<p>Recently I noticed a small issue with my Creality Ender 3, where I would come home and find one of the bed leveling wheels had fallen off. This one wheel keeps vibrating loose. It's not really affecting my prints for some reason, so I just kind of let it happen.</p>
<p>Yesterday I started an 8 hour print and left. When I came home, I heard a loud buzzing noise. I walk into my room and smell a burning smell. I see the printer has extruded plastic all over the place. PLA is all over the floor. The plastic its extruding is normal filament, not extruded plastic; the nozzle is gone. Not entirely sure how it came out, because it was tight.</p>
<p>I switch off the printer and assess the damage.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The nozzle is on the floor, covered in a big blob of plastic.</p>
</li>
<li><p>The stock fiberglass build plate is nowhere to be seen; I think it fell behind the desk the printer is on.</p>
</li>
<li><p>The friction surface below the plate is covered with scratches and blobs of plastic - that needs to be replaced as well.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Two of the bed leveling wheels are gone. One is on the floor, and the other probably fell behind the desk like the build plate.</p>
</li>
<li><p>The hotend fan has filament going through it. It's missing three blades. Two of them fell on the floor, and one fell into the hotend and melted, making the burning smell.</p>
</li>
<li><p>The hotend is <em>covered</em> in melted plastic.</p>
</li>
<li><p>The heater block has lots of plastic jamming the hole where the nozzle goes.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Where do I go from here? How do I fix this?
Is this fixable?</p>
<p>What should I do to make sure this doesn't happen again?</p>

[{'answer_id': 18326, 'author': 'Greenonline', 'author_id': 4762, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/4762', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>From the excellent Thingiverse link, <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4967931" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Customizable QR Keyring or Tag</a> by <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/outwardb/designs" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>OutwardB</em></a> - which was provided in the (now deleted) <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/18296/4762">link-only answer</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<ol>\n<li><h3>Create the QR code</h3>\n<ul>\n<li><p>Go to <a href="https://qrcode-monkey.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">QRCode Monkey</a></p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Only change the Content settings</strong></p>\n<p>DO NOT change the color, logo or design settings</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Click <strong>Create QR Code</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Click <strong>Download PNG</strong> and wait for the file to download</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li><h3>Convert to SVG</h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Go to <a href="https://convertio.co/png-svg/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">PNG to SVG Converter</a> and convert the PNG image you just downloaded to a .SVG file</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li><h3>Customise in OpenSCAD</h3>\n<p>You will need <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/download:10312157" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>QR_Code_Customizer_V01_2.scad</code></a> from the <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4967931/files" rel="nofollow noreferrer">files\nrepository on Thingverse</a></p>\n<ol>\n<li><p>Download OpenSCAD from here and install it - <a href="https://openscad.org/downloads.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://openscad.org/downloads.html</a></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Put the downloaded SVG file in the same folder as the .SCAD file from this page</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Double-click the .SCAD file to open it</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Click <strong>Window</strong>, then untick <strong>Hide Customizer</strong></p>\n<p><em>Optional</em>: Click <strong>Window</strong>, then tick <strong>Hide Editor</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Enter the SVG file name in the basic settings tab (or rename the file to qr-code.svg before opening OpenSCAD)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Customize the settings. After changing a setting, you may need to click outside the text box to apply the change</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Click <strong>Design</strong> &gt; <strong>Render</strong> and wait for the design to render</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Click <strong>File</strong> &gt; <strong>Export</strong> &gt; <strong>Export to STL</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Save the file</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/VyzXZ.gif" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="QR Customisation - optional"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/VyzXZ.gif" alt="QR Customisation - optional" title="QR Customisation - optional" /></a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n<h3>Notes</h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Raised</strong> and <strong>Cut-Out</strong> types are for changing filament at layer height</li>\n<li><strong>Multi-color</strong> and <strong>Code</strong> are to be used together for inlay/multi-color printers</li>\n<li>You can also set <em>Base Height</em> or <em>Code Height</em> to 0 and export each part on it\'s own</li>\n<li>If you want to print a <strong>double sided tag</strong>, you can set <em>Base Height</em> to 0 and export the second side. Then just flip this over in\nthe slicer</li>\n<li>The text options are a okay for basic text, but if you want to use another program to add some, you can add extra height to the\ntop/bottom of the card under <strong>Extra Size Setting</strong></li>\n</ul>\n<h3>Advanced Notes</h3>\n<ul>\n<li>There is some logic in the script that stop you from making the size too small if you have Line Size set, you can set Line Size to 0\nor half your line size value if you really want to override this.</li>\n<li>You can change the Customize Design settings before generating the QR Code (on <a href="https://qrcode-monkey.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">QRCode Monkey</a>), but you\'ll need to set Line Size to 0\nand there are no promises that it\'ll print well</li>\n<li>If you want to use a different site to create the QR code, resize the image to 1147x1147 pixels before converting it to an SVG. Or if\nthe QR code in the image doesn\'t have a border, resize it to 1000x1000\npx.</li>\n<li>If you want to use a different source for the SVG file, there are instructions for working out the size in the code\n(<a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/download:10312157" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>QR_Code_Customizer_V01_2.scad</code></a>) at line 215. You\'ll need to\nexport it as a STL and measure it outside of OpenSCAD, then enter the\nvalues into the script.</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n<p>The linked to Thingiverse page also has some extra steps for adding an icon:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Add an icon</h3>\n<p>You can import another SVG file as a logo or use logo fonts.</p>\n<p>The below example uses an <a href="https://iconmonstr.com/?s=wifi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">wifi SVG file</a> from IconMonstr</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Download the wifi SVG file</li>\n<li>Place it in the same folder as the .SCAD file</li>\n<li>In the customizer:\n<ul>\n<li>Add some extra space to the top or bottom of the card under <strong>Extra Size Settings</strong></li>\n<li>Go to SVG Logo Settings</li>\n<li>Tick <strong>enable svg logo</strong></li>\n<li>Enter the filename under <strong>svg logo name</strong></li>\n<li>Set the <strong>svg y nudge</strong> position and <strong>svg logo scale</strong></li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/A2xCK.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Adding Wi-Fi logo"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/A2xCK.png" alt="Adding Wi-Fi logo" title="Adding Wi-Fi logo" /></a></p>\n</blockquote>\n'}, {'answer_id': 18327, 'author': 'towe', 'author_id': 13171, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/13171', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>I used the <a href="https://printer.tools/qrcode2stl/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">qrcore2stl</a> website for my WiFi access point.</p>\n<p>You can easily change the parameters of the QR code and associated .stl, as well as add custom text and keychain holes.</p>\n<p>For my WiFi access, I inserted a pause command at 1 mm height, and changed filament from white to black at that point.</p>\n'}]
['https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/18316', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/28485/']