jonnybischof

http://www.3dsolex.com/

If your prints start fine, then underextrude after a few hours, it might be a problem with your feeder. Maybe it's chewing up the filament an loses grip as more and more material gets caught in the wheel? It could also be that the feeder stepper motor overheats after some hours of use, which leads to skipping steps. I've heard on several occasions that people had to mess with their motor current settings in order to get the printer working right. It could also just be bad filament. Black filament can be more difficult to print with than brighter colors (I guess the kind, or the amount of color pigments makes a difference). Maybe try another color with the same settings? Also, listen to the printer! Problems like the feeder motor skipping steps can be heard if you're listening carefully. /edit: It sucks when you have a problem that doesn't occur at the start, but only some hours into the print. If you can, get a video camera and record the printing process. Then you can search the video for the moment where the print starts failing.

The function is there (for me), you just have to hover the mouse over the area to the right on a notification and the "x" will appear

Interesting. I thought it wouldn't absorb any water... Good to know, I didn't really take care storing my XT in a dry place. Will put a bowl of rice into the box from now...

It's been some time since I've last printed XT. I wanted to preserve my hotend until I have my second printer ready - which has been pending for a long time now... The best theory I have is that the blobs happen during retraction. The hotend usually stops for a short time while retracting. XT is a very "gummy" and somewhat unstable filament when heated - compared to the very tame PLA that just softens up and flows. XT expands, so even during retraction the nozzle will still ooze. Now, the blobs may either be caused by the oozing, or because during the time the nozzle pauses, the material underneath gets heated and expands. You might try to increase retraction distance a bit. But if this leads to longer pauses while retracting, it might not improve the situation. In that case you might even want to decrease retraction distance. I'm not sure if this pausing problem has been fixed in Cura, but I think it has. Lately, my prints weren't really quality-sensitive. Just work-related technical stuff that didn't need to look pretty. So I didn't pay much attention to details. Usually, you can see the "expansion from prolonged contact with the hot nozzle" on the print's outer edges which will create kind of a brim that expands upwards and outwards. It looks like overextrusion, but if you decrease flow you'll see underextrusion inside the print. So, it's not overextrusion, but thermal expansion! Another thing that comes to mind - there are the usual blobs that happen, and there are these typical black blobs you mentioned. Maybe the black blobs have nothing to do with what I described above. It could be caused by little air bubbles trapped inside the filament. Or maybe it's just debris from burned up filament that was stuck inside the nozzle and then comes loose again from time to time. So many experiments to conduct, so little time :(

It looks like underextrusion. Is this 2 shells, one sticking to the part, the other delaminated? Did you change your "infill overlap" setting in Cura (default is 15% which should be fine)? Underextrusion can be caused by either not having enough material flow because of calculation errors (Cura diameter not matching actual filament diameter), OR because of insufficient heating power put into the filament. Simply put - maybe you have to reduce the printing volume or increase printing temperature. 255°C should be high enough though. You could try decreasing your cooling fan speed, that will actually raise the nozzle temperature because it gets cooled down less. You could also try printing at 35mm/s to lower the printing volume (mm3/s). Usually, with XT it is better to actually print 40mm/s or faster, because if the nozzle moves too slowly, it can melt the printed part underneath it. You could also (considerably) reduce the printing volume by printing thinner layers, maybe 0.15mm

3D printer maintenance isn't rocket science. It helps if you have some general knowledge about machines. If you don't, you'll learn that in time. You will have to do maintenance, like lubricating and cleaning here and there. You also have to be prepared to fix one or another problem at some point. - But you don't have to do that alone like Sander already mentioned. You can get any spare part for Ultimaker printers that you might need. You also have access to the assembly instructions (on the support pages) which should help you fix most issues by yourself. Reading through these instructions already gives you a good idea how the machine actually works. The community here may be degrading a bit, but the support part of the forum is perfectly intact and active! As for the price: Don't forget that this is a European product. You can get much cheaper printers in China, but these are usually just clones with very low build quality and no support or warranties at all. I've seen an Ultimaker 2 clone that didn't even have the glass plate and clips on the build plate. Just a bare aluminum sheet... The Ultimaker 2 is known to be a reliable machine with very good quality output capability. It comes with a complete feature set (except dual-nozzle support..) and doesn't need any upgrades before you can get it to work at all. It is true that some Ultimakers have starting issues like loose screws, or shafts / belts that are out of alignment. Yes, it will take time and nerves to find and fix these issues, but patient people usually end up very happy, with a good 3D printer. /edit: 3 replies in half a day. The community is alive!

What you have to know about "consumer grade" 3D printers, is that there is no such thing as a completely "trouble free" 3D printer in this market. I'd recommend (any) Ultimaker 3D printer because they are pretty well built, and they offer very good printing quality and speed. You have to be prepared to turn some screws in order to fix issues, and maybe replace one or another defective part. If you get an Ultimaker, this will not be much of a problem since you have access to a) the complete assembly instructions, drawings and so on b) this community which will help you with any problems you'll encounter c) the Ultimaker support which can be quite slow, but they are very fair and helpful

Does the UM2 feeder have a an adjustable tension spring for the filament drive gear? Maybe there's just not enough tension on your new machine so the filament slips instead of retracting? Usually, that would rather lead to under-extrusion, not "too much material" like in your case. As for temperature sensor inaccuracy: The UM2 uses platinum RTDs which are in general very accurate, even without calibration. Whether or not there are large differences in temp reading between different machines depends mostly on the circuitry that reads the sensor. Just had a quick look at the Ultimainboard 2 schematics, and they actually use a pretty good circuitry with an instrumentation amplifier, precision resistors and even filtering capacitors. I think that is not where the problem comes from. /edit: missed the second thread page o.O Just a thought: The Ultimaker Original frequently had problems with the temperature sensor getting electrical noise induced by the fan PWM signal. Messing a little bit with the wiring could solve the problem. The UM2's temperature sensor is much more rugged against noise induction, but maybe - especially if there is something wrong with the fan which might lead to higher than usual current in the wiring - your problem lies there.

How about the possibility to delete conversations? There's a spam message in my inbox (the one from samirabest that some others also received) that I'd like to get rid off...

Usually there are no melting fuses used in nowadays electronics. Only self-resetting stuff such as PTC fuses. In 3D printer electronics, there are a few boards that have PTC fuses, but most of them don't and will simply blow out some component(s) when you create a short-circuit. Thanks for giving me something that I have to check on with my own electronics project

If it says "genuine" on a chinese product, then run as far away from it as you can! This is the number one indicator that you're getting bullsh.. stuff / are in a fishy shop. Of course there are great chinese products (I proudly own a Huawei P8 smartphone), but in this case I'd say you bought a hunk of junk

It's true XT is difficult to handle. Having a specialized printer plate (I have a PEI plate) helps a lot. And XT is one of these filaments that should actually not be printed too slowly because when the nozzle moves too slowly, the filament underneath will melt (and get stringy) and warp. I use 40mm/s as a minimum speed with XT. I also print XT a lot hotter than recommended, at 255°C (Note that my UMO probably underestimates temperature by quite a bit) which is indeed very demanding on the UMO hotend. I have actually stopped printing XT for now because of that, and will switch to an E3D full metal hotend for printing XT in the future.

UM filament is not actual "brand" filament. Afaik, UM doesn't manufacture their own filament, but buy the stuff from somewhere. In my experience, UM filament was among the worst quality stuff that I tried. But I have to admit I went for the good brands very soon - it's worth it. My UMO printer is very reliable - except for problems with filaments such as the string suddenly snapping off the spool, or even breaking completely just out of nothing. I never had any of these problems again since I started using only Diamond Age & Faberdashery PLA. Personally, I'm not a fan of Colorfabb's PLA (too gummy / stringy), but their XT is probably the best printing filament ever. Note that unlike PLA, XT is a bit more sensitive to "having a good, heated printing surface". Many people have difficulties getting it to work well. I'm using a PEI printing plate which works (almost too) well with XT. You could also take a look at Taulman filaments (I believe they are a US brand?). Their T-Glase is supposed to be similar to XT. And Nylon is known to be a very strong and versatile filament. But it's also more difficult to handle & print than PLA. You need to store it dry (using silicate packs or rice) and the UM2's glass surface isn't the best choice for printing Nylon either. By the way, it is NOT necessary to store PLA super-dry. In fact, this would make the filament brittle and prone to breaking in your feeder. I keep my filament away from dust (put it in some bag or box), but that's it. Never had any issues with humidity. Note that these are only my personal opinions / experiences - nobody's perfect

Another thought on the model: Consider making the relief text only one or two layers thick (for example: Make the letters protrude only 0.2mm). It might look better. I'd definitely switch to a very small nozzle, like neotko mentioned. www.3dsolex.com

Cheap and high quality doesn't add up. Either you go cheap and get cheap stuff, or you go high quality and have to pay for it... I use Faberdashery and Diamond Age PLA. Both top-notch quality and both cost me pretty much the same (including shipping around the world and taxes). Colorfabb XT is a very nice alternative to ABS. Afaik, ABS is cheaper than a good quality PLA. But I don't use any ABS plastics anymore because they stink, release toxic fumes during printing and they generally produce worse prints than PLA or XT.

I'd also just say "go maximum travel speed" and then try out which is the maximum printing speed (for a given layer height) that still gives you good results. The newer Cura versions show you the volumetric "print speed" in mm3 per second, which is a very good thing. If you change layer height, you should be able to adjust printing speed until you get the same volumetric printing speed and get "the same" printing quality. Note that this is where the printing speed <-> travel speed margin may come into play.

Don't forget that your travel speed should be higher than printing speed, or you'll get a lot of stringing. The faster you print, the smaller the print <-> travel margin becomes and the worse print quality you get. I have my travel speed set to 150mm/s (UMO). If I print at 30mm/s, then the margin is so big that I get pretty much no stringing / oozing at all.

I've printed stuff at 100mm/s which came out fine. The important thing is that you can't look at "printing speed" by just looking at the x-y speed. You need to consider the plastic-throughput in the nozzle. You can probably not print at 100mm/s with a 0.2mm layer thickness. But for 0.06mm layers, PLA usually works fine.

Hi @neotko You are right that g6 is the tolerance grade you want, IF you also buy Misumi bushings (#SHBR). It depends on the type of bushing. Misumi ones are made for "g6 or f8" shafts (it says so on the pdf page). I'm sure you can get other bushings that are made for h6 or other shafts. I wouldn't recommend the black LTBC coated shafts together with bronze bushings, because the coating quickly wears off. I'd take the hardened steel shafts (not stainless) with hard chrome plating. Those are really awesome. Misumi part number: PSFJ. Not sure what the LTBC is really suitable for. Maybe linear bearings? You should order a Misumi Webindex catalogue, there's a ton of additional information, and explanations about tolerances and so on (it has 185 pages of technical information). Also, if you download the complete catalogue, you will find additional information about their parts at the beginning of the chapters. //edit By the way: Why was there no news here for half a year? I've decided to go all-in making a new 3D printer electronics platform, which is taking a lot of time and stalling my printer projects. Some time in between I'll finish the UM black edition, but you know how it goes...

I just got an Email from info*at*ultimaker.com with a notification about new "activities". There's a link that says "Manage notifications in my account settings" which points to a somewhat strange URL: http://ultimaker2.diamant.oberon.nl/login Of course I have to enter my login data there (which I didn't do!). Is this E-Mail a fraud? ------------ Another thing: The Ultimaker site currently takes 20 - 30 seconds to load, because it keeps waiting for "use.typekit.net". :(

About PWM fan control: The ideal thing would be an actual PWM control built into the fan. That's the ones with 4 wires, mostly used in computer CPU coolers. I didn't find any 40x40x15 mm fans with PWM control. Only some 40x40x20mm which are very powerful, but also weigh a bit more than the thinner ones. And they only come in 12V versions + PWM control... -> Sanyo Denki SAN ACE 9GA0412P6F001. www.mouser.com has it. There is a more powerful (higher rpm) version, but I doubt that would make much sense. You could easily power them using a 24V to 12V DC/DC converter like the Mean Well PSD-30B-12 (Mouser.com). * The electronics switch the fan in the GND side, so as long as you connect the 12V's GND to the main GND (just put a wire from the input GND "DC-" of the converter to the output GND "-V" from the converter), you can even use the mainboard's PWM output. The problem with small fans is that they have a relatively high detent torque. Usually, they're made to work just at the given voltage and speed, and you can only lower the voltage like 20 - 30% until they stop rotating. PWM regulation behaviour can sometimes be improved by changing the PWM frequency (which would be difficult with Marlin). * If you buy that converter, don't forget to also buy some mating connectors! I always forget these and have to unsolder the connectors and solder the wires directly into the PCB. Which is not so nice.

If you print Colorfabb XT (clear - I heard the colored XT is a bit weaker than clear because of the color pigments) with 2 shells and 100% infill, and also print hot and with minimal cooling, then you get VERY STRONG parts. XT is more flexible than PLA, but if your part is thick enough it will be very rigid. I made some printheads that you can hit with a hammer and they'll still give you a hard time breaking them.

Actually, @Amedee is online in the new forum. Maybe he'll respond to the tag

i guess i Need to Switch to Faberdashery... Definitely not a bad idea. You pay the premium price, but you also get the premium quality By the way, I found faberdashery PLA to be only a tiny bit (0.01 CHF per meter) more expensive than Diamond Age, which is also premium grade PLA, and a bit cheaper than Colorfabb XT which is my preferred filament for technical high-strength parts. Faberdashery ships all orders above 200£ for free. That's a lot of money, but shipping costs can make a big part of the total cost (especially if you live in Switzerland...)