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@ultimoose - that "horizontal expansion" feature that peter used is critical. Did you try that? Will that get the pva to go over the edges of the pla and touch the glass bed? An alternative is to use PVA with NYLON which seems to stick much better. I have printed many PLA/PVA prints and they are tricky. Some parts have a shape such that it works great. Some not so great.

Hmm. No idea right now. Anyone else?

Very curious!

Ha! It seems impossible when you are frustrated but iRoberti can take out 99 out of 100 of these things. He has magic, genius techniques. My technique involves WD-40, 150C heat and a sewing needle.

Strange. I did not have this problem when printing pva and nylon with a raft. It showed that it was not printing the tower in layer view?

windows 7? Windows 8? Other? Okay well I have more time today to answer this. Plus you don't have a mac so I'm not wasting my breath. When Cura 2.3.1 launches as far as I can tell the following processes can be running: Cura.exe CuraEngine.exe Nevermind about python. Anyway make sure neither are running in the "Processes" tab of task manager. DO NOT look in the applications tab. As far as I can tell, that tab is useless for finding and/or ending processes. I've had cases where I would launch a program but nothing would seem to happen and that was because it knew it was already running but didn't realize that the running copy was crashed. I'm guessing however that none of this is helpful. There is a log file - try looking there. Maybe it's some graphics driver issue. For me the file is here: C:\Users\Otis\AppData\Local\cura\cura.log

Please post a picture @VapeLounge

> the wire pusher does its duty but I don't recommend using the motor to insert and remove filament. Instead do it by hand (lift that lever on the feeder to release tension). If the nozzle is at the proper temperature for PVA (really anything above 150C) and nothing is coming out push the head to the far corner from the feeder and try going in and out a few more times. There are a few places the filament can get caught. pushing the bowden around a bit on the head might help also such that it is angling the PVA down at different angles. Inspect your pva because at this point it is probably ground up inside the feeder. To repair just cut a few cm off the tip of the pva and re-insert such that the ground up spot is now past the pusher-wheel. (gnurled sleeve).

Very cool idea! Yes you could tell Cura you have a .4mm nozzle (line width) for the model and .25 line width for the supports. You simply have to output the model and supports into two separate STL files.

This is a great thread but keep in mind that the original question was posted about a year ago.

pc? mac? version of operating system? 64 bit? 32 bit version? I have not had this problem. If you have a pc definitely go into task manager and make sure all related tasks have stopped running. I guess possibly all copies of python might be important - not sure. But likely. Or reboot. But reinstalling shouldn't make any difference.

Actually I think you can simplify if you know in advance the goal temps for nozzle and bed and make a note of that and figure out the offset temperatures to get to PC MAX.

By the way if you print 2 materials you typically want to go with a build plate temp best for the cooler setting. If you go 80C bed with PVA, the PVA will melt or at least be too soft.

There's probably a way to create new materials on the um3 but I don't know how to do it yet. so instead pick the closest material - probably CPE/UPET. You want something within 25C of nozzle 260C bed 80C. So ABS would work also. Then do: SYSTE->build plate->set temp and set the buildplate to 80C. Go away for 10 minutes and come back when build plate is at temperature. You really can't do the next step until build plate is at temperature I beleive. Putting a cloth or towel or rag on the glass will speed up this step. Now do PRINT and start your print. Wait for all the motors to stop moving around and go into the TUNE menu and adjust the build plate temp to be 80 (-20C from ABS?). Now maybe exit and re-enter the menu and if the build plate is within about 3C of goal temp it should start heating the nozzles. Go to the nozzle with PC max and make sure the goal temperature is not 0C. Once it is the ABS (or other) goal temperature, do the same adjustment. Once you do all this exit the TUNE menu and it should just work. This *will* get easier in the furture when someome explains the "right" way to add materials to your printer.

What arjan said. It's easy to adjust steps/mm for the E axis but you can't reverse direction without loading a different firmware so you have the 2 and the 2+ to choose from. The 2+ firmware works fine on the 2 except for that reverse rotation. Another choice is to swap 2 of the wires on the stepper. Take one of the twisted pairs and swap those 2 wires (either pair is fine) and the stepper will reverse direction. The problem is probably not with the feeder - it's probably with friction in the head. Best guess would be the teflon part - it's probably time to buy a new one. Do you have an Olsson block? If not getting one makes it so much easier to diagnose friction in the path from the feeder to the head (sometimes it's in the bowden but most often in the teflon part). And sometimes there is a partial nozzle clog. In call cases having the olsson block and the ability to remove the nozzle and let it cool and insert filament backwards from the olsson block lets you feel the friction.

One more thing - create a very quick print like the one I did in #3 above so you can see effects of speed or temperature within one single 5 minute print. Instead of printing 20 different 4 hour long prints you can learn much more from 3 5 minute prints where you vary the temperature and speed and retraction from the TUNE menu while printing.

At a glance my first thought is "those should just break off easily with no tools". I don't get these very often anymore though. I don't know why. Probably because 1) I'm printing slower- typically 35mm/sec. That way there is less build up of pressure in the nozzle when you want it to stop extruding. Some things to try: 2) Make sure there is no play/backlash in your bowden tube - it should not slide up and down even 0.01mm. If it does I can explain how to fix. 3) Try lower nozzle temperatures: https://ultimaker.com/en/community/2872-some-calibration-photographs 4) Try a different filament color. Coloring additives make a big difference in viscosity and also stringing. White pla is the worst for stringing so try anything but white.

Get a new core. BUT DON'T THROW THIS ONE AWAY. You will be able to purchase just the broken parts some day. Do soak it in acetone overnight though to get the rest of the abs out of there.

Do you have a heat gun? You need to get that mess up to about 110C. A bit hotter than boiling water. If you don't have one yet, buy a heat gun asap. A hair dryer might work actually - not sure. Don't do unattended prints until you are an expert at getting parts to stick. Here's a (long but informative) video:

>But not for the UM3 (yet?) Nope. But probably within a few months they will be available.

You have an ultimaker! You don't need to mess with gcodes. Just turn the 3 screws counter clockwise a half turn as in the video. But if you re-run the z-offset you will get messed up so don't rerun that unless you first run the bed calibration again. The bed calibration and the z-offset need to be calibrated in the exact same manner to get the nozzles at the same height. Am I clear? Turning the 3 screws equal amounts is safe as long as you don't *then* do the z-offset calibration. Never mess with those screws in between the 2 calibrations. The layers in gcode are all commented nicely. Search for "Z" in the code. It occurs once per layer.

Your reseller can fix all of these issues. But you wouldn't have them in the first place if the part stuck to the glass. You should have parts stick to the glass so well that you can pick up a tiny part and it lifts the entire printer off the table and you can swing the printer around by a small ultirobot stuck to the glass. I know this video is quite long but I edited it down severely. There's just lots to know to get parts to ALWAYS stick to the glass. And on a UM3 you additionally typically have to bend up the back two aluminum corners to get your glass more flat or your wipe tower won't stick well either.

Where did you "try .35"? You need to try smaller values in the "line width" part of cura 2.3. It's similar to the old "nozzle size" in cura 15.X People will tell you cura won't go below 2X line width although sometimes it does. I don't completely understand.

For now use meshmixer supports: http://www.extrudable.me/2013/12/28/meshmixer-2-0-best-newcomer-in-a-supporting-role/ I recommend a 7 to 1 ratio of base to height so if your supports are 70mm tall your support base should be around 10mm wide.

I can see a ghost image of a calibration pattern in that photo!