gr5

If the model is organic you might want to use blender (free). If the model is mechanical you might want to try google sketchup (also free). Both of these will import and edit STL files. Learning more than one CAD system sucks. It takes hundreds of hours using one to get to a level where I can do things at a reasonable speed.

You broke Q4. The darlington transistor. It is easy to replace if you have beginner soldering skills. This large 3-pin part is located very close to the fan plug. It is not an expensive part.

But not *too* tight.

Ah - well there is a 4th source for error! You probably have "play" or "backlash". More information here (posts 7,8): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/?p=14474 You probably need to tighten your Y axis short belt - loosen the motor mounts, slide it down tight, retighten motor mounts. Although play can also be caused by very high friction which you would notice being different for X versus Y when pushing the head around with power off. Friction most often caused by end caps on the 4 rods.

I recommend you use the cura setting "cut off object bottom" under quality and do a few tests where the "top" of your part is now only 1mm off the bed.

78.74 steps/mm means if you ask the X or Y axis to move 1mm the controller sends 78.74 steps to the servo. This seems very straightforward to me. I don't know how to make it clearer. If you want to increase the scale (print bigger) on an axis by 3% then you want to increase the steps by 3%. But I don't recommend this. The steps/mm is worked out pretty carefully based on diameters of pulleys and if you mess with it, the software endstops might not work if you print something at the full 205mm size. The shrinkage you see is caused by several effects. I'd have to see the part to know exactly what the problem is. But PLA shrinking by 3% sounds about right. .25/10mm (your x axis) is 2.5% shrinkage. .45/10 is 3% shrinkage. It sounds like you have identical shrinkage on both axes. So alternatively you could scale up all parts by 2.5 to 3% every time you load a part in Cura. But in practice I think you will find that there are many other factors that change the dimensions of parts. For example vertical holes through a part are always smaller due to 3 factors: PLA shrinkage, the pulling effect as it lays down a "string" of PLA around the outside circle pulls it inward and the fact that circles are done in CAD with a polygons and these are inscribed *inside* the circle. So less than 10 sided polygons noticably shrink the hole diameter. The best solution is to always print a part twice - or print small test sections, then increase the sizes in your CAD to compensate. Unfortunately different brands and colors of plastic will need different compensations and the way you print (temperature, fan settings, speed) will also change these so it's not something that you can share with other people.

Do you have solid infill bottom and top checked? Also you should double check in layer view near the areas that are red in xray view. Xray view sends an imaginary beam of light through your model and if it hits an even qty of walls it colors the model blue or white or light blue and an odd number of walls is a red or dark red color. An odd number of walls implies either an extra wall inside the part, or a hole in a part (where "walls" can be defined as ceilings and floors as well).

You might possibly want to tilt your UM2 on it's side and see if that square nut comes out and save it until you need it. I don't know much about this part of the UM2 so I don't even know if it *can* fall out.

No image attached. Click "gallery" in the top left of this page, then the blue "upload" button. Then after uploading, make a new post and click on "my media" by the smile face.

The Z screw grease is in a very small, clear plastic tube. The grease is green so the tube is green. It should be in the same bag as a screwdriver, a roll of blue tape, and I forget what else. You probably won't need it for a year or so. The grease is *only* for the Z screw. Don't use it anywhere else.

There's no images in the album. Try uploading again - go to "gallery" in the top left corner of this page, then click the big blue upload button. Then after all done, make a new post and click on "my media" next to smile icon.

Are you positive? In this case you want to UNCHECK all 4 of those. Please post the STL somewhere on the internet and supply a link to it.

google "pololu current". These parts are pin compatible with pololu drivers. One of the 2 pins on the adjustable pot is at the voltage you need to measure. There is a formula that converts voltage to current. I think you simply multiply by some constant but forget what the constant is. If you break one of these they are very inexpensive and you can replace with several choices of replacement. The key information is to know that they are called "pololu" and google will take care of you.

PLA white from printbl??? I have some of that also - not spooled. It works great. I used some yesterday and my white filament is over a year old. Is yours spooled or loose?

All of that is good. I like the "cut a few millimeters" solution but don't cut much more than that. Also make sure you loosen the 4 screws, shove it in there good, then after the clip is on and the bowden is tight, you tighten the 4 head screws a bit to make that bowden in there nice and tight. If this solution doesn't work the first time, don't try it again - it probably means some of the metal knives in the bowden-holder are broken. So try one of the other solutions.

Details here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4118-blocked-nozzle/?p=33691

I agree. The tip is clogged. The simplest method to clean it is the "atomic" method (named after atomic bob who first explained it): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4118-blocked-nozzle/?p=33691 Steps 4,5 are optional. Step 2 is the step where you can injure your UM2 a bit so read all of step 2 before doing it.

Where are you? Canada? Well it takes about 3 days to ship a UM2 from Netherlands to USA so I don't think the distance is relevant considering the long lead time before they ship it. I've had UM ship small parts to me and those also only take 3 days. So I'm not sure the distance is a consideration.

I didn't notice you were gone for the first week but after, what has it been? 3 weeks? 4 weeks? I don't know but I've been wondering for a while now. I'm glad you came back for a visit!

I guess I can't help you then. Well - you could try another slicer. Kisslicer is pretty good - it has a nice gui similar to Cura. I'd love to see what your model looks like (in zbrush or actual printed even if you did already smooth it). I'm trying to understand the complexity.

It could have been a collision or an earlier failed print or maybe the nozzle leaks a little around the threads. Anyway, simply remove the fan shroud (2 screws each side) and let that hang by the wires and then heat up the nozzle to around 100C for at least 30 seconds and then remove excess with pliers or something. If it continues to leak you should figure out where exactly it leaks and then consider fixing it. As long as it doesn't drip on your part that you are printing it won't harm anything.

I think your first solution to your first problem will work fine. As for the second issue - If you put the bowden in boiling hot water (95C is plenty hot - it doesn't actually have to be boiling) then it will be easier to get the extra filament out. Actually 70C might be better so that you can use other PLA to push it out without having that melt also. Maybe cut off a 4 foot piece of pla, put in freezer, then heat up bowden by dipping the bad spot in hot water, then wait 30 seconds, then remove bowden from water, remove 4 foot cold PLA and slide through quickly while the PLA in the tube is still soft? I've never actually done this but other people have managed to get their PLA out of the bowden somehow.

Try slicing it anyway. Carefully check those layers in slice view to see if it has a problem. Consider checking "fix horrible A" or "fix horrible B" but only if there is a problem. Usually the red areas are extra parts that can be deleted, but I'm not sure.

His feeder is probably on a custom spool holder behind the machine. He posted that somewhere else I think.

The filament probably had a thick spot and it took that long for it to get through the bowden. While it was stuck in the bowden, the feeder slipped many times.