gr5

Maybe you should just use some kind of glue. Maybe a rubbery glue like a hot glue gun (which if you don't like you can peel the glue off again). Or silicone caulking. With silicone caulking, you could assemble everything back together, put the Z stage 1 inch from the top and then insert caulking and let dry. This might be a bad idea - I don't know. But at least you can always take it apart and remove the glue later. It sounds like you removed too much wood and now you need to add material back. Glue is usually good at this. Shims sometimes work also (thin slices of wood).

This is a good question as it still frustrates me - even yesterday. It wasn't priming the nozzle as much as normal and it took me 3 tries to get a print started but at first I thought it was levelling. Or maybe it *was* levelling. I'll never know as I messed with both things. Anyway, to answer you... it all depends - if your first layer is .3mm thick it shouldn't be smooshed much because your bead is .3mm high and .4mm wide and that is almost square (.4 by .4) but squished by 25%. But if your first layer in Cura is .2 or .1mm then it *should* be smooshed. So I guess I should ask - what is your first layer in Cura? I'm going to guess you use the "quickprint" settings. It's time to use the "full settings" mode. If your print is sticking very well to the tape and when you are done printing you are having a hell of a time getting it off without ripping the blue tape then you are fine. If your print popped right off then you need to squish it in a little more (either that or it's because you didn't remove the waxy surface from the tape using isopropyl (aka rubbing) alcohol).

> "..post need approval from a moderator.." is kind of annoying) I think that will go away after a bit. I'll "like" your post to help speed you on to a non-newbie poster.

Well... Getting that first layer is tricky. Even though I've levelled my bed many times and I'm pretty good at it, sometimes I screw up a corner. And it's nice to see that right away instead of when it starts the 5th part on the print bed. But on the other hand I can just abort and create a new gcode file with parts 1-4 missing... The other issue is when I do print multiple parts at once in one-at-a-time mode, when it goes to print the second part it seems to extrude for no good reason right over the center of the next part. When it starts doing that first layer it sometimes has some filament dragging around with the print head. Or sometimes it "poops" right onto or next to the spot for the part to be printed next. Again, you can always abort and remove from Cura the parts that printed fine.

@foehnsturm - Very interesting that you can do 100mm/sec and Scottvader can't. I'm more interested in your layer time than print speed. Did you time how long each layer takes? I've done a similar experiment on a similar part as I said above and I see the same issues at similar speeds that scottvader shows on that racingvase link you posted above. My part was smaller so the fan was always giving it good air. Except when I turned off the fan. I'm not patient enough to print an entire vase for each speed test so I just changed the speed every 30 layers or so. By the way - regarding the z seam - illuminarti had a great post and I followed his advice and increased my Z acceleration from 100 mm/s^2 to 400 mm/s^2 (not the 1500 he uses!) and the Z movement is almost just a "click" now it is so fast. More importantly the z seam is better (not perfect but much better). http://www.extrudable.me/2013/04/02/the-myth-of-z-speed/

Great! I hope you aren't just following instructions without thinking about it - I hope you understand now what the limit switches are for? And how they work (at least mechanically)?

The ultimaker is a kit. It's a hobby thing. Originally you had to order all the parts. Now UM will order the parts for you. Eventually they added some instructions. They are a very small outfit. when you order a kit you are expected to build it yourself. You are expected to be able to change the design. You are expected to enjoy adding your own changes (change the nozzle, redesign the heated bed, redesign extruder and so on. Many people have made these changes, told UM and then UM changed the kit to make it better. But it's still a kit. It's really only for people who are comfortable building everything from scratch but want a leg-up. Having said all that people seem to still think it is better than anything else out there for the same price. Hopefully some day HP will be making these things and you will just plug them in but no one is there yet as far as I can tell.

Okay - I'm going to suggest it again (4th time?) run cura wizard. when it asks you to hit the X right switch, push with finger directly. If you hear a click but nothing happens, try X left switch. This should tell you if as I suspect your limit switches are backwards. Also maybe you should position your limit switches so they get an audible click when your print head gets near the left and right extremes of travel.

@williamwei Yes, I can see the picture better now. Cura is confused about what is inside and outside. You could try all the combinations of "fix horrible" but I would just slice it in the older version of Cura. Get Cura 13.04 and it has a completely different slicing engine that should do a better job for this bad cad model. Or if you have access to the CAD files you could fix the issues in red in xray view. Basically you need to clearly show in your cad model what is inside and what is outside. You can't have extra walls that don't do anything - there should *only* be walls seperating inside from outside. Not inside from inside. Also you DO NOT need support for this model. I strongly recommend you remove support. The PLA should bridge the gaps just fine.

So imagine my frustration also: The software asks you to test the right limit switch and you click it and nothing happens. I just can't imagine why you wouldn't try the others. It's like I'm working in a shoe store and this guy keeps trying to put the left shoe on his right foot. He says it just doesn't fit - it feels wrong - it feels terrible. He checked twice and the shoe said it was the right shoe and I think - um - maybe the label is wrong? Just for the heck of it, it's been 24 hours now, why not try the other shoe? how could you not think of that? Anyway - from the video your homing procedure is working wrong. It should not make those loud noises. Your x axis left switch is definitely not working. Possibly your Y axis front switch also. I strongly suspect (as I said yesterday and the day before) that they are wired backwards (left and right for x axis since both are not working). As I said before it only takes a few seconds running the wizard to test this. Just run the wizard but when clicking the right switch does nothing - try the left switch. You don't have to wait for the UM to heat up. By the way you dont' have to wait for it to heat up to home either. Another possibility is that it is wired just fine but the blocks don't hit it and it needs to be moved such that it triggers when the X axis moves all the way to the left. A third possibility is there is something wrong with the switch, the wiring, or the PCB.

I've done some experiments with cooling but I still don't feel like I fully understand it. I'm pretty sure the fan should only cool the part. Daid I think once mentioned that if the fan cools the tip of the nozzle it can cause problems. I am a little skeptical - I think having the fan cool the nozzle might help reduce leakage/stringing. I don't know. I've come across certain prints that are very sensitive to cooling. Most often they are shapes that are clearly defined (like a cube) such that if they are deformed it is obvious. When one prints a Yoda for example, if it is deformed, no one can tell. If his ears are at the wrong angle or his cheek is 1mm in the wrong place even an expert can't tell. But if a square has one rounded corner or is rectangular it is more obvious. I found that when I print "too fast" sometimes squares posts are clearly deformed. Especially if the post is at an angle with some overhang. Another great example is the UM Robot. When you get to the top, his two antennae print amazingly slowly. If you disable the minimum layer time feature they look like crap. Also long ago I experimented with trying to figure out how long it takes PLA to "freeze" just by spinning the extruder, watching string come out, and playing with the string until it seems to harden. It's about 3 seconds with no fan. But it's really hard to measure exactly. It happens very fast and it's subtle. Also this isn't a good test because it's in free air so it cools fast. So a few weeks ago I did an experiment. I want to go back to it at some point. Anyway I came up with a very tall and skinny box shape tilted at 45 degrees. This turned out to be a great test piece for cooling. I basically concluded that with the fan completely off you need a minimum layer time a little higher than with the fan on but that you don't really need the fan. I got something like 5 seconds with fan, 10 seconds without. Something like that - I posted my notes somewhere else on this forum. I want to repeat the test with my heated bed turned on. Anyway - that's just one particular shape/test. There have been quite a few people who have bad tops of their parts if the fan is broken. One person knew his fan was broken and had ordered a new one, the other had the wires backwards and it was sucking air. Lets see if I can find both examples: Damn. The search features on this forum suck. For example if I search for "fan" there are zero results. Anyway there was a post within the last week from this guy printing dozens of frogs. After his fan broke they tops looked crappy. A few months ago another guy had his fan sucking. His parts looked exactly like the base in this print where the are holes in the top: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/2701-strange-effects-on-falt-surface/?p=19426 Illimuniarti did some experiments and came up with a conclusion that related to both the fan and the infill pattern (the top has to bridge the infill). It's not clear to me in this example (covering up the top of something by bridging the infill with strands of PLA) if the fan needs to blow on the nozzle, the filament, or the part but maybe Illuminarti has something to offer. By the way tons (tons!) of people claim the "fan side" looks different. But the fan blows more from *above* than from the side. When the part is *done* printing or almost done it looks like the fan is blowing on one side but as it prints -- the current layer is what is important, not some layer that was printed 10 minutes earlier. So I'm very skeptical about this whole "fan side" thing. But there is something to this claim - I just don't know what it could be. Probably it has more to do with uneven shrinkage.

Here's an example of a good first layer and good skirt. See? Squished flat. And beautiful. Perfect height adjustment. Prefect leveling.

I thought it was the front right switch though. Did you hit all 6 switches to see if it was wired wrong? See I predict it asks for front right switch and you press it and nothing happens. Then you press front left switch and the software says "good job - now press this other switch". This would indicate that the two switches are swapped. Do you follow me? This is the 4th time I'm bugging you about the damn switches. Also I still feel like you aren't following my detailed leveling instructions. The owl looks great but the skirt looks bad. Looks still too tight. When you try to print larger parts you will have trouble if you aren't getting a good first layer.

I don't think ultimachine is related to ultimaker. Don't get them confused.

Your robot looks great. Congrats. The first layer is definitely too much squished into the tape. You need to lower the bed a bit. The skirt is basically non-existent.

I told you to try all the other limit switches but you didn't mention if you tried it. I think you have your X and Y switches backwards but I really don't know.

But that was the *right* x axis switch which isn't used in homing.

I'm wondering if you have another broken limit switch (x axis left switch). In fact maybe you swapped the wiring on left/right? When each axis homes you should hear it head to the limit, then when the limit clicks it should stop, go back and it should unclick, then it should go forwards again more slowly and it should click a second time. This all happens very fast. If on the other hand the limit switch is broken, it hits the switch, keeps going, sometimes makes a loudish noise and sometimes vibrates a bit and after a few seconds gives up and continues like nothing is wrong.

There's a second set of set screws - not sure if you already put them in - I lost track - that come with the UM kit.

1) Please don't do .1mm - it is most likely going to come out much better with .2mm layers. People have said how much better .1mm layers is but I disagree. It's slightly better - sometimes - but usually worse. And it takes longer. 2) Congrats on finally getting the first layer down. Is the problem that the X axis is moving or the robot is moving? If the former then tighten down the set screws. If it is the robot that moves, then try wiping the blue tape first with isopropyl alcohol. This removes the wax which was preventing the pla from sticking as well as desired. 3) I have not touched my Z switch since the day I started printing. Don't touch it. All adjustments should be with the 4 screws in the 4 corners of the platform. The Z switch position is just to get it rough so that you can then do fine control with the 4 screws. Plus if you keep moving the Z switch you are bound to strip the threads as plastic switch doesn't really have threads.

I see the problem. SteamEngine slices each layer with no regard to the fact that there is no top to this "box" of a house. When it gets above the windows the house is like a cup with thin walls. It gets confused. I tried with Cura 13.03 and it sliced fine. I suggest you use that instead.

I believe this is on the start/end gcode tab in cura settings.

@daid - what does that do exactly? Does it reduce the extrusion for the last mm of XY travel/printing maybe? Or does it stop extruding completely the last 1mm of xy travel? Or maybe the last 1mm of filament is underextruded? #2 above will show as a blue line without the vertical blue line. #2 can be reduced if you lower the printing speed (because pressure in print head is lower).

Make sure the gallery is type "public". You can edit it now.

Look at it in xray view. If you see any RED then the model is illegal ( for example has inner surfaces that should be ignored or inner surfaces that don't touch any other surface or two surfaces on the same point - things like that). You can fix most of these issues in the "fix horrible" settings although there are 11 different combinations. By the way I can't see your images very well - they are much too small and if I try to click on one it says I don't have permission. Please change the permission of your gallery.