codemaven

I think I was trying it at 210°C. I normally print at 185, but I upped it after my first attempt was under extruding. I don't think my fan is blowing on the aluminium, but it is something to check as they do sit lower now... but so does the fan so it should all be equivalent. Cheers, Troy.

I installed my kit on the weekend and it went really smooth. I did have to rebuild Marlin afterwards to set extruder count to 2. This should be added to the wiki. So far I've only printed a couple of calibration pieces, but it's looking good. I've got NetFabb printing dual extrusion and Cura... I think my settings are a little bit off in Cura since I had quite a bit of underextrusion.. In NetFabb I don't think it's retracting before changing extruders... which causes lots ooze... but I have to watch it a little close to see exactly what it's doing. I haven't done anything more than a couple of cubes and a quick cylinder inside another cylinder yet.... I will try some more advanced models soon and post pictures. Cheers, Troy.

NF has always had retraction as a feature, but it didn't work for quite a while. However it's been fixed for a long time now and works quite well.

Does the latest version of Marlin include support by default? I've got a build of Marlin from Daid's old Marlin builder with Heated Bed support turned on, but it's probably 6 months to a year old... Has Marlin always worked with multiple extruders by default, or has this been enabled by default only in the more recent builds? I'm not using Cura, but in NetFabb Dual extrusion seems to be very easy to setup. I've sliced a few models for dual extrusion already. It's just a matter of getting around to actually installing the second extruder. I have it ready to go, but I'm not looking forward to disassembling my machine. Hopefully I'll work up the energy to do that this weekend. Cheers, Troy.

Hi, I didn't see any mention of rebuilding Marlin in the wiki for dual extrusion. Is it necessary to rebuild Marlin to support it? If so that really should be specified in the dual extrusion build instructions. Cheers, Troy

I've had my Ultimaker for over 2 years now... Way back when I got it I had this problem with the short belts... But once I moved the motors and tightened the screws I never had an issue after that. You don't have to force the screws until they strip, but just make sure that they are nice and (hand) tight. Do not use an electric screwdriver or anything like that. Once they're on there good they will not slip. Cheers, Troy.

ABS and HIPS sounds promising... Apparently HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) is about the same price as ABS and easily dissolves in Limonene. No word on whether or not HIPS goes well with PLA, but it sounds like it is chemically similar to ABS and therefore bonds nicely to it for printing. However, I can't seem to find a source for Limonene here in the UK... Does anyone know of one? Cheers, Troy.

I'm glad to hear that it came so quickly. It took me 3 months to get mine here in England.... But that was back in 2011 when the first started selling and couldn't keep up with demand. I think the company only consisted of about 3 people at the time. They sure have grown quickly. Good luck putting it together. Remember to take your time and be methodical. Some people have issues, but I think the vast majority of the builds go smooth. I know mine was easy. It's cool to see one in Toronto. I'm originally from TO, but I've been living in England now for about 3 and half years. Cheers, Troy.

Are your motors pushed down as far as you can get them to tension up the short pullys? As Nick said, this is usually caused by one of the short pullys being loose. If the motor screws are not tight enough the motors can creep up and loosen those belts on you. Cheers, Troy.

Wood works so well because the tolerances are large... Wood can warp quite severely, but you can always force it into shape and tighten the screws down to hold it solid. With the above sizes you might have difficulties fitting the tabs into the slots since they'll be slightly wider, but there may be enough room already built in... And then there's the tool diameter that will affect it as well. I don't know if the CNC software takes tool diameter into account, if it does then you might need to make some of the square holes a slight (fraction of a millimetre) bigger. If the tool diameter is not accounted for in the software then it may actually provide the extra room you need. All in all you could probably use a file and mallet to make it fit together so I think you will be fine on the above thickness's just as long as nothing shifts when it's in use. However, as Daid said... it'll be very heavy... Aluminium is pretty light as far as metals go, but it's still much heavier than wood. Other than aesthetic value I don't think it will gain anything. In my opinion it's more trouble and expense than it's worth. I believe people have also done acrylic cases and I think that's a better choice, although I've heard that they're difficult to assemble too compared to the wood. Cheers, Troy.

Thanks Daid. Also, in the store there is the option for a "Mounting aid" or "Mo Mounting Aid"... I think that should be "No mounting aid" Cheers, Troy.

Just received my pre-order email about the kit while reading this topic One question so far... I have a very early UM from May 2011, and although I have hot-end upgrades I do not have this black plastic part that is shown in the disassembly photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ultimaker/9500044969/ Is that needed? Is there a replacement in the new kit? Thanks, Troy.

Hi Mark, Check out this post if you have not seen it: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/2663-pcb-laser-exposure-mod/ I thought about the ABS as print resist as well but decided that it would be too much hassle... It probably wouldn't stick to the copper, might have stringing, and it would be a pain to clean off.... Then I thought of the pen plotter method and figured it may be difficult to get nice thin traces with a pen... So then it occurred to me that you could use photosensitive board and attach a UV laser to the UM instead of a pen... I had planned to try this out, but as per the above post someone else got to it first and after a lot of trial and error it does seem to work. I'm building a small cnc router at the moment... Mostly I intend to use it for drilling as that is always how I usually screw up my home-made boards is by poor drilling... But I'm also going to try isolation routing with it. I think that photo-resist etching and then CNC drilling should give near professional production level results. Cheers, Troy.

It looks like they're using NetFabb... perhaps with some proprietary plugin for the layout work. Cheers, Troy.

Very cool. I've been planning to try this for quite some time, but I have other projects on the go that are a higher priority. What laser are you using? What's the power / wavelength? UV Laser diodes are hard to find and I've not seen any yet that are truly UV, most are around 405nm, which seems to be on the upper end of the sensitivity range for photosentitive exposure. I have managed to expose PCBs using monster 395nm UV LEDs though. Cheers, Troy.

Any chance of producing 3mm filaments in the future?

Hi Carmamir, It is common for the holes to be a little smaller than expected because the plastic (PLA or ABS) shrinks a little as it cools. You can try to account for this in your models by making the holes a little bigger than you need, but it's almost impossible to accurately estimate just how much they will shrink. When I make holes for a M3 screw I typically make them at 3.2mm diameter. That usually still leaves the holes fairly small so that the bolts bite in (and form threads in plastic). You can also drill the holes out to the proper size after printing, which I think is what most people do. Another common problem is oval shaped holes. If your holes are not perfectly round then it's usually a problem with the short belts not being tight enough. Make sure that the short belts between the motors and the rods are as tight as you can make them. Cheers, Troy.

Great work! I'd really like to see a printable Acetal filament. It's one of the materials that I'm interested in using. It would be great to be able to print my own MakerSlide and V-Slot wheels. Cheers, Troy.

Hi Ultimakers, Has anyone had any success with Bendlay Filament? I bought some a while back along with my LayBrick (which is awesome stuff) but I've not had any luck with it. I'm not sure what settings to use... My first print with bendlay destroyed my fan duct because I had the heated bed at about 120 degrees, which caused my PLA fan duct to droop down until it touched the platform... That aside, I had serious issues with shrinkage. The bottom of my part bonded pretty well to my heated bed, but layers above pulled inwards as they cooled, producing an hourglass like effect to my print. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures... In all of my attempts though, I get random blobs, and sudden flow stoppage. So far I've not gotten more than a few cm off the bed with a print before my flow through the extruder just seems to stop and the filament starts grinding and I get 'fluffy' layers. Yet, when I stop the print, lower the bed, and turn the gear by hand it extrudes just fine at the same temperature. I tried printing at both 220 degrees and 240 and had similar results in both cases, but 240 seems to be recommended for this filament. Also, has anyone tried Taulman T-Glase? It looks interesting, but shipping is way too high from the US and I haven't seen any European distributors carrying it yet. Thanks, Troy.

Hi Jason, The Ultimaker is about 3 years old now (I think)... Over that time it's gone through numerous revisions, but all significant updates (so far) have come out in the form of retrofit kits to upgrade existing printers. I bought my Ultimaker back when they were first released (I had to wait a 6 week lead time as they were really far behind trying to meet early demand). Since then I've upgraded my extruder feed mechanism and my hot-end to newer versions. There are also newer versions of the electronics and other bits, but they do not have any effect on functionality. The next bit to come out is a dual extruder upgrade. This has been long awaited by the community and will also be available as an upgrade for existing printers... The community is also hoping for a heated bed upgrade to be made available although many of us have built our own heated beds. So yes, you can buy the printer now and upgrade or replace individual parts as new versions come out... However... I can't say if it will always be like this. The Ultimaker is the best 3d printer out there. The upgrades have kept it on top... But the design is a little old now (by 3d printer standards) and although it is still the best out there I don't think there are that many more upgrades that can be done to the existing printer without a complete re-design. I do not think Ulimaker intends to (or wants to) release a whole new Ultimaker-2, but I personally think its about time that they did come up with a whole new re-designed printer using everything they've learned. I have to emphasise that this is my personal opinion, I don't want to dissuade you from buying one of the current models. Cheers, Troy.

I use both newsgroups, mailing lists and forums... And all formats work fine for me, but I personally prefer lightly structured forums. I.e. Forums like this one, but with only a small number of general topic sections like "Printer Help", "Newcomers", "Ideas", "General Discussion", etc. I don't like layers upon layers of sections... However, I am not a fan of Google Groups... Basically because it is not accessible here from work. All I can get to at work is Google Search, Maps, and News. All other services are blocked by our proxy including groups, Google+, Gmail, GApps, etc... Since I do 99% of my forum surfing and posting while I'm working I am not able to contribute regularly to any group on Google Groups. Occasionally I check the Ultimaker Google Groups on my phone using 3g data... But it's not fun. Cheers, Troy.

Hi James, Welcome! I'm in West London myself (Twickenham area). What sort of architectural models are you printing? Have you seen laybrick filament yet? I've just printed a yoda bust with laybrick so far, but I'm super impressed with it and I think it would do great on architectural models. Cheers, Troy.

Some good well defined tests would be great.... but I think subjective tests will do... i.e. what happens when hit with a hanner... I've tweaked my settings and I'm blown away now... I slowed down my infill (and increased the line thickness and density) and sped up the outer contours.. Now it looks and feels like clay. I showed it to someone who thought it was clay. My Laybrick Yoda does not look printed at all... and it was so easy to print. I think Laybrick is my new favorite material. I can't wait to print some busts with it and some HV insulators for my tesla coils. Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/102544598518008997408/3dPrints?authuser=0&feat=directlink https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0jNeW9Rn2t68l3wZojT9LNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink Cheers, Troy.

Did you add the heat bed temperature to your Material settings? You need to put the temp for the heatbed into the profiles along with the nozzle temperature. I find Netfabb doesn't pre-heat the bed though, it puts the M140 command at the start of layer one instead of at the beginning of the code so I usually move it myself to the top before printing. Cheers, Troy.

Nice work. I've just started experimenting now with the new 'LAYBRICK' filament that is basically printable stone. I've had good results with it, though not yet quite what they advertise. I'm still impressed with my results and I think it would be great stuff for architectural prints. Cheers, Troy.