printedsolid

I'm in Newark,DE (near Philly). Would definitely be interested in some local meetups if they're happening.

I read somewhere about laying down a first layer of PLA essentially as a raft, then switching over to ABS for the print. May be something worth considering. Definitely let me know if you do!

For any US Ultimakers that want to give this material a try, but haven't wanted to pay the international shipping... I have placed a bulk pilot order. Most of it is 1.75mm, but I have about a dozen spools of 3.00mm (OK, really a near perfect 2.85 for the bowden :-P ). I'm selling these spools at essentially a group buy price of $39 with shipping included in the US only. Colors are lilac, light brown, and dutch orange. Limit of 1 spool per person to spread the love. If you happen to be able to pick it up locally in Newark, DE, then I will lower the price to $35. As a thank you, anyone who participates in this test order will receive free shipping on their first 3 orders when we move into higher volumes. PM me if interested and I can send you an invoice.

I've printed a few objects with the XT. I love it! Stretchy Bracelet (CC BY-SA 3.0 Also printed a few other things in their other materials up on my blog. I printed the bracelet at 234 at I believe 50mm/s. This was the second one that I printed. The prior bracelet was done at 225 and the layers delaminated. I'm guessing going a little warmer would get closer to being transparent, but I'm not sure you're going to be able to get truly optically clear with any 3D printed object due to the nature of the process.

I had the same thing happen when I first got my Ultimaker. It was purchased used and came with 3 spools of filament. After upgrading everything I possibly could and trying everything I could find on the forum, I was still getting something similar to the picture you have posted. Once I switched over to new filament everything was fine. In my case, the filament was also fairly ovalized. Nice to see independent validation of an issue!

Like the other posters have said, nozzle temp shouldn't be an issue at all, but other factors will be. I print with ABS all the time on another printer I have, but it has a heated build plate and I have built a reasonably well insulated enclosure. Prior to building the enclosure, I was hit and miss on even small successful prints. I also had to direct cooling away from the build for the first layer. I think of the two materials as almost having opposite optimal environmental conditions. That being said, I second what Sander said. I have seen others have limited success with small objects on a cold build plate when they have used a glass plate and coated it with ABS slurry or Aquanet hair spray prior to the build and really gotten optimal nozzle gap. Probably goes without saying that you don't want to coat your build plate with ABS slurry!

Thanks guys. With the rotation, the z on the one part was 66. I should have been able to figure that one out on my own. Darn sleep deprivation. :oops:

Hello, A few days ago, I started using a trick with brim and rotating models to get fairly thin / odd shaped models (belt buckle ornaments with no obvious good point to set on the build plane) to print without support. I tilt the model back 45 degrees, sink a mm or so into the build plate, and run a brim. It's been working really well. I just started a print job with two objects on the BP. These parts required some rotating. I think I did a 90 about X, 30 about Y, then a 45 about X again. Rather than building the parts one at a time in serial, the parts are being printed in parallel with all of the stringing between. So, I sat back down at the computer and tried moving the models around to see if anything would change. The simulated tool path showed that no matter where I moved the models, it would continue to calculate a parallel tool path. I deleted both models and tried again. With the models left in their as-dropped orientation with no rotation, everything works normally (models built one at a time). So then I went and rotated the models into the orientation I wanted outside of cura and saved the stls in the new orientation. Reloaded into Cura and got the same result as when I rotated from within Cura (parallel printing). Any thoughts on why this is happening? Here are some screenshots of the simulated tool path and the first few lines of the code. If its helpful, I can post more of the code.

Maybe its a moisture issue? I keep my filament in a dry box, but every now and then I'll test something with a piece of PLA that has been sitting out for a while. It seems like it will push through fine for a little while, then gets harder to push. Then when I pull the piece out, the stuff in the nozzle starts bubbling back out the top.

Thanks for the info. I ended up finding what I needed in the extra stuff bin at work. I should have thought of Sears Hardware. They seem to stock odd things. They saved me on a plumbing project a few years back as well.

Patience is probably the most important tool. Maybe beer as well? And some good gloves. I picked up some diamond abrasive embedded needle files and rotary tool bits at Harbor Freight the other day. *Awesome* for removing supports from PLA. I've used the 180grit dremel flap wheel for removal of raft material from ABS, but haven't tried it on PLA. Has anyone tried using a hotknife or hotweezers? @Pablo: spackle is the word in English. Sandlaster with the right media would probably work really well. Maybe walnut shells? I used to use one for decapsulating ICs where more precision than a Dremel was required.

In order for 3D printing to become what the media is hyping it to be, there are going to need to be systems that your mom (assuming that your mom is NOT an engineer) can use. The companies that are going in that direction seem to be taking the razors/razor blades approach that you get with paper printers where you buy a printer for relatively low $ then lots of $$$ for replacement 'ink'. A cartridge approach is probably necessary for a printer that anyone can use, but they're doing nasty things with the cartridges like using ID chips to force you to buy a new cartridge instead of 'refilling'.

This doesn't address your question at all, but that is a really cool model! I think I'm going to modify it so the door can be opened and give it to my daughter as a home for her family of Ultimaker robots : )

@Alexander: I spent the first 5 years of my career as a failure analysis engineer, so I may actually want to take a look at some of those parts to help the community, but, yes definitely a case by case basis for that kind of thing and would probably need a consult from Ultimaker on what to do. @Joergen: I really do think I'd be OK handling returns for unused and unwanted items where the buyer pays return shipping. I think the fact that people have to pay return shipping is enough to discourage people from placing an order they don't really want. However, if someone wants to eat a $5 shipping fee to avoid being stuck with a $90 V2 upgrade that they decided they would rather stick with the V1 and a fan, I'm willing to take it back. Totally agreed on your other point. This is primarily a service to the community and not even close to an opportunity for me to quit my day job. Kind of my way of giving back for all of the free advice online forum members give. I also would like to be in a position where in ~3-5 years I am running a local printer sales and service business so this does help me to start taking some steps towards reaching that goal.

Standard practice in industry prior to melt processing polymers for high quality applications is to bake it out somehow. I made the mistake of trying to bake out some PLA at the lowest temperature my convection oven would go, 200F/93C. It all stuck together. Don't do that :oops: I'm insanely busy at work right now and have a sample of ABS I had promised someone I would test for them, but I will try some PLA when things calm down. I can toss it into our accelerated aging temperature at 55C/ 90%RH to force it to be saturated to do a worst case condition, but I'd love to actually test some that someone suspects has a moisture problem. Any particular colors that seem to be worse than others? Additives can definitely affect moisture adsorption. I have ultimaker black and natural as well as matterhackers red, blue, and orange, as well as some sainsmart yellow that I could try,

Great to see this thread continuing on a little bit. I'd actually really like to do this, but am lukewarm on the potential of being stuck with a bunch of parts that I can's resell, so if anyone reads this and is interested, please respond or send me a PM. I imagine I would handle returns similar to typical online sellers. -wrong parts: If I ship the wrong part, I would pay for the return shipping. I would have to inspect all orders I receive from Ultimaker prior to shipping to ensure all parts are present and correct. -unwanted parts: Return accepted within XX days, customer pays return shipping. -service parts: I'm not sure what you mean by service parts. Do you mean replacement parts for machines that are under warranty? I don't think I would be involved in any warranty activity unless Ultimaker wants to make this official rather than me buying parts on my own (which would be great).

I've been starting to run TGA to analytically determine the moisture content of different filaments and propose different bakeout profiles. I ran some Taulman nylon that was reported to be too saturated to work with. It contained about 1-2% water by weight. By about 2hrs at 93C, it was nearly entirely baked out, but not quite asymptotic. If anyone has any particularly difficult filament that they think is causing problems because of moisture content, consider sending it to me for some testing. I only need ~1cm to test. I'm doing this using equipment at work on my own time, so no promises on exactly when I can get the results back to you :oops:

Ran some numbers assuming an initial order of about $1000 (with a big chunk of that being 3 ulticontrollers) at Ultimaker full prices and a 10% profit on my end (factoring in shipping), here's what I come up with as prices (not including shipping) I would charge. bolt v3 $ 24.38 bowden $ 15.24 nozzle $ 19.05 teflon insulator $ 18.29 brass tube $ 22.86 belts $ 27.43 V2 upgrade $ 86.10 peek insulator $ 21.34 aluminum plate $ 18.29 Ulticontroller $ 121.92 I guess that determining whether its worth it boils down to what people would choose for shipping. For people who would choose the DHL, it would be a win-win. For people who would choose the Post NL its close to a wash. Bill, for the parts you want, you'd be better off off just buying a full V2 upgrade and the bolt. From me, that would be about $116 with USPS shipping. If you order it from Ultimaker it would be a hair cheaper at $111.5 with the Post NL, but quite a bit cheaper if you wanted it shipped DHL. Of course, since I can get parts to you in 2-3 days, you could just hold off on ordering anything and order exactly what you need when you need it. Any interest in this from any US Ultimakers? Not asking for anyone to actually place an order, just trying to gauge potential interest so I don't throw $1000 over to Ultimaker just to have a bunch of parts sitting in my basement!

Exactly what Daid said. No deal from UM. I think Bill's assessment is correct in that they are just barely keeping up with demand and not looking for formal distributors. I may look into sourcing some of the off the shelf type parts on my own. I'm not looking into doing this as a huge profit generator. Mostly just a way that I can help the community and maybe cover some of the shipping costs for parts that I buy. If I can order for example 20 different parts and pay the $50 or so shipping, I then ship them (or preferably do like Joergen said and deal local in the Philly-Baltimore region) USPS ground + a few dollars for my effort and everybody gets ahead. Faster delivery and lower total cost (to you) and a small profit plus the experience of trying out something like this for me. Bill, you're about 1 day late! I also misunderstood Joergen's initial response and thought he was intending to serve as an overall US spare parts warehouse (although NYC alone does cover a pretty significant percentage of the population) so I went ahead and placed an order for only the part I needed (hobbed bolt V3). I'll also see if I can work up some prices including shipping to make sure its really worth it. Assuming that looks good, I'll contact UM to see if I can expand my initial order.

@MSURunner: That's how I got into the mess I'm in. The RC shop is where I got the threaded rod : )

Thanks Daid, I managed to get the printed part. Does anyone happen to have a M3-50 screw and the right size spring that they can send me? Save me from myself! If I don't get the right size parts I'm going to grab something out of my junk bin again and probably do something stupid again...

Hello, I did something really dumb. Darwin awards dumb... I cleaned my shop shortly after getting my printer running well with the Bertho's extruder upgrade. I was so confident that I threw away the pieces that it replaced. When I made it, I couldn't find the M3X50mm bolts anywhere, so I just ABS glued in some 4-40 threaded rod. You can guess the outcome here: the threaded rod pulled out. Can someone print me up the center piece for the Bertho's extruder along with the right size screw and spring? I think mine broke because I was overtightening it due to the spring I used having too low of a spring force. An easy $15 for the printed part, the screw, and the spring. I really don't care what color or material you use. -Matt

Hello, I've posted this over at the makerbot forum and am reposting here. I have access to a TGA (thermogravimetric analyzer) at work. I'd like to start evaluating filament to analytically determine absorbed moisture content and recommended bake out/storage conditions. I ran some Taulman 618 today that someone said they were having trouble with. After about two hours at 93C/200F, it had lost about 1.5-2% of its mass due to moisture being baked out. It still hadn't entirely stabilized, but the rate of loss of mass had slowed considerably. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure where this is going, but it never hurts to learn a little more about your materials. Does anyone have any filament that you suspect is causing you trouble due to moisture content? I'd be interested in testing it for you. I only need about 10mm of length to get the test. I'm curious how different materials, brands, and colors will compare. PM me if interested or email to mgorton at printedsolid dot com and I'll send you my address.

Joergen, That probably makes more sense than me holding on to parts. Do you have a V3 knurled bolt I can buy from you?

Yes, that's correct. I wouldn't be an official distrubutor. Just a guy who buys a bunch of parts and then reships them. Think of it more as a group buy that hasn't been coordinated in advance.