She arrived in pieces. A Prusa i3 MK2.5S with an MMU2S multi-material upgrade that had seen better days — bent frame, dead extruder motor, MMU selector that wouldn't index. The asking price was zero. We said yes.

February 14, 2026 — Acquisition

Full condition on arrival: one bent Y-axis frame rod (printable), extruder motor non-functional (replaced with a spare Nema 17), MMU2S idler body cracked (printed a replacement in the shop), selector motor grinding and not indexing (rebuilt selector assembly from scratch).

No parts were ordered. Everything came from the shop's spare bin or was printed on another machine. Total out-of-pocket cost: $0.

February 28, 2026 — Full Teardown

Stripped the printer to the frame. Replaced the extruder motor. Straightened the Y-rod with a press. Rebuilt the heatblock assembly — new PTFE tube, new nozzle, new heater cartridge. The hotend was clean inside; it was the peripherals that had failed.

Reassembly took four hours. First cold extrusion test: successful. First layer calibration: on the first try.

March 10, 2026 — MMU2S Rebuilt, First Five-Colour Print

The MMU2S was the real project. The idler arm was cracked and the selector motor had stripped gears. Printed new idler body, sourced a replacement Nema 17 for the selector, rebuilt the buffer unit with fresh PTFE. Calibrated each channel individually — three passes per channel to get consistent filament loading.

The first five-colour test print was a calibration tower, all five channels cycling. Every load succeeded. The Old Girl was alive.

March 12, 2026 — Loaded and Standing By

Loaded Lime Green Galaxy ABS across channels 1-3 (the most-requested colour from early community feedback). Stage One preview launched — the page is live, the blog is crawlable, the printer is ready. The queue opens when the live systems (Supabase realtime, Ko-fi integration, vote tracking) pass final hardening.

What's Next

Stage Two will open the queue to submissions, enable Ko-fi queue-jump payments, and turn on community voting for what gets printed. Livestream integration (YouTube embed with offline fallback) will let supporters watch prints in real time.

The Old Girl isn't a product. She's a community resource. Follow along at oldgirl.3d3d.ca.