illuminarti

A 0.6mm shell setting in Cura is going to cause the printer to print the entire print using a 0.6mm extrusion width (because the shell thickness isn't an exact multiple of the nozzle width, so it compensates by pretending the nozzle width is 0.6mm). So the volume per second in the original example is 80 x 0.2 x 0.6 = 9.6mm³/s. Which is probably too high for a decent, sustained print. Also, you're only going to get a single pass of the extruder around the perimeter, which is more likely to lead to poor quality being visible due to oozing during combing moves, and/or infill showing through. I'd set the shell thickness to 0.8mm, and so get two 0.4mm passes, and 0.4mm thickness throughout the print. Also, do you really want ten layers of solid material on the tops and bottoms, but much less on the sides?

It sounds like you are grinding away the filament in the feeder - that's why it's not feeding properly at the start, and the motor is turning, but the filament isn't moving. If that happens, you need to stop, remove the filament, and cut off the damaged part. Pushing damaged filament into the Bowden tube is only going to make things worse. What firmware info does Maintenance -> Advanced -> Version give you?

Can you post a photo of your head from the front, showing the position of the teflon coupler? Are you doing the cold pull without the bowden in place? I suspect the bulge is just the plastic softening into the area at the top of the teflon part, where the bowden normally goes. This may be because you teflon coupler is getting extra hot - or perhaps just a function of how long you leave it sitting hot when cleaning. Is the fan on the back of the print head running all the time?

Hopefully Ultimaker will find a way to solve these problems with shipments to the USA soon. In their defense, I think it's only an issue with certain carriers/ports of entry.

See my PM...

Start by looking at the wires up in the top right corner, and see if they're rubbing on the pulleys. Poke them a bit and see if there's a loose connection up there. Most likely the issue is just a bad connection between the second and third strips. If there is, it may be as simple as gluing down the LED strips and or wires to keep them out of the way, and making good contact. Beyond that you may need to resolder a new connection between the two strips, or simply replace the entire set of 3 LED strips with a new one. It's not really hard to do, but it is a little bit tight and fiddly to work around the pulleys etc. Best approach is to place the printer front down, and work through the top of the printer.

What material are you printing? Have you updated to the latest firmware from Cura 14.07? I recommend removing the filament and doing a factory reset afterwards, just to make sure everything is ok. Have you tried taking the glass plate off and washing it?

What temperature are you setting in Cura? There's a safety that will disable extruding below 170° - it sounds a bit like you are hitting that once the print starts.

If you haven't already, download version 14.07 of Cura, and install the firmware from that over USB. (Machine -> Install Default Firmware, in Cura). When the filament does get ground away, be sure to remove it, and cut off the damaged part. You don't want to have the chewed up part getting stuck in the Bowden tube.

Try connecting to the printer with Pronterface instead, and use that to execute the command.

I can't really think why the firmware update would cause any issues like that. You might try removing the filament, and then performing a 'factory reset' to see if that makes a difference. (Maintenance -> Advanced -> Factory Reset).

Also, I recommend that you just level it by eye - looking along the surface of the glass until you see the nozzle just touching its reflection in the glass. That's fractionally too close, but it's a lot quicker, and combined with a thick (0.3mm) first layer, it should help to eliminate any visible lines on the first layer. Also - you mentioned about the overall height of the bed... start by looking through the gap, and adjust the height of the back screw until the terminal block is almost touching the lower plate - about a 1mm gap between terminal block and lower plate is fine. Tighten the two front screws by about the same amount (so the bed stays about level overall), and then rerun the leveling process, to level it to the new spring height.

You can adjust the flow during printing using the Tune menu. I'd be inclined to go with a thicker first layer, so there is more material being extruded. Make sure that you have installed the firmware from Cura 14.07 (in addition to using that version for slicing). Try turning off 'enable combing' in the advanced settings. That will eliminate the stringing on the infill, and probably help with the thin patches in the walls.

The pictures seem to be missing...

Simply turn the power off, and then pull the print head to wherever you want it.

No, the spare wire that you saw is just that - a spare. It doesn't go anywhere. The wire that's plugged in to the electronics board is the one for the fan. The fan should be on all the time; check the wiring in the mesh above the head and make sure that the connections at the other end of that cable is good.

I got there a little late, but the extruder concept was really great, and it was good to finally see the birthplace of Ultimaker, and put some more faces to names :-)

It looks like the print has lifted off the bed quite a bit. Is it warping to the point that the head is catching on some part of the print, and so not able to move correctly at some point. That will cause it to lose track of its position. Other than that, have you tightened all the pulleys, including the one on the x motor? Also, with the power off, try moving the head around by hand, and see if you experience any areas of tightness or binding. Move the head back and forth while looking at the back corners where the short belts are. If the belts are properly tensioned, they should be running nicely in their grooves, staying totally straight, and you shouldn't see any sign of twisting etc. Indeed, if you half-close your eyes and squint at the belts you shouldn't really be able to see them moving at all (aside from any writing that might be moving in your field of view).

You just press down on the white '4 prong' collet, while pulling up on the Bowden Tube. If you yank it out, you run a real risk of damaging the collet, and also of scraping plastic off the outside of the Bowden which a) could fall into the nozzle, and b) means that there isn't enough for the collet to grab next time - so that the Bowden won't stay tightly in place. (If that happens, cut 2 or 3 mm off the end of the tube, so that the collet gets some fresh plastic to bite into next time. And here's how to reinsert the Bowden to ensure it stays tightly in place in the right spot: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4586-can-your-um2-printer-achieve-10mm3s-test-it-here/?p=40399

Also, there shouldn't be enough glue on the bed to stick to the print like that. Apply it thinly, and spread it evenly with a wet paper towel, so you cover the print area in glue solution. As the bed heats, it will dry to a thin film.

If you get any gouges in your filament, you should remove it and cut off the damaged part. Avoid feeding damaged filament through the bowden... it's just going to cause damage and/or print problems later.

Yes, your math sounds about right to me.

Perhaps you could try increasing, or decreasing, the tension on all three bed leveling springs (and then rerunning the leveling wizard), and see if that makes a difference?

Yes, it's a deliberate feature that I added recently - or at least fine tuned to where it works a bit better. (It actually used to try and purge as much or more, but did it so fast that most printers couldn't keep up - and that lead to stripping of the filament on some printers.) It purges 50mm³ - a little over half of the contents of the print head - at a fast normal printing speed. The idea is to ensure the head is full of plastic, make up for any filament that might have leaked during heat up, and flush through most of the plastic that may have sat hot in the print head for a while. I'm still open to ideas on how to make this work better. I think it should probably do it a bit closer to the bed, so the ejected plastic is more likely to stick to the bed (and/or the front left glass clip). And then maybe do a quick left to right pass on the front of the bed, almost touching, to try and wipe off the head before the print proper starts... Any ideas or requests?

This is on an Ultimaker Original?