mark

Well, I've tried xray view and it doesn't show any red spots. I've tried about 8 variations of "fix horrible" but they all have the same gcode skips (they mostly just fill in the inner cavity of the model which isn't desired). I'll keep playing with settings. [Edit] This troublesome model was part of a bigger print that I had divided in half to make it printable. I decided to try dividing it again to see if I could get a better stl to work with and for some reason it worked this time. Not certain what I did differently but it seems there was something Cura didn't like about the original stl. [/Edit]

I want to start off saying that I love Cura and that 99.99% of the time it works wonderfully. Today when I tried to slice a particular model I got some strange results: And the original model for comparison: Has anyone had issues like this? The model has been run through netfabb, which claims there are no problems with the stl file.

The retightening worked. I think it's a hard balance between not too tight and breaking it and not too loose that it leaks. Maybe the hotend v3 would be pretty much the same with slightly thicker walls on the brass part so it can withstand a little tightening.

I'm not sure it's fixed quite yet, but it seems improved. I heated the extruder to 185, tightened it up with a wrench around the aluminum block and a vise grip around the peek (had to undo one of the long thumb-screws to turn it much), and then did small extruding tests until it came out of the hotend instead of the aluminum block. Printing now and it appears to be working. I'll post back once the print finishes.

About a month ago my old peek got a plug and was giving me issues, so I decided it was a good time to upgrade to the v2 hotend. The first time I tried to tighten the top thin brass part it snapped on me. Now with a replacement one pla is leaking out between that part and the aluminum block, and I'm afraid if I try to tighten it more it will just snap again. How do you get this thing tighened without it snapping? And does anyone have a good suggestion as to how to do it now that there's a pla mess at the top? There's nothing for pliers to hold on to when it's assembled and hot...

Haven't tried hairspray yet but sounds interesting. So far I scuffed up the build platform with some 450 grit sandpaper and then smoothed it out a bit with some 120 grit sandpaper. I also increased my nozzle temp to 220 (not sure how much that helps but the Replicator 2 is using 230 as their default temp). The results so far have been pretty good: The klein bottle was printed using minimal raft. I've found that using a raft typically fixed the printing issues, but of course is a pain to clean up afterwards so I'm not calling it a solution . By slowing the first layer speed down to 30 mm/s it does seem to be sticking better. -Mark

At the moment I'm still using the PLA that came with my kit. I bought some UltiMachine PLA for when I run out but still have a little ways to go. I am having a similar issue with bigger prints not sticking correctly. When I saw the Replicator 2 videos (from MakerBot) my first thought was, "Hey that's a metal UltiMaker!" My second thought was, "Hey they're printing PLA onto a cold build platform without difficulty!" It looks like they have some laser engraving or sanding on their platform to help the PLA stick better. I'm trying to replicate their results by sanding my plate a little with mixed results. I can't tell if I need finer grain sandpaper, or if I haven't sanded enough, or what, but I'll keep trying and let you all know if I come up with something that works. -Mark

Does concentric apply to the outside/bottom layer too? Because you can change the infill pattern in Cura (found under the expert settings), but that only effects the inside fill, and not the outside surface layer (not sure if that makes sense). [Edit]Ok, you can change the infill pattern for just the top/bottom layers in Slic3r. It seems that this may be slightly better in this instance (printing right now), so thanks for pointing out the option. I'm still interested to know how one might specify the same thing in Cura, or if it is possible.[/Edit]

This question is somewhat aimed at Daid, though I'm sure anyone familiar with the inner workings of Cura could help me out. Is there any way to change how Cura lays down the first layer? For example if the bottom of my object is a square Cura will fill the whole thing in with diagonal lines across. This works great for most applications but I am in an interesting situation where it would be better if I could divide the bottom surface into smaller squares. The whole side is still being filled in, just in a different pattern. Let me know if that doesn't make any sense and I'll draw up a picture of what I mean. A rephrase of the question is: Can this pattern change for the way the bottom layer is laid down be done without changing Cura source code? And if not, where in the source code would I look to make such a change? (I don't mind diving into the source if needed, but would be fine with a simpler method ) -Mark

I understand that printing directly to glass isn't recommended, and that it isn't easy to get working, but I refuse to believe it impossible. For example I have successfully done it twice in a row today: It might not be entirely clear in the images above (pardon my poor camera) but there was little to no warping in the corners (the first layer was very sparse filament wise due to some residual ABS getting in the way). Granted this was a fairly small print which only took 30 minutes to print, but I think it shows that it is possible, at least for small prints. So far with my tests it seems that the print is more successful if there is slightly less filament being extruded than normal for the first few layers. My guess as to why this is is that when there is more filament extruded it's easier for it to stretch and curl up, but that's just speculation. I'm going to try adjusting the start gcode to get more consistent results (I think I'll start each print by retracting a small amount). For anyone interested my current settings in Cura printing PLA are as follows: Layer height: 0.2, Wall thickness: 0.6, Print speed: 75, printing temperature: 205, bottom/top thickness: 0.6, fill density: 25, bottom layer speed: 45, travel speed: 130 These settings aren't perfect yet but are consistently working. I have not sanded or done anything special to the platform. Hope this helps others get off their tape dependence someday -Mark

Hi All, While printing onto blue tape works fine I don't like needing to replace it whenever a print sticks to the bed super well and would prefer to be printing on a more consistently flat surface anyway. I've seen other people mention on the forums and elsewhere that they were successful at printing directly to non-heated glass, but they didn't mention what settings they used. With a few tests I've done today it seems to be sticking pretty well when using a temp of 205 but still has a problem with curling every once in a while. So now for my question: What success have others had at printing directly to cold glass with PLA, and what settings have you tried? And then for another possibly related question; all of a sudden today I started randomly having problems where bits of the ABS fix kit which I ran through a while ago block the nozzle for a short period of time and then come out in a glob, messing up the print. This is when printing at temps between 195 and 205, which I thought was too low for ABS to melt. Does anyone have a clue why that might be happening, and/or have any idea as to how to fix it? -Mark

Thanks for the advice. I first ran the ABS piece through and then tried printing again with a lowered first layer speed of 20 mm/s, heated at 210, and I manually set the z-bed to a good height before letting it print (paused it right at the start and then adjusted the bed). The results are great! Now if only I could get the print off of the build plate . By the way I was printing out thing:11033, so now hopefully I can get this z-axis limit switch in a more workable position. Thanks again. -Mark

Hi All, I just assembled my Ultimaker yesterday, and started printing today, and while the prints are getting better I need quite a bit of help. For some background I am using Cura 12.08 to print PLA at 230 degrees, a print speed of 30 mm/s (keeping it slow while I figure things out), and a layer height of 0.2 mm. So here's my problems/questions: 1) There is a leak between the aluminum plate and the nozzle, which occasionally drips onto the object being built. Is there any fix besides trying to put on more plumber's tape? I'm not really sure how to do that as it needs to be heated so the plastic doesn't become a problem. On a related note, my kit came with an ABS fix kit -> Should that be run through despite me using PLA? And what is it supposed to do exactly? (Also, what's the best way to feed it in?) 2) When printing bigger things the first few layers sometimes curl upward and get unstuck. From reading the forums and other blogs I thought that was only an ABS problem. Any suggestions to make the first few layers stick better would be appreciated. That's really it for now. I'm loving the quality potential I've seen so far and can't wait to get to more consistently successful prints . -Mark