Nicolinux

Speaking of support material - check out the latest Meshmixer 2.0. It generates "smart" support struts and also lets you "paint" support material easily.

Oh Daid, you are so cruel. Just put the bloddy .pdf somewhere online already, so those poor souls still waiting for the UM2 can grok it

Uit, I don't know about the other questions (still waiting for my UM2) but for 1a you can just turn off the printer and move the head by hand. However nancy, another UM2 user disassembled the head and posted a photo of it here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3037-ultimaker-2-printing-issue/?p=22333

That's exactly what I did. I added to big washers in order to prevent the springs from getting stuck: It doesn't matter now because I have sold my UM Original, but I remember that it sucked to re-level often.

Then it seems my build varied greatly from yours. I remember that even small movements of the acrylic bed were enough to mess up the leveling. Let alone taking it off.

I don't think it is a good idea. Both Ultimaker machines share many concepts so any additional tips and help might benefit both. Since posters usually state which Ultimaker they have, there shouldn't be any problems.

Ich kann nur bestätigen dass Ultimaker sehr schnell liefert. Ich hatte meinen Ultimaker Original 3 Tage nachdem das Geld eingegangen ist (Paypal). Auch sonst waren Filament und Ersatzteile sehr schnell da. Das kann sich jetzt natürlich beim Ultimaker 2 ändern weil der Andrang so groß ist, aber das ist ja normal. Ich habe meinen Ultimaker 2 am 18.10.2013 bestellt. Mal sehen wann es ankommt. Noch habe ich noch gar keine bestätigung dass das Geld eingegangen ist...

The problem with changing tape is that you have to remove the acrylic bed and this means you have to re-level the bed every time. That's one of the most anoying tasks related to 3d printing in my opinion :/ Another option would be to print directly on glass (without a heated bed). Check out this post: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3016-while-waiting-for-the-heated-bed-printing-on-glass/

As for storing filament I just took a big plastic bag and grabbed all desiccant packs I could find and threw them together with the filament in there.

Hi, I just noticed that Thingiverse released an iPhone app a few days ago. It is nice and all but I do miss the commenting feature. I wonder why the skipped it. This got me thinking, since YouMagine is all about collaboration and there is no collaboration without communication wouldn't an app with this feature make sense for YouMagine? I mean as nice as the web interface is right now, ideas tend to pop up at funny and random times e.g. when not sitting in front of a computer. So anything that fosters collaboration would be an important addition to YouMagine right? Besides having the community "in your pocket" so to speak, creates a nice feeling of belonging to it. And there is also something else. As you already know, I am a huge fan of OctoPrint (which started as a fork of Cura and where the developer uses an Ultimaker too). I love the idea of having the Ultimaker print happily in its corner while I can watch from afar (remotely via wifi). This feature built into a possible YouMagine app would be killer. One would still need a Raspberry Pi and a web cam, but honestly - those hip enough to fancy a 3D printer are also easily seduced by the potential of a tiny and cheap Linux box (the Raspberry Pi) so this wouldn't be a problem. And who knows, maybe there will be an addon from Ultimaker containing just that (or a tiny Arduino board with a wifi shield and a tiny cam). So, what do you think? Yes I know, it is a bit silly. I am an iOS developer pitching the idea for an iPhone app... I'd love to create one, but not in my free time. That's already reserved for playing with the Ultimaker

Sounds good (and fast). Can't wait, can't wait By the way, what happens if you need to remove the glass plate? Do you need to do the bed leveling again? With the Ultimaker Original sometimes I just had to give the acrylic plate a good hard stare and it needed leveling again...

Yes that's it. I knew about the 3 screws instead of 4 but I don't think this is a big difference. I have also read about the new auto leveling feature. But information is sparse, that's why I asked (and because I hoped it would be this cool auto leveling feature).

@gr5: I didn't knew about the improvements regarding bed leveling. How did they do it? Bed leveling on the UM1 was a pain. Not only the weight of the screwdriver but also when one screw was turned, it moved the bed around, messing with the other screws. Thanks for the infos guys. Can't wait for the UM2 (ss soon as I sort out my order problems).

Hi, After two months with the Ultimaker Original I have a good understanding about how the machine works. And knowing how complex and tricky it is to get good prints I wonder about the workflow at Ultimaker HQ regarding calibration and QA for pre-build machines (UM1 and UM2). Do you automate this task or are there "factory workers" constantly assembling new machines and calibrating them? The reason I ask is because I can imagine that calibration and QA are very longwinding and tedious tasks. And now with the UM2 also targeting casual users, the calibration is more important than ever because people will rate their machine based on the first impression i.e. factory calibration. With the UM Original and the kit it is another story. Tinkerers are willing to fiddle and tune stuff before rating the "Ultimaker experience". I'd be nice if you could share some details - if you are not giving away too many company secrets

Ok, good to know, thanks.

Would it be possible to pick up a UM2 order at your HQ? I am from Germany, only a few hours drive away and I tought it might be nice to visit the mothership and say hi.

Interesting idea about reducing friction inside the bowden tube. But from my quick tests, the friction seems to be fairly low (just moved the filament up and down in the bowden tube). It depends on the filament diamether of course. But apparently the filament I own is not problematic in this regard. I have not tested temperature readings thoroughly. Only briefly with a cheap ir/laser temperature probe. And you are right about the filament. I measured it but apparently did a poor job at first because after I did it again the diameter is pretty stable at 2.94mm. The wobble problem is pretty much gone. I fiddled with the brass nut holders and got it to fit perfectly centered on the z-coupler at the bottm.

There is an experimental feature where you run Cura off the Raspberry Pi. I didn't try it yet, but I guess it would be slow. I think the intended workflow is to slice files with Cura on your desktop and then drag&drop .gcode files on the web interface of OctoPrint to queue them up fro printing. When you are ready to print, activate/load the .gocode file in OctoPrint and hit "print". Regarding KISSlicer - that's exactly my problem too. I used Slic3r before and even if it is simpler I had the feeling that I am spending more time to understand the slicer than to actually print stuff.

+1 for having a second bigger nozzle with dualstrusion. I wouldn't be willing to swap nozzles often because (even from my limited experience - read I have experienced clogging) putting the hotend together was not easy and I wouldn't want to risk breaking it.

So... continiuing my hobby (taking the z-stage apart) I have reverted back to the original wooden parts and only replaced the small brass nut holders. I fiddled with them until the threaded rod fit perfectly (and was centered) on the z-coupler at the bottom. Since wobble is minimal (and inconsistent), I suspect it to be due to other factors. I have started a new thread here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3084-inconsistent-z-wobble

Don't expect wonders though. Big objects will warp. It is not a perfect substitute for a heated bed. But it is much better for "day to day prints" than to remove tape constantly. Speaking of colorFabb XT - how does it behave otherwise? Any big difference (apart from higher print temperature) to PLA?

Bill, there is another alternative. You can print with OctoPrint. It is a nifty web app that can run on a Raspberry Pi. The nice thing about OctoPrint is its web interface. The developer owns an Ultimaker so this tool works perfectly with it. You can also upload models via OctoPrint directly to the sd card further reducing the risk that something crashes and interrupts a 20hr print. And the other big plus is its webcam support. You can also make timelapes videos for long prints. http://octoprint.org

@George: The nozzle looks alright. Nothing missing or deformed. I have also watched some prints for prolonged periods of time (the fascination does not wear off, even after two months) and I don't see or hear the typical hiss and bubbling from bad filament. @Simon: The filament in question is from Ultimaker. The blue one has a diameter of 2.85 and varies a bit. The white filament is also from Utimaker with a diameter of 2.94. This one varies more than the blue one. So to sum up - this could really be just bad luck with inferior filament in combination with complicated objects. I have only printed with filament from Ultimaker because my old filament scrapes were very old and had worse diameter fluctuations than the Ultimaker stuff. I'll try colorFabb filament next - let's see how that goes (will print the same objects with the same settings).

Another note. Make sure the glass plate sticks to the bed. I used double-sided tape with mine and it moved during printing so the top layer was runied :/ I also tried glue stick but it didn't work well for me. I found the wood glue / water mixture to perform best. Another idea might be this one (hair spray): http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:28787

Alright, the magnifying glasses arrived. The layers seem to be the same height. So it might be underextrusion then: But some layers look weird, like the layer diameter changes. Also these plastic strands look bad and are not uniform: Could this be caused by too much movement of the bed? Here is another print at 0.1 layer height. The layers here look alright except for some weird effects (huge blobs vertical ripples). I did print it fairly hot though (240-250° and 60mm/s speed).