fluxline

i've thought of doing the same, one of those things on the list that seem to be minor improvements with lots of work. As a short term thing I did because of a now shortened bowden tube is move it to the center of the machine with a part I printed in soft PLA, not a big difference but helpful. It also has the added benefit of removing the humming noise that reverberates throughout the frame from the motor. I think the 'sitting above' approach might help as you said, just that the envelope of the whole machine is much larger. Not sure of any other issues it might bring.

everything here in 3D worls is a bit on the move so things go missing and take longer. I had my days wating for the UM delivary (almost a month, still working with a hacked bowden/feeder until I get a corrected bowden tube ... going on 3 weeks) and vented publicly a bit (a lot). For now, it's up to us to keep things moving, part of cutting edge, but cut a bit of slack.

I'm using Cura 12.08 for slicing and printrun to print both on W7 (64), XP(32) and Ubuntu 12.04(32), what else The W7 box is not as bad as the others, but all have the same issue. The baudrate on linux had to be dropped with new uploaded firmware using the Cura wizard to communicate.The package dependencies/versions for running Cura/python under Ubuntu are a guess, but it runs so I don't think that is the issue. Here is the scad model if anybody else wants to give it a try: //$fs = 2; $fa = .5; //$fn = 360; module main() { difference () { sphere(70); sphere(68.4); translate ([0,0,80]) color("red") cube(150, 150, 60, center = true); } } module remove() { translate ([0,0,-140]) color("red") cube(150, 150, 60, center = true); } difference () { main (); remove(); } translate ([0,0,-65]) cylinder(h = 8, r=40, $fa=.5);

and ... https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ultimaker/67dbNvxYHL4 and now to find the solution ...

thanks for the pointer Daid, I orignally had the problem using an old samsung Q1 as a controller, works well otherwise. With that I found others are callin git the 'hickup'. http://wiki.ultimaker.com/Communication_speed_improvements I have also tried with an old laptop with not much better results. AN i7 worksation still has issues. I'll look through the link above.

I did use Cura. You're right, it does repeat at the same place but it is not across the entire circumference of the sphere at that layer. Almost as if where it is being split down the middle for slicing is the problem, maybe an odd number radius works better than even? Two concentric spheres, as this simple cup is, should not have a heaver bottom that I know of so is cura just making some assumptions? I think the vase setting on the simple interface is just a collection of presets, anybody know what the collection is?

I have also printed directly to cold glass with PLA, both plain and frosted, with and without PVA glue. Really can't give conclusive results yet other than it works if the print is small, less than 30mm, with no curling/warping/popping off. Bigger and parameters such as PVA glue concentration, printing temperature/material(color, provider), can cause unexpected results. Unfortunately, I had to get on to real work with the printer and for now that means blue tape for the size I am printing. I actually have a new problem and that it is sticking too well to the tape and it needs replacing every time :(

I’m having some trouble printing a bowl that I’ve not been able to figure out, any help would be great. When printing the base that is just a cylinder all is fine, when the sphere portion starts printing the UM starts to stutter about a quarter around the circle of that layer and sometime pauses for a half second. At first I thought it was just the complexity of the curves I was generating but then tried a simple design out of just spheres using openscad and the problem is still there. I’ve played with the facet sizes using both $fa and $fn with a small resolution and larger and that is not solving it. Printing wall thickness matching matching model, infill 100%, … But still this things stutters and stops on these rounds. I think alignment/pot settings are all good, it seems more like the complexity is an issue. netfabb cleaned files have the same problem. - designed with openscad - sliced with cura - printed with printrun You can see the result in the picture, the base has these stutter points

I've posted a thing (but marked it in progress) so that others that want can test. I've made the plate .2mm narrower than the original so that a rubber gromit can be used on the bolt as well. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:30334

help me out here, coral, cauliflower, or cat brains mashup?

testing now for axis and extruder motor, will post a thing and results tomorrow.

i try not to use my finger as i read somewhere that the grease from fingers can keep the print from sticking. Cleaning is an option but i think that the alcohol on the tape causes it to pull off the bed with the next print and is just not good for the tape codition. No evidence, just a feeling. Ya, tweezers are good too. I use a pair i have from bonzai work that are about 20cm long.

just curious what others use the most after a while working with a printer. I thought I'd ask after having a little laugh to myself that the most useful thing for me is a good knife... preferably a big Bowie knife or a nice number 12 Opinel. From lifting prints off the bed, flatning the blue tape, cutting filament, ... one of the oldest tools helping the newest do its job. Others?

I won't go through all the numbers here but for my system the difference in the OD of the Boden tube and the ID of the PEEK causes the ID of the Bowden tube inside the PEEK to shrink enough that even tolerant PLA will cause the filament to jam in the Bowden tube and not enter the brass tube of the heating element. I have 2 PEEKs , the inside diameter of 1 is 6.32mm and the other is 6.38mm, even leaving a PEEK on the tube without bolting the head together for a day causes is to shrink. Not enough to cause a jam but down to an inside diameter of 3.1mm. With it heated for use, the tube shrinks to the point that even tolerant PLA will not pass through the Bowden opening. I’ve seen in the forums that UM used PTFE for the Bowden tube earlier but switched to PFA at some point and PFA has a deflection temperature much lower than what it would receive at the brass tube interface. Seems I am going through what was already discovered before as can be seen on the forums. Tribal knowledge I guess. Maybe there was also a change to the ID of the PEEK as well. I see on the forums that there are many threads with ‘Filament grinding’, ‘jamming’, and such. In reading through the posts their issues seem to be what I and many others had problems with and that is a design failure. I think people with such issues should measure their tubes and PEEKs and post to both see what what varience we have in the PEEKs inside diameter as well as find if this is the root cause of the issues people are seeing. I would like to know from UM what the inside diameter of the PEEK should be, as well as what the deflection temperature of the PFA tubing they supply is?

With a Bowden tube that no longer fits for whatever reason, the only solution is to cut the best you can. I made a jig with an aluminum plate and 6.3mm hole and sliced it with a scalpel. The end appears square and clean. Lightly finger tightened the 4 head bolts, a bit more on the bolt over the Bowden tube to make sure they mated. The results are little different than the original. I failed to measure the inside/diameter of the resulting tube, felt like an idiot when all was assembled and ran for 30 seconds before no more extrusion. Assumed a jam, but after tearing apart nothing inside. Filament was sticking inside Bowden tube and could not pass through. What I have now is after running the rebuild: - PEEK (2 samples) ID 6.32mm/6.38mm - Bowden OD at feeder: 6.48mm - Bowden OD at hot end, directly under alu plate: 6.48mm - Bowden OD at hot end, at very end: 6.23mm - Bowden ID at hot end, at very end (what was inside peek), last night at fail: 2.89mm - Bowden ID at hot end, at very end (what was inside peek), now: 3.00mm I've also measured the filament and see variance from approx 2.9 - 3-1. I had measured while running at various times over the last month and was always around 2.9, nothing above 3, so that seems to have increased towards the middle of the real. Maybe they only quality check at the beginning of the reel and this one passed but had some larger diameter inside. So, i will cut again, measure this time and and see if it works. Contacted UM and they will replace the Bowden tube and filament. They recommend that I wait for the new head being released and buy that as it is more forgiving of multi-diameter filament.

First, thanks for the reply. The current recommendation is a 7mm protrusion from the bottom of the wood. I measured the distance of the peek wood interface to the brass tube inside the peek at 5.6mm, added the 1mm gap as shown and so protruded the Bowden from the bottom of the wood 6.6mm with tube pulled up as if the blue clip was in place. The 4 screws were hand tightened and wood alu plate gap remained at about 1mm. I really don't see how I could have over tightened things, any less and I think I would get leakage at the Bowden peek interface. Unless I see some other ideas, i'll cut and go again with your suggestion but now that I look more I see several other similar threads with jams but no obvious clogs in the tube nor leakage ... Just no mor extrusion.

So I've had the UM about a month now, initial assembly went ok beside a few defects like z axis wobble, extruder feeder motor gear seated incorrectly/rough edges, stripped threads on end stop sensor, burs on threads for extruded tube, ... So the delivered stuff isn't perfect but can be fixed ( besides the z axis spindle rod, I'm guess I need to live with the wobble). But something I cannot fix is shrinking of the Bowden tube at the hot end, and I'm not willing to dismantle and cut off part that has shrunk once a month. I measured the tube at original install at greater than 3mm, now it is at 2.8. I had a jam over the weekend with nozzle being clean but filament end to big to, pass through Bowden tube at hot end. Got the filament out, clipped the end and started printing only to have the jam return. Clipped the end again, put it back through with nozzle and peek off and it does not fit through. Even a non feeder fed piece does not fit through without a hard push. I have never run higher than 230, and I think this should be a very save temperature to run on. It is also mounted inside the peek with a correct distance as measured from the top of the peek inside to the brass tube (5.6mm), Bowden sticking out from bottom of wood housing (tube pulled up as if blue retainer installed) 6.6mm. The 1mm gap between the aluminum plate and wood shows as in the assembly pictures. So is one of the monthly maintenance tasks to cut off the end of the Bowden because of shrinkage? I've seen other posts of tube shrinkage but nothing resolved. Any advice on where to go from here, because I don't think the solution is clipping the tube once a month and I doubt a new tube will solve the problem. Thanks in advance for any tips

just to add to the list of potentials, mine was coming from the feeder bolt being too tight. once I tuned that a bit by watching the filament in the tube and making sure there were still 'tracks' on the filamant, the ticking went away went away. It also sounded like the ticking was coming from the white cable holder. one thing I noticed when assembling is that the nylock nuts on the clamp assembly with the delrin can be tightened too much and inhibit the delrin 'spring' from allowing less pressure to be put on the filament. it's easy to check, just open the clamp and make sure that you can push the delrin spring in and out.

I did go ahead and post a ticket with them just in case something had changed on their end and they weren't aware of it. Anita asked back for more photos and they've been sent. Thanks

Hi Daid, Thanks for the reply. I am running in Quickprint mode (simple?). I have printed a few things now with Printrun (single wall calibration and whistle) but now I have a leek where the PEEK meets the heater block and nozle meets Heater block. Need correct than I will try again. How do you do a manual heatup in Quickprint since you cannot have both Printrun and Cura running at the same time? Thanks again.

So after looking a little more: - I can connect correctly with Printrun, move the head, heat the head, extrude, even start a print (but need to adjust z height because it does not stick even with just a paper thickness distance) - With Cura 12.08 I seem to also connect, firmware uploaded, limit switch tests all good but when when sending a print the extrusion head does not heat. I can see that it was hot and the temperature is dropping from the heatup in Printrun. Must be something very simple I'm missing. - Windows 7 - Cura 12.08 Thx for the help

Hello all Having trouble with the extrusion head not heating up when printing when printing for the first time. When I go through the 'first run wizard', all runs great and the head does heat up (checked by hand) and if I immediately start a print it's at about 80 but then just keeps dropping in temp. Wires have been checked, double checked. >Running cura 12.08 ... Any clues on what this might be would be appreciated

So, have started putting UM together and have a couple questions regarding the laser cut parts. (1) On some of the pieces the laser cut does not join and with the endstops, no matter gently prodded/ x-acto cutting, would just not come out until ... snap. Is this normal and can be ignored? (2) A couple of the 'T' bolt holes had the edges chipped off, also normal or possible problems later? Thanks in advance for any help with advice to either continue or send a mail to UM. EndStops 'T' Holes

Not sure how to tell after you print, but I do know that if you look in the Cura generated GCode it will give you an estimate of how much it will use, really nice feature. Make sure that you put in your cost for the filament in the Cura preference’s, and then it will give you an estimated cost as well.

keep clam!