thevictor11

Pretty much the answer I was expecting haha. Looks like I'll have to restock my sandpaper

Is there a way to prevent the surface that is supported to not have a melted look when the supports are broken off? I'm printing an object similar to the bottom of a boat and the smooth under body is just awful once I break the supports off. Took me almost an hour just to get it to a presentable stage.

If there's a lot I run over it with a blade to get rid of the larger chunks. After that I just sand what ever is left with 200 grit sandpaper. That usually takes care of what gets left on mine. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply Daid. Couldn't get Slic3r to make retractions in spots so I gave up and went back to Cura. I managed to do a 40 micron print with the Skin feature. It was a little rough but it sanded down to a really smooth finish which is exactly what I wanted, a few flaws but might be the innaccuracies like you said after 50 microns. I'm gonna give the 50 micron print a go. Really glad to have an actual conversation with the people directly connected to the software Thanks again.

Thanks again for the help Owen! I'll have to go through these tonight

So over my winter break from classes I decided to recalibrate and went through the entire machine from top to bottom making sure everything was the way it should. Caught 4 bolts that were not 100% tight either my fault or just from the machine working. Now, I've printed 5 objects and all came out perfectly. No weird lines or weird layering like I used to have. I've been printing at 200 microns and I figured with my new found success with prints I figured I could aim to get my prints down/up to the crazy 20 microns that I kept hearing about. First print with Cura, unsuccessful. It came out really rough kinda like sandpaper. My question is, is it possible to go down to 20 microns with Cura on the default Ultimaker nozzle? I have a print I sliced with Slic3r that's currently printing and from what I see so far, it's pretty smooth so we'll see when it finishes in 2 hours haha. I personally love Cura's interface and if I can, I would definitely like to stick with it rather than switch to another program.

After using Cura for the past few months I decided to take advantage of the Netfabb license I bought with the Ultimaker. My problem is I have no idea how to use Netfabb. I was following the "guide" on the Ultimaker support http://wiki.ultimaker.com/NetFabb_Setup_Guide_and_Quick_Introduction#Backup_old_profiles_.26_cleaning_of_old_versions but I feel like it isn't up to date because I get to certain point and I can't follow it anymore because buttons and labels aren't the same. Is there an up to date tutorial for this? Thanks!

It's weird though. My model is supposed to be about 3" tall but if I scale it to 25.4 it's almost 6.5" tall. I'll try the export in mm and see. Been so busy with classes I haven't printed a single thing all week =(

I've been printing things using cura, usually from thingiverse but when I export STLs from cinema4d I noticed things don't I.port at the same scale. I export them in inches, which is the same unit I build my things in but when my 4" block is imported in its like 25% scale. I'm not sure how to fix this. Any idea?

Thanks guys, I glad someone with more than one ultimaker replied haha. I'll give both a try tonight

Hey guys, so I decided to upgrade the fan duct from the original but I'm not sure which ones are "best". I've tried a few but they've either hit the heating block or they sat too low for some reason. I have the newest Ultimaker kit with the V2 hot end and...anything else they've upgrade :lol: I've already printed a few already but it's a downer printing so many fan ducts that don't end up working and become "garbage". I have a second fan here and a 2 pin splitter in the mail so if anyone has any suggestions on a setup for the second fan as well? I was thinking of trying these but I figured I'd get some input before I drop more hours and resources on them. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:20991 I'm pretty sure this isn't for the ultimaker but it's nice that it has 2 fan option http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:23713 The main reason for this upgrade is that I think the PLA warps too much if it doesn't get cooled properly which is why sometimes my nozzle catches my prints. I'm not 100% on that theory so if anyone has any input on that that'd also be great

Luckily my cats know better/don't care haha. I've been meaning to look into getting another fan during the holidays. I'm just curious where you would plug the second one into?

Thanks Owen. I'll give KISSlicer a try. The printer just got its power unplugged because my dog ran and tripped over it :cry: Going to give the new fanduct a go and see how that goes. Also give KISSlicer a go for the next attempt.

So I believe I may have found the problem. The bumping starts when it starts printing the hands of the figure. I guess because it's such a small area to fill in that the PLA warps and angles upwards which is what gets caught. That combo'd with a tower of support material being the only support structure it has doesn't give it a very strong platform. Does this sound right to people with more experience? I'm not quite sure how to solve this issue. Would a better fan duct help? I noticed while holding the print steady for 15 minutes that the default fan duct doesn't blow directly onto the area the nozzle just dealt with. Any suggestions would be awesome UPDATE: I noticed the support structure on the right side, that is barely hit by the fan, is much more wobbly than the left one. Does being cooled make the plastic sturdier than cooling gradually? Also this is the model I'm trying to print. Finally got a decent render of it.

Are you doing all the mould making and casting yourself? Have you considered using silicone mould? I've used that for a more complicated project and because it's flexible, you can keep the mould to 2 parts. You paint on coats until you get a thick enough layer then you make a plaster mould around the silicone to give it a hard case. After that you just cut the plaster and silicone parts in half with registration points. And unfortunately I can't even afford 1 of the $200 ducks. lol