Magnetic Personality

If you feel that you want to leave the plastic covers off of your Materia 101 until you get the machine dialed in to where it is printing consistently, then bear in mind that two of your y support/drive rods are only held in place by four bearing inserts that you placed in fig. 2 on page 32 of the assembly manual. These rods float free and are intended to be held in place by the plastic side cover fascia. If your belts are the least out of alignment, they will rotate left or right and fall out of the holes thus destroying a print object in progress.

A MacGyver solution is to purchase a few strong bar magnets and place one on each corner covering the rod ends to prevent them from rotating out. These will be sufficient until you have dialed your machine in. Then you can choose to put the covers on at your discretion.

I find it easier to work on the machine without the covers hindering my hands as I adjust the machine. Once you have the belts running true, then the rods should stay in place, but why take a chance?