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And ultimaker plans to sell a heated bed kit for the UM Original so you might want to wait. If you stick a piece of PLA filament in hot water right out of the microwave for 10 seconds, then remove and bend it you understand how it behaves in the 60C to 100C temperature range. This is way way below the melting point of 170 to 180C. But above the "glass temp". The shrinkage that happens from 220C to 100C happens almost instantly and causes the individual trace to shrink. So much that for ABS you have to overprint (there used to be a "packing density" in Cura that simply increased the flow ) by a few % (3%?). That shrinkage happens so fast that the position is correct the part itself doesn't deform - just the trace of PLA coming out the nozzle. From 100C to 70C there is probably some shrinkage of the whole layer occurring. But because it is above the glass temp, it is more of a thinning action than a shrinking action. However once it gets below glass temp (or a little above) then there starts to be stresses on the entire layer. The whole layer pulls itself tight inward. Putting stress on the layer below (which puts stress on the layer below that all the way down). By keeping the air in the 50-70C range you eliminate this. Of course when the part is done and you cool the entire part from around 50C to around 20C you get the entire part shrinking but it keeps it's shape. This last final shrinkage can be compensated for by building your models .3% larger. .3% is aprox the expected shrinkage from 50C to 20C.

removing internal nodes/faces http://meshlabstuff.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-remove-internal-faces-with.html I have started using designSparkMechanical. I love it. It's free. Daid recommended it. Illuminarti also. It is a bit frustrating for me because I am SO FAST in sketchup and slow in DSM, but I am getting better. It's very good at mechanical or architectural designs. Not so good at organic things. For organic things (like sculpting people) consider: blender - free z-brush - not free but what all the pro sculptors seem to use DSM doesn't have the ability to make non-manifold objects so it is perfect. At least as far as I can tell it can't.

90% likely that you have "expert settings" "fix horrible" "type A" checked. Uncheck that. But before you do look at the part in the layer view to verify the problem exists, then uncheck, then look again to verify that this fixes your problem.

The R number should exist as soon as you pay. But DHL won't have any records until it ships. The R number has nothing to do with your shipment - it is the number to keep track of your order. If you go to the UM website isn't there an R number somewhere with your order? Or included with any emails regarding your order?

I have an outdoor electric car charging station with a gray PLA printed knob on it. It's been out in the rain and snow since September 2013, so 5 months. No weathering visible yet. It is used/touched approximately 3 times per day on average. I've heard that ABS loses color also in UV light.

Yes. Drill out that teflon piece a little bigger. I think it's inside diameter is around 3mm (I didn't measure it). Drilling to 3.2mm may fix all of these underextrusion issues if they are caused by overly bent filament due to diameter of winding on the spindle.

Another way to get rid of it is to turn off infill completely. I don't think you need any infill for this model (set to 0%).

That's very common. We call it "pillowing". Usually the fix is more fan. More details here (post #10): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/?p=17300

Did you get an R number? Kind of like R018239472? If so you can go to DHL and enter that number somewhere in there and DHL will tell you if it's on the way yet. DHL has a place where you can search for orders using a 3rd party's order number. Or you can send a personal message using this forum to Sander and he usually answers your questions about when something should ship: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/user/423-sandervg/

Good question. I printed one thing so far with a .65mm nozzle on the UM Original and it came out great. In fact I believe that's Illuminarti's primary nozzle on the UM Original (.65mm). Everything in this article I think was .65mm nozzle: http://www.extrudable.me/2013/08/13/printing-with-laybrick/

Yes. It was very minor undextrusion. I don't think it would be visible from the sides. But on a solid layer there was a tiny gap between lines. By the way at 18mm^3/sec when you get a skip, the underextrusion only lasts for a few mm of travel! It's easy to miss. I guess each time you do it it gets easier? If you ask Sander nicely he will almost certainly give you a free one.

Okay - I did a new test! I got a second nozzle for the UM2 when I was at NYC 3dprintshow. I had Joergen drill it out to .7mm diameter (thank you Joergen) and printed as fast as possible without extruder skipping. The result? 18mm^3/sec at 230C More details here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4127-um2-extrusion-rates-revisited/?p=38869 But the point is that the tiny heat chamber is not the limiting factor. It was a compelling hypothesis that the UM2 nozzle/heat chamber was too small, but it has now been disproved.

.7mm nozzle! I repeated the 30mm cube test with a 45mm cube to see how fast I could print with .7mm nozzle with .2mm layer height. At 230C I was able to print 18mm^3/sec!! Here are results: 220C 110mm/sec no skip 230C 130mm/sec no skip (75mm/sec no underextrusion visible) 240C 140mm/sec no skip (100mm/sec no underextrusion visible) look at how fast the extruder spins at 240C at 18.2mm^3/sec:

I went about a year until I cleaned my nozzle on the UM Original the first time. But it was NASTY. There was something in there - some kind of dust that did not melt or burn even in a gas flame. Of course the nozzle comes of the UM1 in less than a minute which is nice. I think you were unlucky - just don't go over 240C in the furture for PLA. Temps over 240C are meant for nylon and ABS. Even this print you just did at 245C is hotter than I like to print PLA. I went a few months on my UM2 before my first nozzle clog. It also was easy to clean - I used the method where you insert filament from above and let it cool to 90C and pull it all out. Eventually you get most of the clog out.

I'm starting to think there are several causes to underextrusion that can be "erratic": 1) Filament tangling, filamant tight diameter coming off reel. Because the feeder is so much lower on the back of the UM2, the angle that the filament enters the feeder is at a strong angle. Especially when you are getting low on PLA. 2) bent filament. I found that a typical bended filament as it comes off the spool has trouble going through the white teflon part in the print head. If the filament is straight, it is so loose you can spin the teflon part around the filament but get a 10" diameter bend and it takes quite a bit of force (maybe 1 or 2 kg) to get through this part alone.

I'm starting to think there are several causes to underextrusion that can be "erratic": 1) Filament tangling, filamant tight diameter coming off reel. Because the feeder is so much lower on the back of the UM2, the angle that the filament enters the feeder is at a strong angle. Especially when you are getting low on PLA. 2) bent filament. I found that a typical bended filament as it comes off the spool has trouble going through the white teflon part in the print head. If the filament is straight, it is so loose you can spin the teflon part around the filament but get a 10" diameter bend and it takes quite a bit of force (maybe 1 or 2 kg) to get through this part alone.

Something is wrong. If this guy in the video can do it, you should be able to. The only 2 things I can think of: 1) Buildplate too hot - try 60C. 75C is definitely much too hot. I usually print 60C to 70C. Try 60C for this print which shouldn't have much "lifting" issues. After you click "print" and choose model, go straight to TUNE menu and set buildplate to 60C. 2) Side fans not working - if the side fans aren't coming on this would also explain what we are seeing with the lower part of the owl. The side fans don't come on until 3 to 5mm up. Going thinner than .1mm is unlikely to help and might even make it worse. .1mm is a good layer height.

Excellent! Keep an eye on the gap between the bottom of the bowden and the white teflon part that it touches. If you see any air gap at all then fix that the next time you aren't printing.

Yeah - well - it may look like lots of text but it only takes a minute to read. There are these sharp metal blades in the "bowden holder" and if you simply pull out the bowden you can scrape off the surface such that next time it isn't secured so well and you start to get these gaps (that you already experienced) where the bowden slowly slips upward and then the PLA can potentiall leak out and you get this inner tube effect that you already got. Each time you remove the bowden it gets worse.

When you are printing - go to the tune menu. You can both adjust the temperature and/or view the temperature there.

By the way - if you look at the gcode, it is commented very well. Each new layer has a comment (although the gcode and layer view are off by one because one starts at 1 and one starts at 0). The very next G0 or G1 command that has an "E" in it will specify exactly how much filament you have used so far in mm. For example: G1 X10 Y10 E1017.12432 means you are just over one meter of filament at this point.

Brilliant!

@skint and others PLEASE STOP POSTING that you printed at "80% speed". This is useless information. USELESS. Sorry to get so emotional. Please please instead print the speed as mm/sec. So if in cura you specified 50mm/sec then instead of saying 80%, say 40mm/sec. Okay? If I don't know the speed in cura, knowing the percent is useless. You might as well say. "slower than I usually print" which is MUCH more informative than "80%".

The UM2 has an issue with the fans bouncing off the glass and cooling the head and the PID controller for the head takes 30 seconds to compensate and meanwhile you get underextrusion for a few lines causing bad things. Also the bottom layer sticks better if the fans are off. So usually I use default of fans off first layer and full by 5mm but for this small part I would get the fans on full by around the 4th layer so if .1mm layers and .3mm first layer maybe full fan at .6mm.

On it's side. It will be a bit ugly on the overhangs as it starts to curl up but should print okay. Make sure "brim" is enabled. If it weren't for those two cylinders sticking down it would be easier to print that side facing down. I hate support and rarely print with support. You should be okay with no support on this part I think even though on it's side it will have lots of "printing in air" I think it will come out okay. Make sure fans are at 100% before you get to any tricky overhangs. Print a bit cool if you can - 210C which also means you might have to print pretty slow - maybe 30mm/sec at .1mm layers.