devoney

Hi all, I would like to propose a new feature for Cura: Different Z layer height in the print. It would be nice to have certain layers of the print to be printed with higher quality than other layers. I have the need for this feature because of the following situation: I print with ABS and ABS warps. I have no heated bed, nor do I think I need one. I eliminate the warp by first printing very thin layers of ABS on the glass print bed. Like 8 x 0,02mm or even 0,01mm to lessen the extrusion. The glass gets coated with ABS. Next, when I print an object on this ABS coated piece of glass, it sticks very well. Sometimes even chips of glass come off. Note that the first prints all fail, because the glass is dirty when it used for the first time, no matter how thoroughly you clean it before printing. But after removing the first few failing prints, the glass is clean. It looks like the ABS absorbs all the filth. Take a look at my blog post about this: http://www.ictmdeklerk.nl/printing-abs-without-warp/ Any way, now I do this in two steps: first print an object to intensely cover the glass with a thin layer of ABS. Like a square to make sure there is margin around the object to print. Next I print the object itself. But it would be very nice to have this done in one slicing job! Is it feasible, to first have a layer of very thin layers and then print the object with regular slice settings? Thanks!

Would be the Z-axis moving up I guess. Netfabb has a function to randomly 'seam'. It moves up on a different position every time. So the ZBlobl does not become a blob but a more a speckle randomly divided on your object.

Joergen, Those tips are well thought about. Thank you so much. I am definitely going to follow those up. I remember printing with default ULTRA ULTRA settings in Netfabb with a temperature of 185ºC. So lower the 260ºC sounds very logical indeed! Edit: Just disassembled my hot end. I guess this causes the trouble (notice the yellow filament in the bowden tube). or https://picasaweb.google.com/mikedeklerk/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCIzMjuit25fY_QE#5725594259468292354 Does this also imply that you should never leave on the heater too long (minutes?) while not printing? Note: I do not want to steel away this topic, but since this is all about extruding problems I thought: lets keep it in this topic.

@Joergen: Videos are still loading... Might take a while I guess. Have not seem them yet. I have checked and cleaned the PEEK. I could barely close the aluminium block onto the wood with the 4 screws (by hand), so I am absolutely sure the bowden cable touches the peek. The bowden cable is also cut straight. What I have noticed is that whenever the filament starts slipping I can tighten the bold just a bit more. And then the filament extrudes for a while. But then again it start slipping some time later, and I tighten the bolt just a bit more. This can not go on forever, because in the end the bolt is so tight, it prints its teeth profile deep in the filament. Whenever I pull out the filament by hand I notice that the teeth profile causes much resistance. Whenever I shove in new filament (which has no teeth profile, yet) it slides in smootly. I print with HIGH settings (meaning slow extrusion, compared to LOW) in Netfabb with 260º with PLA. But still the extruder jams.

The tension of the screw is definitely the cause. Whenever I tighten it very fast, the filament deforms (a profile of the extruder nut) which causes so much resistance. It gets harder to pull back the filament when the print from the nut is very deep. Not sure how to fix this though. Loosening the nut does not solve it because sometimes the nut does not grip the filament anymore. Or maybe it is a very delicated balance.... I was thinking that multiple nuts, extruding: dividing the pressure on the filament while maintaining the same force of grip would be better. What about lubricating the bowden cable (transparant cable where the filament runs through) with something like WD40?

I've got a glass plate to print on. Just got myself some glass somewhere, bought a glass cutter and cut the glas down to size. Not sure whether this glass is thermostable. But heating it up slowly might minimize the risk of breaking/cracking. The heat needs to be spread homologous otherwise pressure builds up in the glass. @Daid: I think ceramic tiles will do just fine. I put one for testing in a 'patio fireplace' thing. I turned up the heat by adding oxygen with a compressor. I put in some aluminium to. The aluminium melted, but the tile stayed the same. But my guess is it takes some time to heat up (and cool down).

I am having the same issues as cb0. The filament gets stuck from time to time with rapid printing (low settings in Netfabb). cb0 did a very good job at describing the problem. Only for me the extruder does not set back like in the movieclip of cb0. My setup is the same as cb0 (marlin, netfabb). My problem occures even at temperatures set at 260ºC with PLA. I have not tried ABS extensively enough, so I am not sure whether I would run into the same problem with ABS. ABS is warping at my unheated bed, but thats another problem.

I am having the same issues as Glasswalker about extruding. If I extrude at LOW quality settings in Netfabb the extruder jams quiete often. It ends up grinding away the PLA. I can not push it through. Only when I cut away some filament and re-insert it. But then again, it jams again some time later. I have no leakeage though. My guess is that the tension in the bowden cable builds up to much by the pattern in filament caused by the teeth of the bolt. Just a guess though. I tested the following: - printed with LOW settings => fast extruding, and waiting for it to jam - remove the jammed piece of filament - start another print with fresh filament with ULTRA settings (slow extruding) - halfway during the print I inserted 8 cm of the last bit of filament that jammed before. Result: The inserted piece of filament (different color, so I could identify it easily) went through the bowden cable into my print with ease. No problems Conclusion: The last piece of filament (although weirdly shaped after removing) is no issue. This does not solve the jamming of the extruder with fast extruding though.

Thanks! Problem fixed. New fan installed. The new fan is slightly shorter (in Z-height). I am going to print myself a new air difuser now. Instead of the original origami model. Can't print fast without a fan, that is for sure!

Hi all, To get the wires through the box above the nozzle I uncoupled the - and + of the fan beside the nozzle. Stupid me forgot to note/photograph the polarity. I ended up coupling the wires the wrong because the fan suddenly made a fume of smoke one day. Anyway, I bought a new fan and I want to connect it propperly this time. Which wire is the + (for the red wire on the fan)? The purple wire, or the blue wire? Thanks in advance!

@Daid: That looks impressive. I am guessing you have some sort of linux compiling server on the backend? Alot of settings do make sense to me, but alot of them do not. Should I use the default settings? (except for the baudrate, thanks for the tip). This feature is off by default: I have read that it heats up the nozzle more if the travelspeed of the nozzle X/Y axis increase (source: https://github.com/ErikZalm/Marlin). Is this useful?

Thank you Daid for your useful reply. As I understand (source: http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code & http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code#M92:_Set_axis_steps_per_unit) M92 sets the steps per axis. What about 'E14' is this a hexadecimal value? The decimal equivalent of 3604 does not make sense to me. I am going to look for the procedure to update to Marlin. Are there any pitfalls I should watch out for? Thank you!

Long time ago. But I finally have my ultimaker printer. So I could finally start printing. And especially the first meaningful part for me: the broken wheel of my dishwasher. So here it is: . See also this high res picture with an original wheel on the dishwasher: http://www.ictmdeklerk.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/dishwasher_wheel_installed.jpg Some parameters: I made the GCode with NetFabb with a hollow profile. Replaced the useless warming up command (M109) with M104 since I always preheat before printing to the right temperature. This way I can manage the first flow of PLA better. NetFabb does not start the print job on my Ultimaker but keeps disconnecting. So I used ReplicatorG to send the G-Code. I still have the default 5D firmware on the Arduino. And my coolingfan is broken.... so I can not use that one. I have used the support structure that the slicer of Netfabb produced. I tried to print the wheel with ReplicatorG and Skeinforge but it did not create any support. Maybe my settings were wrong. I have noticed that there are gaps in the weel that are probably the result of low tension Y-Axis belts. I will print these from Owen: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12513 and see if that makes things better. Thanks for the support!

Hi I Robert I, Thank you for your lengthy reply. That sure helps me out a lot. I indeed was unsure what firmware to upgrade to. I will look up "Marlin" for more information. That slicing part was totally new for me. I have bought Netfabb software to. As I read somewhere it can produce more detailed results with Ultimaker. I thought, another 150 euro? Ah, what the hell... So I have a a understanding now how to approach the printing of this wheel. I can not wait for the printer to arrive. Yet I have to ofcourse. I will go for the original model I have made. I do not want to change the model. I am going for automatic support generation with Netfabb slicing I guess. After upgrading the firmware of the Ultimakers hardware. Thanks again I Robert I and have a nice weekend!

That sounds like what I need! I still have two questions though. Question 1: What do you mean by 'slicer do the heavy lifting for you'? I found this: on the following website http://wiki.makerbot.com/how-to-print. I guess that is what I need! Question 2: I was wondering, I have seen that little flute/wissle that works directly after it is printed. The wissle has a little ball inside. How does the printer know what to print solid on something, and what to print as a new loose object? Thank you very much for your answer I Robert I. This leaps me forward.