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Printing slower and cooler tends to get better results. 200C is quite cold but is usually fine if you print at 30mm/sec or slower. The colder the temp, the thicker the PLA is (more like toothpaste than honey). So at colder temps you have to print slower because the pressure in the nozzle can be quite high. And high pressure means the quality won't be as good. You will get underextrusion. But I see ZERO underextrusion in your prints. They don't have that issue. It's more of a Z axis acceleration issue. I doubled my Z acceleration a while back and I love the results. If you have the ulticontroller, you can change the Z acceleration in there - then make sure you save values and power cycle the machine before testing it out. If you don't have an ulticontroller, let us know and we can help but the first step would be to install this software which reads the current acceleration when it connects and there are gcodes to change it: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/

260C is dangerously hot for PLA. If you let it sit long at that temp it is likely to boil and turn to gunk and clog your tip. This temp is okay when you are printing fast though e.g. 200mm/sec .1mm layers or 100mm/sec .2mm layers. If I'm not in a rush I print at temps between 190C and 220C.

What an interesting looking part! It looks like a house with a massive chimney. So... It's not supposed to rock like that? This is most likely a shrinking issue. The wider the part the more it shrinks. Because the width changes at different points, the shrinkage varies. I suspect if you print a cube you will not see this issue. I have certainly never seen this issue quite this way. If I print a cube it does not have a curved side like this! Consider printing this part hollow as the internal fill is partly responsible for pulling the sides in. Also consider maybe printing in a heated chamber. Close the front and put a box over the top and heat it up to 40C (much hotter and the steppers can't take it). Most of the shrinkage issues occur from around 80C cooling down to ambient air temp for that layer. So if you can heat the chamber even only 20C to 40C it makes a big difference. There is also special PLA that doesn't shrink but it only comes in black and white and it costs twice as much: PLA 45. For me personally - if I was the designer of this part. I would measure it carefully and give the model an inverse bow so that when I printed it, it would come out perfect. Then reprint in identical settings (same fan, same bed temp).

It looks like you are doing fine. Those videos show perfect first 2 layers. A piece of normal paper is .1mm so if you are levelling the bed and you are off by .1mm that makes a big difference so it is tough to get the first layer perfect but you managed it somehow. Also keep in mind that heating up the nozzle enlarges it by about .1mm. Also your print bed is not flat - it's warped a bit as I can see the first layer is thinner in spots where the print bed is higher but this is typical of the UM Original. If you really care about that (I don't) you can buy a sheet of glass. Read about "printing on glass" if you go that route. Now your photo of the top is not so good. It looks like underextrusion and also pillowing. The pillowing is probably caused by your non-standard fan shroud. Many people say to print your own fan shroud but the one that comes with the UM is outstanding. The fan that comes with the UM doesn't create much pressure - only speed - so it works terribly with constricted shrouds. Pillowing is a bizarre thing but every time, (EVERY TIME) people increase their fan the pillowing goes away. It's very complicated and I don't feel like explaining but I will if you don't believe me. The other fix for pillowing is to print 10 layers and eventually it usually fixes itself. But more fan is a better fix ("more cowbell!"). But your bigger problem is underextrusion on the top layer. I think tightening the spring might help. Make sure your filament isn't tangling. 11.5mm spring length when compressed is what I use - Illuminarti has a 11mm (he tighted it up a lot). You could have other feeder issues: knurled bolt isn't lined up to get a good grip, your black delrin plastic disk might be worn, there could be wood particles jammed in the feeder, etc. You might want to open it up and check it out - it should be able to pull 22 pounds if the filament hasn't reached the print head.

Your printer is more of a Ultimaker Original than a UM2 so I changed the title. The UM Original has gone through a few "revisions" but Ultimaker doesn't call it a "generation". There is a "direction" pin on the PCB. Do *not* choose Ultimaker2 in Cura as that will cause all kinds of problems. Choose "ultimaker original" and go to machine settings and adjust the distances. Don't update the firmware with cura because if you do then you will only be able to print 205X205X205mm. If that is too late - no big deal - you can build your own firmware here: http://marlinbuilder.robotfuzz.com/ Now to your "direction" problem. I recommend you install "pronterface". You can get it here: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/ Connect to your printer with that and you can then do small (10mm) moves with the x axis. There is a direction pin "dir" on the pcb. That signal might have a bad solder joint. Or it could be defective in the arduino output. Or you could have a defective driver (easiest to test because you can swap 2 drivers). Here is piece of the schematic showing the "dir" pin:

This is very common with the UM Original which is almost the same design. There are 6 pulleys on the Y axis and the 2 that are most likely the problem are the two on the "short belt" which is the belt that goes to the stepper motor. Tighten all 6 as tight as possible. Consider marking each pulley and shaft with a tiny dot with a permanent marker so you can see which one is slipping. Unfortunately one of the 6 pulleys is hard to get to - the one on the motor. You might have to remove the motor to get to it which probably means removing the cover also. There are other possibilities besides slipping pulleys (with your "lean" description the other possibilities go up from 1% to 30% likely). So consider putting one drop of light mineral oil (baby oil, 3-in-1, sewing machine, or even engine oil but not grease or wd40) on each of the X,Y rods and also with power off push the print head around with your fingers seeing if there is much higher resistance on Y axis. It's possible the Y long belts are too tight causing binding and excessive friction. Also after tightening the pulleys, if prints are still leaning, look carefully at the Y short belt as it moves back and forth - compare it to the X belt. See if you notice something different for example a twisting and report back here.

:(

Some businesses count week 52 and 53 as the same week. In other words anything up to dec 31 is week 52 but I can't speak for Ultimaker.

There are 11 combinations of using those checkboxes. Try all 11 before giving up. Usually one will work. Checking both "a" and "b" - don't do that as that is identical to checking only "b" (or only "a" - I forget - just don't check both). If none of that works you can try editing it using this procedure (meshlab is free): http://meshlabstuff.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-remove-internal-faces-with.html

Ultimaker uses marlin and marlin is very configurable for many different types of printers so you can select which type of temperature probe you are using. Thermistors usually get damaged if they are hotter than 250C - at least the ones I've used in the past so I would expect a thermocouple to be more common. Start by looking at this wonderful Marlin builder and look at all the choices for the "extruder temperature sensor" http://marlinbuilder.robotfuzz.com/ And if the thermistor you want isn't in the table it's easy to donwload and build your own Marlin and add your own thermistor table.

On top left of this page click "gallery", then click upload. AFter you have uploaded all the pictures you will need, then make a new post and click "my media" next to smiley face. I think you have to have 3 posts approved in order to be able to do this. I think you have 4 so far so hopefully this option is open to you. Otherwise you can post on 100 different free sites such as: imgur, facebook, google groups, dropbox, etc. and then post a link to your picture(s).

I think they account for that as the entire part shrinks the same amount at the same time after printing is done. So they just print it 1% (or whatever the value is) larger. But with FDM things shrink as you are printing. So it is much more complicated.

If this is only happening on the first layer than I wouldn't worry about it. It just means you are slightly closer to the bed than desired. If this is happening on subsequent layers then you need to print either slower or hotter or with thinner layers. What is your: layer height, print speed, temperature. And are you printing PLA? For PLA cut the speeds in half from the table here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3418-um2-extrusion-rates/

There is a "direction" signal that runs from the arduino to the stepper driver. If that pin has a cold solder joint it could move the Z axis in the opposite of intended direction occasionally. So it *could* be hardware.

On top of the print head there is a little red clip. That clip holds up something which is part of a larger (but still small) part. *that* part - I don't know what it is called. Let's call it the "bowden holder". The "Bowden holder" works such that you have to push down on the outer ring of the bowden holder to remove the bowden. When you push down on the bowden holder it retracts (sucks in) 4 tiny metal blades. After you remove the bowden tube you can look down into the "bowden holder" and possibly see the blades. Those blades dig into the bowden to get their grip - to "hold the bowden". It's easy to break one or more of those blades. Either bend the blades backwards or they can fall out. Also it's easy to scrape the bowden tube so that it is now smaller diameter. This scraping is almost invisible.

Very strange! Sounds like a software bug to me. It would be nice if you knew how to duplicate it (with your fingers on the power button of course!)

Before printing anything - look at it in layer view carefully. Go up and down the layers many times until you are sure there are no mistakes. I printed a simple box today which had a slicing problem (easily fixed) but it was not obvious the first time I looked at it in slice view. Fortunately I looked at it several times and noticed the problem before I printed it.

So the thing to do next is to cut power, hookup the ohmmeter to those wires at the PCB (with the cable disconnected from the pcb) and then push the head around the bed into the 4 corners to see if there is an open in one of the corners - that's what I'm expecting as you are stressing the wire in different directions as you move the head around. It's okay to push the head around with your hand.

Love it! One tiny change - for step one - simply turn off power and push the head to wherever you want it. The nice thing about this is that you are less likely to damage the bowden tube this way.

Did you look inside this gray part? Can you see the blades? Either this part is bad or the bowden tube is scraped slightly. It's difficult to see visually. You could check maybe with calipers. Personally I would ask UM support to replace both parts and while waiting I would cut 10mm off the end of the bowden and hope that's enough. These parts do not cost much money so get them replaced before your warranty runs out. Another thought: Try loosening the 4 thumb screws 5 or 10 full turns. Then push the bowden all the way down. Then tighten the 4 thumb screws. See if this helps. If it's not enough, maybe 20 full turns?

The extruder *seems* wimpier on the UM2 than the UM Original. But I could be wrong. It seems to only be able to supply half the pressure. Or maybe as Illuminarti suggests, it's because the melt chamber is so tiny that you need higher temps to print the same volume of material than the UM Original. I think it's the feeder. Anyway, so to print at higher speeds you need higher temps. In general I just print slower on my UM2 than my UM Original. About half the speed. And I get great results. When you have two printers you can afford to be more patient.

I couldn't see the pics either. You can post the pictures on this forum if you want. On the top left of this page, click "gallery", then the upload button. Then after your pics are all uploaded, make a post and click on the "my media" next to the smiley face.

It depends how you define "decent". For most prints I don't care how it looks so I print at 100mm/sec and 240C. For some prints I care more and print slower. In general, the slower you print, the better the quality. Mostly because your extrusion rate is more consistent and the pressure in the print head is lower. Also I prefer the quality of .2mm layers over .1mm layers. So maybe I'm the wrong person to answer this question, lol.

Dans les paramètres avancés, vous pouvez régler la distance entre le support et la voiture (distance Z). Je vous recommande d'augmenter la. Pour quelque chose comme cette voiture, je voudrais utiliser un dremel pour retirer le support. Habituellement, je tente d'imprimer sans soutien, mais cette voiture a besoin et c'est bien parce que le fond de la prise en charge peut être laid. Parfois, je dessine mon propre support. Pour cette voiture je conçois une forme de boîte creuse sous la voiture, donc il ya très peu à enlever.

Because Marlin plans moves 10 or 20 line segments ahead of time, changing the feedrate (not flowrate. feedrate.) can take a few seconds to actually make a difference. The same might be true of flowrate. I don't know if this is true or not. Just warning you.