<p>It's highly unlikely this crash caused any physical or electrical damage to your printer. Printers are designed to be able to withstand an occasional crash as typically, no Axis Maximum endstops are installed. The 'atrocious' noise you describe hearing is the sound of the stepper motor having lost (or, in this case, repeatedly losing) steps. If you are worried, I would check that the X/Y Gantries are still in-tram and that the printer can still home itself without any problems.<br />
If this was a Z-Max runout (ie, printer tried to move too high), I would also check that the Z carriage is still on the Z axis Leadscrews before attempting to home, because if the Z carriage is not on one or both of the leadscrews, It is possible for the machine to engage them at different heights, throwing the X gantry out of tram or worse if only one leadscrew manages to re-engage.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-01T02:11:23.567Z
2022-03-01T02:11:23.567Z
craftxbox
<p>The noise you heard was likely caused by the extruder keeping turning, resulting in the belt stretching enough to jump a tooth or more. I guess it was like &quot;TRRRRR&quot;.</p>
<p>If the belt tension is properly set (not too tight), no damage can be caused. In fact, the belt should be loose enough so that such a mistake won't cause damages.</p>
<p>You could also reduce the current to the stepper motors in the future, to reduce even further the risk of damage.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-04T10:42:29.667Z
with a bad printer geometry (where there are some areas where the printhead would impact obstacles) or objects invading the movement path, damage *could* result to the printhead being *bonked* into such obstructions, but without such, indeed it's nigh impossible.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-03T15:37:19.080Z
2022-03-03T15:37:19.080Z
FarO
<p>Faulty endstop caused the printer (a traditional cartesian FDM) to try to move over the maximum axis limit at top, the noise has been atrocious, I don't see damages (apparently) but I'm wondering if this could have damaged something or the motors aren't strong enough to do any serious physical damage to mechanics of movement.</p>
<p>Could you clarify this?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-29T07:34:12.060Z
classic fdm has no physical x-max switch.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-29T13:18:36.860Z
the faulty one caused miscalibration that ended with wrong calculation of the distances and this outcome
AndreaF
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-30T13:35:59.443Z
steppers are usually built to take a bit of a pounding.  Part of their inefficiencies come from each step being both an acceleration and deceleration of the rotor.  The issue is usually that they can only dissipate so much heat- insulation on the coils deteriorates from heat.  If your drivers' current limits are per motor spec and you stopped it, I'd consider it OK.
Abel
<endstop><axis>
Impact on 3D printer of movement forced over the limit
AndreaF
# Impact on 3D printer of movement forced over the limit

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-12-29)

Faulty endstop caused the printer (a traditional cartesian FDM) to try to move over the maximum axis limit at top, the noise has been atrocious, I don't see damages (apparently) but I'm wondering if this could have damaged something or the motors aren't strong enough to do any serious physical damage to mechanics of movement.

Could you clarify this?

**Tags:** endstop, axis

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: classic fdm has no physical x-max switch.  
> **username_0**: the faulty one caused miscalibration that ended with wrong calculation of the distances and this outcome  
> **username_2**: steppers are usually built to take a bit of a pounding.  Part of their inefficiencies come from each step being both an acceleration and deceleration of the rotor.  The issue is usually that they can only dissipate so much heat- insulation on the coils deteriorates from heat.  If your drivers' current limits are per motor spec and you stopped it, I'd consider it OK.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2022-03-01. Score: 1

It's highly unlikely this crash caused any physical or electrical damage to your printer. Printers are designed to be able to withstand an occasional crash as typically, no Axis Maximum endstops are installed. The 'atrocious' noise you describe hearing is the sound of the stepper motor having lost (or, in this case, repeatedly losing) steps. If you are worried, I would check that the X/Y Gantries are still in-tram and that the printer can still home itself without any problems.  
If this was a Z-Max runout (ie, printer tried to move too high), I would also check that the Z carriage is still on the Z axis Leadscrews before attempting to home, because if the Z carriage is not on one or both of the leadscrews, It is possible for the machine to engage them at different heights, throwing the X gantry out of tram or worse if only one leadscrew manages to re-engage.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2022-03-03. Score: 0

The noise you heard was likely caused by the extruder keeping turning, resulting in the belt stretching enough to jump a tooth or more. I guess it was like "TRRRRR".

If the belt tension is properly set (not too tight), no damage can be caused. In fact, the belt should be loose enough so that such a mistake won't cause damages.

You could also reduce the current to the stepper motors in the future, to reduce even further the risk of damage.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: with a bad printer geometry (where there are some areas where the printhead would impact obstacles) or objects invading the movement path, damage *could* result to the printhead being *bonked* into such obstructions, but without such, indeed it's nigh impossible.  

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