thedudevt

Thanks for the update, it's still on my wish list. Kyle

Any updates on when the kit will be available? Thank you, Kyle

Has anyone tried eliminating oozing by turning the printer upside-down? I've seen one print while suspended from a corner. Off hand i can't think of anything else affected by gravity besides the oozing... I'm thinking get a print started, let it run for the first few layers and then flip it onto a stand (like the spacer I saw at NYMF only higher). Kyle

I have a .25mm nozzle although I haven't tried it yet. Have you tried PVA wood glue on your bed to promote adhesion? I think Richrap posted about it. I've been using it to great success. I have a small glass jar with 1/4 cup water and 1.5 tsp (teaspoons) white glue (plain elmers wood glue) which I mix up. easy-peasy. I apply with a scrap of paper towel. After several applications, you'll need to completely clean your surface as it does build up over time. works great on glass, and was pretty good on kapton over aluminum (heated) as well. I'm inspired to try my .25 nozzle now... thank you. Kyle

Been waiting for this for 6 months now. I will be refreshing the shop.ultimaker.com link at least twice a day till it's up. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU DAID! Kyle EDIT: from what I gather from the MakerFaire, PVA is really hard to use. It is very hygroscopic(sp?) and will become unusable in less than 48 hours out of the bag. I may mock up an enclosure for the reels to reduce moisture transfer... There has also been some posts on the reprap blogs about using ABS as support.. may try that. -K

I've noticed that cura lays down layers separately for faces created from different features, even when they are coplanar. This may actually be a function of the stl generator (I use solidworks). So, try modelling it with separate faces where you'd like it to print. You could also try faces that are not coplanar, but are separated by less than half the layer thickness. I bet the slicer would treat them separately, but the small difference in Z will get rounded out. Kyle

You're on the right track with your list, but one thing i would mention regarding first layer in cura and your having to pry parts off the tape: Both these issues indicate that you may need to spend some time on bed leveling and/or Z home adjustment. When properly adjusted, parts should pop off the tape with very little force. You'll need to use this with a heated bed too so it's not wasted effort. search the forum for the tinfoil / multimeter method of leveling the bed which is the most effective i've found, and install a fine adjustment device on your Z home switch. Cura's first layer thickness is set to .3mm by default, which actually helps alot when the bed's out of level. Once your bed is level, and you've got a fine adjustment device, you can print a simple cylinder, stop the print after the first layer, and measure the ribbon. adjust your Z height until you get .3mm as measured and you'll see much better results. Kyle

I was thinking of a printed ABS ring diffuser with a hose barb on one corner and mounting tabs to fit the long rods. Dual extruder would look like a figure-8 around the nozzles. Maybe add a relay so I could still switch it with the fan pinout. The head would be lighter than a dual fan shroud. Not sure what to print it in when I want to run ABS though. The best method I've used so far to level the bed has been the tinfoil/multimeter trick. I haven't done it in a while, and I think I need to go back to it. I think my bed goes out of whack when I reef on it to unstick parts which of course doesn't happen as often when the table is leveled and the Z height is set correctly. Kyle

@alaris2- Nothing visually exciting, just big - picture half a cylinder filling the bed. I work for a company that makes pumps for power plants and there was some interest in printing a large copy for trade shows. The 30 hour print was half of a 3/4 cutaway section. The third quarter took 16 hours and the impeller took 14 or so. It's on the back burner for now, but it would be nice to get a paying job for my UM one of these days. Since I'd like to get paying jobs, I'm very interested in improving the reliability of the UM. As such, I've printed and assembled just about every extruder posted up to Thingiverse. The tlalexander extruder is the best option I've come across so far, but I haven't tested the bertho mod yet. I printed it, but I didn't have the right bearing in my junk bin. The next items on my wish list of upgrades are keeping the table level (which may just a problem on my self made heated bed) and a dual fan mod (improve the surface finish on the side opposite the fan) or maybe, crazy idea, a remote fan using a fish tank aerator and some silicone tubing. Then I can duct the air wherever, and it will work for a dual extruder. I'd really like to run PVA support material. @LITS4FormZ if it works within your budget, I encourage you to build all the extruders. I don't devote as much time to documenting as I should, but I've learned alot about what I like in extruder design. We could all use more metrics based comparisons on the board here, so yeah, please post your findings. Kyle

I made one- I like the Mk6 gear, but I don't live in Oz, so I couldn't source the spring listed. I tried several from McMaster-Carr (9657K334 I believe) but I couldn't get it to work without slipping occasionally. I have come to prefer the spring and threaded tension bolt type designs. It's easier to adjust it to just the right tension. Some things I learned: Make sure you print the Filament Compression Arm at 100% fill - there's a lot of force on it. The shaft pops out of the rear bearing easily, and with the spring pressure on it, it will pop the gear out of alignment with the stepper spur. It could use an e-clip behind the rear bearing or something but failing that, ake sure you get the proper length from the rear bearing to the end of the shaft. Also, make sure you put lock-tite on the set screw in the Mk6 gear, if it loosens, it will slip and bork your print. I'm currently using tlalexander's extruder with great results. No slipping even on a 30 hour print. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:20850 I'm using springs from here: http://ultimachine.com/content/wades-ne ... rdware-set and a grooved bearing off of e-bay. Like I said, 30 hour print... Kyle

Yes, that might work. But when you have a good clog and your feeder is capable of a good push, then you might strip the threads. Then there is nothing left that you can do. Now after damaging the end of the bowden tube, we can cut off a short piece and try to continue to print. Speaking from first hand experience, threading the bowden works. I haven't had a plug mid-print since I turned the end to 6mm, threaded it M6, and threaded it into the PEEK part. The only reason it's not more popular is because it requires more than hardware store tooling. You can't really thread it M6 without turning it down first. The bowden does still plug, but only at the end of a print when the hot end cools down to ambient. If I start a second print without manually turning the extruder gear the filament will grind and fail during the first layer, and that's with a mk6 extruder gear (tlalexander extruder), which has much better bite than either the v3 or the stock hobbed bolt. Pretty easy to avoid once you know about it. Back to the quote, you won't strip the threads off the bowden tube. The filament strips first. Threading the bowden completely fixes the hot end. Is there room for improvement? sure, but it works now, and I don't think about it. I've taken the nozzle off once (last week) to clean it in the last three months. I've been working towards improving the reliability of the system rather than the speed. (The parts I want to print are big.) I've tried all of the available extruder options and the best results so far have been with a threaded bowden and the tlalexander greg's wade's type extruder with the mk6 gear. My current profile is 100mm print, 150mm rapids, and 3.5mm retraction and my parts look great. I haven't tried to go any faster. I'm OK with it being _only_ twice as fast as a makerbot . So my recommendation: thread your bowden tube, print yourself a tlalexander extruder, maybe add a grooved bearing, get a spool of good quality filament and _then_ start testing your max speed. I can't wait to see how fast you can make it go. Speed means nothing if your mean time before failure (MTBF) is less than your print time. You'll just make scrap faster. Kyle

My first guess is that the PCB is too flexible, and possibly not flat enough.

@approx - Nice Yoda! The chin and earlobes look pretty good, did you set a bridge % or use the default cura 100%? Also, which extruder design are you using with the mk6 gear, tlalexander's wade derivative? Kyle

Also interested in trying this design, downloading the files now. I recently tried this one http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25490 and put too much force on it and broke the pin thru the bearing. Even at 100% fill pla is too brittle to make a bearing spindle especially when in shear along the layers. Thus far, other than the original design which works when you sacrifice a goat and/or get lucky tweaking the adjuster, I've had pretty good luck with tlalexander's wade's type. This one http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:20850 uses a mk6 extruder gear which I have never had to clean out and retracts very well. I think I've tried everything else with no luck. The ultimaker would be a lot more useful to me if I could do 12+ hour prints, but so far I just can't get the MTBF on the extruder past 6-7 hours. Thank you for sharing. [edit]

yes, I agree, .25in (6.3mm) aluminum is probably thicker than necessary, but it's a much better thermal conductor than glass, so I shouldn't have any problems with cold corners. It does take a while to heat up, but it's usually hot by the time Cura is finished slicing, so it's not usually a waste of time for me. I also have been pulling parts off the bed as soon as they are done and not waiting for the bed to cool down. You have to be careful not to flex them, they're so soft they can warp easily. Also, I haven't lost any work area, and I haven't made any permanent changes to the frame, so I can swap out the heated bed for the original bed quickly (now that I have a dial indicator holder to speed up leveling). OTOH, plate glass is way cheaper. Ultimately, I'm not advocating everyone do it this way, if I didn't have access to a mill to make the plate, it would have made more sense to go with glass. There are advantages though, and someday when I get this thing dialed enough to print 200x200 plates full of small ABS parts, I might be glad to have the aluminum on there. I like how you've mounted your PS under. I wish I could mount all the supplies under. Maybe when I get my laser built I'll design a riser to stuff the power supplies into. That and one of those retractable USB cables they sell in the laptop accessory section, and it would clean up a big portion of the rats nest of cables on my bench. Maybe a drawer for tools too. Kyle

@Thereza - good question, the pcb is mounted to the aluminum plate with four M3x6 SHC Screws. I removed 2.5mm of the threads under the head of the screws so the pcb can float with expansion. I used a lathe to do this, but a dremel would work fine too. There is a layer of kapton between as an electrical insulator just in case the pcb coating gets scratched, and a few pieces of kapton on the edges to keep the pcb from bowing too much. I haven't tested the max temp, but it should have no problem getting up to ABS temps eventually. The thermistor is in between the pcb and the bed in a 2.5mm hole drilled in the center of the bed with a 1.3mm x 1.3mm slot running to the back edge for the wires. I think I found the issue I've been having with the table height - the aluminum bed is not as thick as the original, so when I put it on, the springs were not as compressed. The spring force was therefore lower and the bed was sticking to the threads of the bed mounting screws. The nozzle would push it down, and the springs weren't pushing it all the way back up. I lowered the bed three turns or so and re-leveled it and now my parts are sticking correctly at 200c/60c. So far the tiny planetary set I'm printing http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:23030 looks good. It's so small though, some of the parts are under the 5mm min retraction distance and have alot of stringing. @destroyer2012 my PLA fan shroud is sagging, so yes, I'll have to order some ABS soon. Temps at the cable chain are around 34c, which should be find until I get my laser cutter finished and cut some enclosure panels. Kyle

Finished my heated bed, the power FET circuit I posted didn't work. It powered the bed fine, but didn't shut it off even with the pull down resistor. The FET also got really hot, even with a heatsink and I didn't trust it unattended. I switched to an automotive relay from RadioShack http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... d=12505664 which works great. I recompiled marlin with Daid's BuildMeMarlin to add bed support with a 100K thermistor. The Ulticontroller needed no changes, and lists the bed temp on the watch screen. Cura doesn't (yet) have a check box for bed temp, so I added M190 S62 to the start.gcode and a corresponding M190 S0 to the end.gcode. Cura doesn't recognize M190 during slicing but it's just a warning. Marlin responds correctly and waits for the bed to come up to temp, and shuts it off after completion. Bed leveling seems to be more critical than with blue tape. I'd seen a few things to mount a dial indicator to the head, so I dug up one of my dials and made a clip. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25692 So far so good, i'm currently printing at 200C, with the bed at 62C indicated (60C measured). This thing makes a great space heater, it'll be nice in the winter. The one thing I think I've done differently is to add a cable chain for the wiring. I printed http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11978 at 75% scale, 100 % fill, 13 links and I think it came out pretty well. Thank you to all who have blazed the trail. Kyle

Thank you! I've been looking for more info on setting up a heated bed. I've got one in the works myself. Great idea using an automotive relay. Kyle

I asked my electronics guru buddy how to wire this into the ulticontroller without modifying the board. Here's what he drew. WARNING: This is untested. I picked up parts today, so I'll try to get it wired up this weekend. Additional notes: The grounds from the two supplies need to be tied together. The N-channel mosfet needs to be able to handle 10A, an should be spec'd to 1.5 times safety factor, so at least 15A. Kyle

Here are some pictures of my aluminum bed. I'm still working out how to wire it into the ulticontroller. Kyle

See also this thread - viewtopic.php?f=9&t=194 I second sticking with cura for the time being.

I've been working on a heated bed myself. I've got the bed powered using a surplus xbox360 slim power supply, but I haven't hooked it up to the Ulticontroller yet. When you get the mosfet wired in, can you post pics and/or a wiring diagram? The wiki says you can wire it directly somehow, but it's not clear enough for non-electrical duffs like me. My bed is machined from .25" aluminum. the top face had a rough surface, so I lapped it on a surface plate and applied a layer of kapton to both sides. Kyle

Build-me-Marlin is just a configurator to help us compile Marlin (Thank you Daid!) , So it's fully compatible with Marlin 1.0.0 RC3 AFAIK. Anything you could do with that, you could do with Marlin Compiled with Build-me-Marlin. I know first hand that it works fine with Netfabb, but I rarely use it now. I do miss how fast it sliced and the interface, but it's too far behind now without 5D and working retraction. Kyle

If you end up making your own, I agree with Joergen, thread the bowden. I threaded mine M6 to fit the existing PEEK part and I never have problems with the hot end clogging or the bowden popping out. Take a look at scottmayson's insulator here- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:20535 I think that would be a nice upgrade (in PEEK) if you have the tooling. Kyle

I've bought spools from both ultimachine and protoparadigm. Both have been very good.