edgar-meyer

I am printing PLA on an Ultimaker Original; 220C at 25mm/sec. Print proceeds smoothly for 10-12 hrs and then fails. A plug forms to restrict filament feed. Do I need a lower temperature for PLA?

Great news the new print nozzle works - I've been running successfully for 24+hr. print jobs. only a year late, but soooo much better Thanks, EM

Great thanks b.t.w., are there size=memory limitations? I need to work with .stl files from 100mb to 1-2gb. EM

First, thanks to Daid and Joergen, I installed the 'new and improved' rev.3 spring+ballbearing extruder drive and the v.2 extrusion head. Mirable dictu, the printer ran flawlessly for 8 hrs to give an excellent model. Now, a question, I would like to download and run Cura 12.10 on my iMac (10.6.8) but am overwhelmed by the insertion of Python, PySerial, xwPython, NumPY and PyOpenGL. Help - is there a step-by-step recipe for creating a running update - or has it already been done and ready for me to download? Thanks, EM

great please point me to some of the pitfalls and corrective procedures you encountered and can you point me to a table of physical properties of PLA filament? I find noticeable melting point differences in several color types - the official Ultimaker sales page is sparce thanks, EM

Daid, I had been running Cura 12.08 with occasional success using magenta PLA, but at elevated temperatures (~260 deg. - it may be my thermocouple is not calibrated) anyway, I have run through a giant magenta spool and have no more, but I do have other colors... so I chose red, being 'somewhat' like magenta, and I eventually discovered 1) that I had to feed and print at least at 260C but when I tried to increase the temperature, the program killed the job because of a temperature overload - 2) then I discovered on the red PLA spool a melting point of 260-265C - none of the others give this information so, how can I override the temperature limit in Cura 12.08? and, is there a table somewhere giving the melting points of the various flavors of PLA? thanks, Edgar

Joergen, thanks to your suggestions, especially increasing the temperature, I was able to complete a 9-hr print - joy upon joys! unfortunately, I have ?wasted? a full roll of the pink PLA getting to this point and while I bought several different colors of PLA, I did not buy more pink. I started working with silver PLA but it seems to have different physical characteristics (melting point, optimal temperature range?) do you have any experience with the properties of the different color-types of PLA? I have come to the conclusion that the Ultimaker is mechanically well designed but miserably supported: 1) originally available software had 99 variables and precious little guidance. Even more mature software makes it difficult=impossible to complete a simple, 9-hr production print, because 2) the system must have optimized parameters and there is little=no guidance in finding them from Ultimaker. Besides the choice of material (PLA), there is the tension on the extruder bolt, the extrusion speed, the temperature of the extrusion nozzle, the x-y printing speed (latter two related to the viscosity of the molten PLA) - and what might I have omitted? All these parameter work just fine for short runs, but this machine was made to make objects, not widgets, and after tens of minutes to hours, a metastable condition slips into instability and a good printing run dies. It is like selling a sleek car that works well for driving around town but fails out on the highway, with no warning from the manufacturer that the engine can overheat and no advice how to prevent it - is this the way to run a business??? Edgar

Symptoms of the illness unto death... The v2 drive bolt has a diameter of 0.307"=7.798mm, so the circumference is 24.5mm The teeth of the bolt leave a repetitive pattern on the PLA filament with a periodicity of ca. 20mm. But, when the printer becomes sick, before dying, the periodicity drops to ca. 10mm. The drive bolt tries valiantly to feed the filament properly, but it finally is packed with PLA and filament feed grinds to a stop, while the x-y-z drives speed merrily along. So, have any of you UltiWizards encountered filament feed problems? And how did you overcome them? thanks, EM

Using Cura 12.08, starting with a clean feeder (v2) bolt and nozzle, clear passage of the PLA filament (no block at the PFL-brass tue connection), calibrating pink or silver PLA steps/E, using a nominal 50mm printing speed, locating a plausible temperature hi-low range, trying to optimize the tension of the white Deldrin or the ball-bering feed clamp, and with abundant optimism, I am able to print small 'wigets' . However, a serious 9hr print job consistently fails after 1-9 hrs., after a month (actually more) of trying to optimize parameters to arrive at a successful model. It is humbling to admit abject failure. surely some obvious but obscure parameter has been neglected, some detail overlooked. Print jobs start out fine, with smooth print patterns and clean lines. I watch diligently for a while, satisfied that all is well, but then, failure. Often, there is a heat plug blocking further filament feeding. I suppose that the plug must have formed from excess liquid PLA oozing up the brass tube rather than a later up-flow of heat after the printing jammed, but I do not 'catch it in the act', so I do not know the precise symptoms and surely not the cause, otherwise I would correct it. I pleases me to hear of the successes of others, but the miserable results I consistently get in trying a longer print job leave me sadly disappointed, at myself, and at this miserable machine. It jams EVERYTIME EM

running Cura 12.08, I calibrated the feed distance as 108mm, which gave e steps/mm as 809.2 I set this number in Cura and generated the 'fine' option. I checked the Gcode file and it still had as the first actionable line: M92 865.888 so I edited it to M92 E809.2 and started the printer both windows listed input parameters the line: Echo external reset was followed with Echo steps oer unit Echo M92 X Y Z E865.89 all of this was checked after I trustingly ran the printer, which printed PLA (pure, light air) after 20mm of a 30mm print job. So where do I set this parameter and know that it stays set? thanks, EM

step 2 - continued... shat is a 'ball park' number for the number of steps per mm? thanks, EM

Thanks step 2 seems especially relative - I am using Cura 12-08 - so I get the number of steps from the value for the nozzle size or from the filament diameter - or elsewhere? EM

Glad it works for you. But, by holding the filament lightly, I have felt a 'jerk' which I presumed was the filament releasing tension. So please tell me, what parameters have you varied and optimized at the hot end: temperature? nozzle size? filament size? (affecting extrusion volume), filament feed rate? or am I missing something? thanks, EM

As the photo shows, the hobbed bolt makes a slight imprint on the PLA filament as it advances. As the photo also shows, the imprint is spiral, indicating a spiral twist to the PLA filament - until a tension point is reached, where the PLA filament returns to rest position and the process repeats itself, about every 20mm or so - and here's the rub, as best I can tell - the PLA filament is scarred in transition and the residual PLA begins to till the grooves of the hobbed bolt. Ultimately (i.e., usually shortly before the end of a print session!) the grooves and gnarled surface of the hobbed bolt are filled and the bolt can no longer grab the filament but continuing pressure causes it to take a bite out of the filament without advancing it, as shown in your photo. I may be mistaken, but it appears that the fatal flaw is the use of a threaded bolt at the site where it is made hobbed. The way to test this is to use a bolt with blank stock at the crucial place - in fact, Ultimaker should supply such bolts or else refute my hypothesis, that the hobbed bolt is poorly designed and should be replaced with one made from blank stock. Counter evidence is invited. EM

Working with PLA filament, I can print for several hours before the printer fails - usually towards the end of the job - reliably fails. It appears that the trouble is twofold: 1) the filament is stiff, as it should be 2) the knurled bolt in the feed mechanism has spiral threads, forcing the filament to twist until it cannot go further, thus resetting itself to a relaxed position and restarting the twist procedure - the periodicity is ca. 20mm when it resets itself, it is abraded by the knurled bolt, eventually filling up the grooves with PLA, ultimately causing the bolt to slip and stop advancing the filament. this strikes me as an inherently flawed design feature of an otherwise elegantly designed instrument printing speed and temperature, even greater pressure on the filament seem to be secondary factors I am at whit's end, having invested countless hours with no useful results (but a trashbin full of trials) useful suggestions will be appreciated EM

Usually towards the end of a long print job the extruder fails - and the problem seems to be that the feed mechanism is unable to release the tension built up in the filament, so the feed-bolt just chews away without advancing the filament. Might it be that the spiral thread of the modified bolt causes the twist-torsion problem? EM

rev.3 assembly guide says: " This becomes the adjusting screw to put the right pressure on the plastic so it will be transported by the groove in the M8 bolt. The white screw is for easy adjusting by hand, so it should be tight on the bolt." --- How tight is "tight"??? Using the same Gcode with Cura, I have had pieces print for 7 and 3 hrs, respectively, before the PLA filament jammed, the hobbed bolt digging a groove into the filament -or- more generally, why should the printer work perfectly for hours and then the feed mechanism jam?

Daid, I cleaned and reassembled the extrusion set. a 6hr print job ran for 4 hrs before clogging I tried to find the lowest useful printing temperature how much latitude is there in changing (speeding up) the extrusion speed - presumably by reducing the filament diameter value? any other suggestions? - obviously something is still wrong because I cannot print a complete job Are you able to print a longer (5+ hrs) job with your system? thanks, EM

Joregen, thanks for the suggestions and the useful web link I cleaned and reassembled the extruder - the 6hr print ran for 4 hours before plugging - I had it running at the lowest useful temperature. How much latitude is there is varying the extrusion speed? It was feeding the entire time, at the lowest possible temperature - so I am at a loss how to compose and execute a complete printing job. does anyone else have consistent plugging problems??? thanks, EM

Is there a feature available with Cura software (setup or at execution) to control the printing speeds of surfaces versus infill? I would like to slow down surface printing while keeping infill speed.

Huh? Howzat?

My Ultimaker consistently fails with a ~1cm plug blocking PLA feed. It happens sooner at high or low temperatures and faster x-y print speeds; I could print a full 3mm over 2 hrs (Cura default settings; 25% speed) with nice-looking thread - then - basta! I am unable to complete a single print job. The print gear continues to work; the temperature of the nozzle holds constant - but a plug forms and feed is subsequently blocked WHY? and WHAT can I do to fix it? EM

Dade, If you will send me your e-mail address, I can send over the file EM

I executed printrun.bat; program Printer Interface (no version number, presumably the latest download) ran successfully for over an hour, then the x-y-z drives ran normally but the PLA feed stopped. So, which parameters control: 1) extrusion speed 2) x-y print speed 3) x-y travel speed and, if the PLA feed stops after a longer print time, is this a feed speed or a temperature problem? I have the PLA spool on ball-bearings, so there is very little front-end resistance. thanks, EM

CURA greatly reduces the choice of parameters and is easy to use - thanks! I downloaded CURA and used default values (print=50, travel=150, extrusion=?, temp=225C). Printing progressed nicely for ca. 3mm = 2 hrs, when extrusion slowed=stopped and a plug formed what parameter(s) should I vary? any suggestions? thanks, EM