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billdempsey

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Posts posted by billdempsey

  1. My extruder had stopped pushing filament entirely because there was not enough pressure on it to move it, so I made an ugly hack mod to the existing extruder. It is printing/feeding very consistently now.

    First, I printed a pulley type cover for the idler bearing (on a different printer, since my UM2 wouldn't print). It's a small circular pulley type wrap for the bearing which fits on it tightly. It is 2mm thick at both edges, and 1mm thick in the middle. Second, I cut away the entire left side of the casing between the two bolt holes, to remove all of the areas of the casing which might rub on the new, larger pulley/bearing assembly.

    Here is how it looks now, with the nasty edges and everything. LOL

    Extruder Hack

    Edit: Oh, I also adjusted the metal filament drive cylinder so that the biggest teeth were centered on the filament while it rides in the groove of the pulley.

     

  2. I thought as much, there was a real lack of info and updates about the dual setup,

    The dual hot end probably needs a new revolutionary reinvention, and we will just have to wait.

    Although the CubeX Trio has many other annoying faults, it actually handles multiple extruders/nozzles pretty well. There are two things they do which make it work. First, the three nozzles are very precisely positioned at the exact same height from the build plate. This makes it critical to get the bed level, but it prevents the nozzles from scraping the top of the print. The second thing they do is provide a "wipe" device near the build plate. When switching between active nozzles during a print, it retracts, then moves the entire head off the build plate and wipes the end of the nozzle on a spring loaded edge so that none of the preceding color gets mixed into the new color. Maybe Ultimaker should look at that design for inspiration for the Ultimaker 3. It works.

     

  3. I've printed perfectly for many months on my UM2. Suddenly, I started getting severe under extrusion that looks identical to the photos at the start of this thread. Figuring the nozzle was clogged, I performed the atomic cleaning several times until it came out clean. I started up another print and it was still under extruding. Thought maybe the first atomic cleaning wasn't enough, so I repeated several more rounds. I then did it again adjusting the temps so I got the perfect, clean cone shaped end when I pulled it out (85C rather than 90C did the trick for my colorFabb filament.) It still under extrudes. I disassembled the feed mechanism and cleaned it out. Put it back together and it does the same thing. Last, I updated Cura and the firmware to the very latest and it still under extrudes. I can push filament through the tube easily, so it's not binding there. I'm stumped at this point and have resorted to using Kisslicer with my CubeX Trio to slowwwly print a big object I need. My UM2 is sitting broken and idle for the first time since I got it over a year ago. When I would have this sort of problem on my UM1, I would unscrew the nozzle and hold it in the flame on my gas stove for a few minutes using pliers. This would eliminate anything inside the nozzle and get it going perfectly again. I can't do that on this machine. Any ideas?

     

  4. It's been a year since UM said a dual extruder was coming for the UM2 "in a few months," so I'm looking forward to seeing how well this alternative works. I'm guessing we'll see the official UM2 version shortly after the UM3 starts shipping. :-P ;)

    Seriously though, I'm a bit worried about the "no PLA" stipulation on this alternative since I mostly use PLA and PETT. I've never liked ABS because the fumes gave me headaches. If they can't solve the PLA problem, perhaps they'll offer a version that can't do polycarbonate, but can handle PLA well. I mainly want dual extrusion for printing alternative material support structures with my PLA and PETT objects.

    Other than filament feed issues that required some tweaking of the extruder casing with a sharp knife, I've been pretty happy with my UM2. I do get clogs occasionally, and wish the print nozzle was easily swapped, but overall I find I use the UM2 about 95% of the time while my other two printers sit idle. The output quality rocks. The large prints stick to the heated platform really well. Having dual extrusion would make the UM2 just about perfect.

     

  5. The plugs happen on prints longer than 16-18 hours for me. It seems the heat from the block is creeping too far up the feed path. The filament plugs up at the bottom of the nylon area. I'll have to check the third fan on my next print. I've also had the problem illuminarti described where it takes 2 or 3 attempts to get the filament to feed into the head because it's catching on something in the head.

     

  6. It is definitely harder to do a clog removal on the UM2 than the UM1 and it's happening a lot more often for me. I haven't had a clog in 5 months with my UM1 after switching the fan to blow through the aluminum plate. I've already had 4 clogs in the few weeks I've had my UM2 and I've only used PLA the entire time. I'm wishing they had used an E3D nozzle, instead. This new nozzle design isn't working as well as the old one for me. Other than the frequent plugs, I'm loving the UM2.

     

  7. My two favorite tools:

    Tools 2 (744x800)

     

    The one on the left is a multi-tool I found in the paint department at Lowes. The scraper part is excellent for removing parts. The pointy part is great for cleaning holes. The edge can be used like a knife to clean brim pieces the bottom edges of flat prints.

     

    The one on the right is a ridged roller I printed with 8/22 skate bearings on the axle inside. Even the axle was printed with one hub being threaded and screwed on. I use it on my UM1 to help press down the blue tape between prints, as the tape tends to pull away from the platform in small areas.

     

  8. The cleaner they spoke of is basically just sending the filament through a piece of soft foam/sponge before it enters the extruder. Some people just zip tie a small soft sponge around the filament just below the extruder. Others have printed little casings for the sponge that attach to the bottom side of the extruder.

    The best way I've found to store the filament is in sealed jumbo (2 gallon?) Ziplock bags with several packets of desiccant inside the bag. This keeps the filament from absorbing humidity. I wish I could find even larger bags to store my 5LB spools. They're not faring very well because of open air exposure.

     

  9. It varies by brand, color, and what you're trying to do with it, really. I generally print most things at 220 or 230 degrees. You could go colder if you print slowly. The main thing is going to be to make sure that you set a minimum layer time of a few seconds, so that you make sure the plastic is cool before you over print it. Especially on overhanging parts. You might also find you get better results printing several copies at one time, so that the plastic on one part can cool while the other is printing, without the head having to slow down so much that heat transfers and remelts the plastic under it. Load multiple copies of the STL in Cura, and then set the gantry height in prefs to '0', to force it to print the parts layer-for-layer, rather than sequentially.

     

    The temperature also varies widely by the age of the filament and the moisture it has absorbed from the air. I have a few huge 5LB. spools of PLA that are about 10 months old. They have become so hardened (and I assume have absorbed so much moisture) that I have to print at 250C in order to get them to flow smoothly, even at 40mm/s. That's one drawback of getting 5LB spools in colors you don't use constantly. :-|

     

  10. From my own experience, high speed settings are an illusion. Even between my CubeX Trio, my Ultimaker, and my Ultimaker 2, there seems to be far less difference in actual print speed than the settings numbers imply. The real limiting factor on speed seems to be the complexity of the pattern it's laying down. I can set the UM at 100mm/s and the CubeX at 50mm/s and on complex paths they print layers at virtually the same speed. The only time I see a noticeable speed difference is on long straight paths. Then, the UM leaves the CubeX in the dust.

    Personally, I love the "click load then click print" simplicity of using Cura with my Ultimaker. That said, I do think bridging and layer to layer cooling on small layers are the two weak areas for printing using the Cura + Ultimaker combo. On the UM2, using Cura is much less of a benefit because of the SD card shuffle adding several extra steps to printing. Hopefully the WiFi mod will arrive soon for the UM2. Sadly, the twin tiny fans on the UM2 don't seem to improve bridging performance at all. I don't think they move enough air to be helpful. They're also disturbingly loud when they kick into high gear. They sound like they're vibrating apart. I don't anticipate them lasting very long like that.

    In other words, I generally agree with the criticisms about the UM(2) print quality under those specific conditions, but I find those conditions don't occur often enough in my use for it to matter much to me. I don't print UM robots all day. I also generally design my parts within the bridging limits of my printers or with easy snap-off supports built-into the design. I think the Replicator 2 does handle bridging slightly better. On the other hand, I just can't stand the major limitation of a "skinny loaf of bread" shaped build area. That arbitrarily limits your ability to rotate a largish object to the orientation which prints the best. Because of that, I would never consider buying a Replicator 2. I can't see ever buying another printer without a heated bed, either. I'm so hooked.

     

  11. Hi Bill,

    I figured you would miss the click print button in Cura!

    We are also working on wifi to be enabled in the future, so that would mean you can toss that SD card away again.

    It is not there yet, but something to look forward to.

    Dual Extrusion will be released (most likely) in the first or second Q of 2014, nearly there.

    I have already seen some results and they already look amazing!

    I have about 20 files on my SD card, not all very large tho.

    Are yours all very big? It should be able to take more then a couple.

     

    Good news about the WiFi option! Also, the dual extrusion! I can't wait to get both! I'm assuming they're user-installable upgrades for the UM2?

    About half the files on my card are pretty large. Having been a programmer for a dozen years in an earlier life, the size of the files shouldn't make a difference when it's simply trying to list the names of the files for me to pick one. The size would cause delays when you actually try to open and read an individual file after it's selected. If it is reading the whole files just to list the names, that's bad coding. I highly doubt this is the case. Even the most inexperienced programmers would never do that. The person writing this firmware is obviously pretty experienced.

     

  12. Thanks Sander. So far, I'm mostly impressed with the new printer. First, it worked right out of the box. That's a huge step forward. It's also quieter than my other two printers, even when I crank the speed up a bit. It's far more professional looking than the UM1, and on a par with my CubeX Trio in appearance. I'm in love with the glass heated print platform for printing PLA. Warmup is slower, but well worth the wait. When the plate cools, the parts are already sitting loose on the platform. I just pick them up. No more sliding a sharp edge under the part to get it to break loose. (One note though: The gantry seems to be loose, as it flexes a lot at the tiniest touch. Is that normal?)

    My only real disappointment so far is that the printer only prints from SD cards. As a work around, I pre-sliced and copied 30-40 .gcode files onto the SD card and put it in the printer. Unfortunately, it stayed at "Reading SD Card..." for 20 minutes before I finally lost my patience and canceled. It simply never listed the files so I could choose one to print. I tried multiple times. I turned the printer off and on. I tried putting the files on another SD card and in all cases it did the same thing. I deleted all of the files except 3 or 4 and then it worked fine. Apparently, the UM2 cannot handle more than a few files at a time being on the SD card. That's a major limitation when the printer depends completely on an SD card to print. I'm hoping this is on the list for fixes.

    I really miss just hitting "Print" from inside Cura. That was so much easier. I would love it if a future firmware revision restored that ability using the built-in USB port. I'm also wishing badly for a second extruder for PVA support material. Those two changes would make the UM2 the perfect machine.

     

  13. For those in the U.S., the Maker Shed web site listed the UM2 in stock a few days ago. So, I ordered one on Dec. 7. I just got an email today (Dec. 10) saying it shipped along with a tracking number. It could arrive by Friday the 13th. For those who want one quick, better hurry. I don't know how many they bought, but I'm sure their supply won't last. For folks in the U.S., this is slightly cheaper than ordering from the Netherlands, too. FYI - It shipped from California.

    Edit:

    http://www.makershed.com/Ultimaker_2_3D_Printer_p/mkum3.htm

     

  14. XT is one more reason to love dual extrusion. Keep both materials loaded all the time and just switch extruders when you want to change materials.

    I've used the ColorFabb PLA blend and I liked it better than anything else I've used. It's the only PLA filament I plan to buy from now on. Then again, I haven't used FabberDashery, which I understand is also really good. I just prefer spools. I used Ultimachine for a while, but a few of their rolls have had wide variations in both the shape (oval) and the size. Also, I can get ColorFabb from printedsolid.com in the U.S.

     

  15. very nice work area Bill !!

    is your ultimaker now printing without problems ? :smile:

    Ian

     

    Yes it's working, other than the ongoing warping problems of printing large flat objects, and one bad spool of filament that was larger than the stock Bowden tube could feed, The filament literally got stuck in the tube. I fixed the fat filament problem by swapping the Bowden out to one with a 4mm ID. I hope to get around the warping issue using the UM2 I ordered a few days ago from Maker Shed. I print mainly with PLA and I think the heated bed will help a lot with the large flat objects.

    My UM has been working fine for months now. I basically ordered a bunch of parts and swapped all the electronics and wiring out at once. After I did that, it's been running fine. Something was obviously wrong, but I have no idea what it was. I'm just happy it's finally working the way most of yours have been working all along. In fact, I have the parts to add a heated bed to it, but I've been afraid to mess with it, since it's been working so well. It really is a good printer once it's working right.

    Hopefully my upcoming experience with the UM2 will erase any memories of the many problems I had with the UM1. :cool:

     

  16. I have had one or two models that I've printed which exhibited this sort of strange bump, too. If I slice them with another slicer, the bump usually disappears. The vast majority of models slice really well in Cura, though. I much prefer it over anything else I've tried.

     

  17. You probably don't want to use the last few windings of filament on the spool to print anything critical. That last section is more problematic for feeding through the Bowden system, anyway. Basically, your best bet is to always make sure you have plenty of filament on the spool before you start the print. It's a coin flip whether you can keep the print going by sliding more filament in during the print and trying to pause the print is even less dependable. When a spool gets pretty low, I set it aside for printing tiny parts. That way, if I run out mid print, I haven't wasted much at all.

     

  18. When I bought my UM1, the exchange rate and the DHL shipping were what cost a bunch extra. The printer price was listed in Euros. The exchange rate is $1 = 0.7 Euros. As a result, the price jumped by almost one third. Add in the a few hundred for DHL and the gouge is complete. This time around, I ordered a UM2 from Maker Shed. The price was higher, but it was actually cheaper once I figured in the exchange rate and the shipping.

    UM2 price = 1895 Euros

    divide by 0.7

    UM2 price in dollars = $2707.14

    DHL (if I recall correctly) was around $200?

    That's about $2900.

    UM2 price at Maker Shed was $2599.

    Shipping was $45.78

    Total is $2644.78 (no tax)

    EDIT: Forgot to mention that I live in Nevada.

     

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