Worrying reports from fellow members

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mib....@gmail.com

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Oct 31, 2025, 3:41:47 AM (4 days ago) Oct 31
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I dropped by the lab tonight to pick up a few personal prints and a member asked if they could meet me to ask some advanced 3d printing questions. I was happy to meet with them but during the course of our discussion a number of worrying things were brought up that I wanted to bring to the groups attention.

1.) This member had a 3d print that was in progress and failed. Rather than the failed print being put into the printed objects box so it could be troubleshot by the user or Rick or I as champions, the print was thrown away. Under no circumstances should a member be throwing another members projects away without permission. We have a process for abandoned items/projects, the red tag system, that can be implemented as needed, but the first step in that process is making a good faith effort to reach the owner and have them pick up their property.

2.) A user or users deleted dozens of files on the 3d printer computer. This included peoples in project works, gcode files, stl files, 3mf files, and archives. Operations and the champions have processes in place to purge old files off the computers as they are no longer needed and again, no member should ever be deleting another members work without permission.

3.) Users prints when completed had supports removed damaging the prints. The finished prints were also not placed in the finished print box near the station. If you are going to use one of the printers and another user's finished print is on the machine, please carefully detach it from the bed and place it, with supports if present, in the box currently labelled "parts found on the ultimaker 2" for that user to pickup. It is not your responsibility to alter another users project even if you are trying to be helpful with removing supports.

4.) A user reported that they were in the middle of using a printer when a visitor to the lab "barged in" and began calibrating the printer they were working on and took over the station preventing them from even switching to another printer. This behavior is unacceptable. If someone asks you for help, please by all means help them, but do not force yourself in if they are trying to use the tools in a safe and normal manner.

One of our cornerstone expectations on which the lab was founded is as follows:

Exercise consideration and respect in your speech and actions, remember that community event venues may be shared with members of the public.

Throwing away, deleting, or damaging another members work is not considerate nor respectful.


Rick Blake

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Oct 31, 2025, 10:02:40 AM (4 days ago) Oct 31
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These are disappointing and disturbing reports. I noticed on the 3D workstation that there were several slicer instances left open, with files open. As I shut down the workstation for other repair work, I checked to see if any of these files were not saved, and all appeared to be saved. No harm done that I could see. This gave me a thought - there is now a 'Lost and Found' folder in Users. You know what to do.

And yes, even failed prints ought to be set aside, if for no other reason than they are NOT yours. 

Completed prints may be set aside, but no further processing needs to be done. Supports, etc., these do not heed to be dealt with if you are not the owner>

But, more disturbing, anyone interrupting your work, for any reason, ought to explain the urgent need for you to step aside. In such circumstances, I encourage a user to both email and use Slack to report the incident immediately. If I receive such a report, I will try to respond. 

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Antonio Contrisciani

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Oct 31, 2025, 10:06:18 AM (4 days ago) Oct 31
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I suggested to the member they should bring it to the hosts attention immediately. 

Rick Blake

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Oct 31, 2025, 10:07:41 AM (4 days ago) Oct 31
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That also! Hosting is a challenge, but these incidents need to be reported to them. Yes, my oversight.

Antonio Contrisciani

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Oct 31, 2025, 10:50:29 AM (4 days ago) Oct 31
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I should also add for full clarity, I am not speaking of the slicer being closed with unsaved work, which could be accidental. A user was printing 6 total propellers for a drone. They plated and sliced two of them, intending to print that gcode 3 times. When they came back the next day to pickup the first two and start the print again the gcode was missing. I looked into it and it was in the recycle bin along with approximately 40-50 other files, so it was intentionally deleted off the local computer by someone.

sherman mohler

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Oct 31, 2025, 11:36:25 AM (4 days ago) Oct 31
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Please let me know privately (sherman...@yahoo.com) if the last bullet occurred on Tuesday night. I was the docent that night, and someone from the public who had never before been at HS did come barging in, and "took over" one of the machines from another person who is also not a member (two people getting freebies). I did my best to monitor the situation, but the person who was pushed off one of the 3D printers was still hogging up the other two, and after talking to Landon, it seems he messed up at least one of the printers. I actually know this youngster from years ago as I used to see him at the museum all the time, and he is a good kid but nonetheless I wasn't thrilled he ideally wanted to occupy all three printers. So I could use some coaching on how to make sure no one (i) does anything silly on the printers that I should be able to catch even though I don't know much about actually 3D printing, and (ii) I'd like to know membership agrees that we should be able to have some sort of "one per customer" for long term prints, at least for non-members that are getting a freebie here at HeatSync.

-- Sherman





Jay McGavren

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Nov 1, 2025, 11:07:39 AM (3 days ago) Nov 1
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Not saying we shouldn't plan for the future, but I bet this particular problem resolves itself now that Halloween is past.

Rick Blake

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Nov 1, 2025, 11:10:50 AM (3 days ago) Nov 1
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I've moved my gcode files, after they are uploaded to Octo, into my users folder to avoid this. Another bullet point for documentation?

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