the model was "sliced" when it was upside down and therefore the back of the case failed. 

Step 5: Epic Failure

When it was first able to bridge the gaps between pieces without an error I guessed that the print would work out well, but although it can bridge gaps of a few inches 3D prints require pre-planning so that the printing does not fail like in this example.

Step 6: Letting the Print Finish - Good Quality Sides - Upside Down Print Failure in Full

I knew the print had failed about 60% of the way through, but I let everything finish up just to see how it would come out in the end. I learned a great deal from this print about what can go wrong when 3D printing. The sides printed better than expected and overall the print showed me that the machine is capable of printing on top of a 2" gap as shown when spanning the gap over the volume selection space. 

Note: if successful the print would read MAKE on the back.