Besides the printer itself and the printing materials, the next thing on your shopping list should be a handy toolkit if you don’t have one already. A basic toolkit with the following items will be handy not just in maintaining your printer, but in projects all around the house:

• Pliers, Allen keys and screwdrivers
• Lubricant or grease for the different guides
• Different cleaning materials such as clothes
• A small cleaning brush for dusting the electrical components
• Optional but highly recommended is a wire brush

All of these components are not just for repairing any sort of mishap – they are also for cleaning the machines.

People often say the best cure is prevention and this is true for maintaining your printer. Routine cleans will greatly decrease the chances of a failure of some sort whilst also extending the life of the various components in the printer.

In terms of how often you should clean everything, The more frequently you print, the more often you should clean the components of the printer.

One of the most important aspects of your printer maintaining a long and healthy lifespan is where you put it and the surrounding environment.

You want to make sure you place it in a dust and dirt-free environment – such as an office. When the printer is in use, there is a risk of particles of dust and debris getting into various parts – such as the nozzle or the machine itself – so ensuring that the surrounding area is clean is vital when it is in use.

The temperature of the surrounding area is also incredibly important to make note of. You want to try to keep the ambient temperature as close to room temperature as it’s this temperature which ensures you get the best prints possible.

As we mentioned in the first point, cleaning your machine is one of the top activities you can do to make sure your printer has a long life span and stays making solid quality prints. Even in a clean and dirt-free environment, the machine will need regular cleaning.

You want to make sure the nozzle is thoroughly cleaned using a special brush with rough fibres. The printer bed will need cleaning after every print as well, using any sort of appropriate agent to clean it thoroughly. Empty any filament waste and double-check to make sure none of the filament has made its way into the printer housing!

Whilst cleaning will be the way to go to help prevent any sort of fault, regular maintenance needs to be done on the technical and mechanical parts of your printer. You should schedule maintenance of your printer at regular intervals; usually based on the number of hours that the printer has been in use.

A good timeline to shoot for is a regular maintenance check every 2500 hours of use – many 3d printers will have the option to show some sort of handy maintenance key when you hit a certain amount of hours of usage along with a simple guide of parts to check for wear. You simply need to follow their guide when the message appears and replace any parts that need replacing.

Some 3d printer manufacturers will actually advise you to change certain parts before they malfunction. This is a sort of precaution to prevent any malfunctions during an actual print itself, saving you the headache of having to reprint something due to an error mid-print.

Whilst we can’t give you a comprehensive guide on the technical and mechanical maintenance that may be needed as every machine is slightly different, The best way to maintain your printer is to thoroughly clean it regularly and ensure it’s always in a clean environment when it’s in use.

Regular maintenance should be scheduled and almost all brands of printers will have a short guide on how to perform quick checks to make sure your printer is always performing the best it can – whether that involves printing jewellery, figures or anything else!