Nicolinux

Hi, I have two problems with the following print: Although it was printed at normal speed, the extruder started skipping and underextrusion occured. Initially I lowered the temperature in order to prevent the forming of blobs (which from my understanding would form from either too much pressure or high viscosity at high temperatures). Key print settings are: layer height: 0.2 shell: 0.8 bottom/top: 1.2 speed: 50 temperature: 230 (later on 225) spiralize: on The model is still full of small blobs. And while I am asking for 4mm^3/s filament, it still started underextruding at 225°. I don't want to raise the underextrusion red flag and blame the extruder - just wondering why this would happen under those circumstances. The second issue (albeit not that important) is the visible seam on the model. I thought spiralize would get rid of it. What might be the reason for the seam then?

I had the problem where the filament spool would lie on a lazy susan and rotate slowly while it was pulled by the extruder. Then suddenly several filament layers/strands jumped off the spool and formed a knot that got stuck in the extruder. Maybe this was due to badly spooled filament (where the strands would cross each other).

There comes a time in every gentleman's life when he needs to ask himself - who am I and how do I want to decorate my home. As a hunter I chose this: But the nerd in me said "You can not hunt ladies for ever.", so I did choose this:

You suckers, you made me all weepy (which isn't too hard to do lately) Thanks guys. @Ian: To paste Youtube videos just enter the url with no extra parameters (I use the share feature on youtube to get the short url like this: youtu.be/SJUhlRoBL8M (I did cut off the http:// part here so it won't show the video inline)). @Ian: About your exciting work - aren't you allowed to bring a laptop with you? Then you could tinker with Solidworks all day. Or if you have a beefy machine just slap Virtualbox or VMWare on it, install your own Windows and use Solidworks with it. It is funny how we humans complain when we have too much to do or nothing at all. I worked for a computer helpline once and didn't have anything to do at times. I have read so many books back then... Btw. I wonder how AaronAlai is doing. He has not posted anything for two weeks now. I dread we'll soon witness the Franken-UM2 he has secretly built

My last few days have been exhausting. I have done a lot of thinking and walking because I don't know what to do about my ex/still wife. And while I can barely focus, eat, sleep - I am working on a mobile game with my friend. I thought I'd distract myself and tick off easy tasks like searching for a specific sound effect but now I am stuck at it for hours and still haven't found one. How hard is to find a really big and clean earth shattering BOOM sound for a common 20 feet monster samurai falling from the skies and landing on a meadow - Jesus! On the upside - I am burning through filament spools because the printer mustn't ever sleep I started printing gifts for friends in advance and I am also experimenting with some weirder models like the wall mounted deer head (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:239585). But I am positive because winter is over and today I could walk outside only wearing a t-shirt (and pants, occasionally).

Only during pregnancy

Hi, just wanted to remind you that filament plays a major role regarding underextrusion. I printed the famous owl models with exactly the same settings - and look at the differences. The dark one looks awful while the pearl white owl is fantastic. There is underextrusion on the bronze owl. I have barely used bronze filament so the curvature on the spool should be less extreme. This bronze filament sucks. It is ugly and prints badly. I don't like it and now I have two spools of it :/ Print settings: layer height: 0.2 speed: 40 temperature: 230

Another very useful tool I bought recently: A crochet hook It helps to snag the thin filament strands that get stuck inside the extruder while swapping filament.

Maybe you messed up the assembly somewhere. Because if anybody had such bad underextrusion/printer there's no way they would accept it (and won't return it to UM).

Wow Ian, the robot looks like it was ment to be voronoi style. But this case of underextrusion is very extreme. It wasn't that bad even with my old UM2. Are you sure it is not something else?

Hi Celso, Thanks for the hint. The thing is, I printed the very same model and it didn't happen so I assume it has something to do with the printing technique.

Soooory. The I put the file back. I didn't measure the nozzle temp before a print. But alone from looking at the filament that starts to ooze only after the bed is hot enough, I'd say it is not a problem. My workflow is similar. The only difference is the printer beeing next door. I take the sd card with me, turn on the printer, select the print and wait until the initial extrusion so I can grab the filament strand. Then I leave. Btw, soooory about the file. I put it back (link).

The lights look like they don't go off entierly. Are you sure it is hardware related?

Pre-extrusion was fine (albeit a lil' bit too much if I remember correctly). I grabbed the extruded filament strand with my fingers (like I always do before a print starts so it won't gent in the way). The extra extrusion happened when the head reached its destination where it would normally start with the skirt. I am using the latest firmware 14.03.

@gr5: Meh... I don't want to always have to move material before a print... @illuminarti: It just happened again. The printer was on and waited after the print was done. I removed the object from the glass plate and started another print. Then the blob occured. I have attached the "offending" gcode file (the stretchy bracelet - link). I don't think it is related to an object because I had it with all sorts of prints. It is either what George said or maybe a firmware bug. Maybe the extruder extrudes too fast at the beginning. These kind of bugs are not impossible. I remember another bug where the head traveled too far when one selected something in the ulticontroller while the head was homing home.

What kind of printer is this?

No we don't...

Hehe, should follow my own advice then. I am still thinking about the perfect object to test new filament. Ideally it should be quick to print, don't waste much filament and test many cases.

Lol, nice comparisoin. I don't know. Maybe it overextrudes because I didn't care to set the filament diameter correctly. I set it at 2.9mm because most filament I own has a diameter around 2.83mm - 2.94mm. But I'd be very glad for any tips for improvement. Here is the Cura profile string for that object (Cura 14.02 I think). ;CURA_PROFILE_STRING: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

Ok. I am using the standard gcode for the UM2. Didn't touch anything (now with UltiGcode I understand that you don't have custom gcode at the start/end). Cleaning with a knife helps of course, but it still leaves visible artifacts. Most filament colors are brighter when cut/roughed. I still wonder how the heck I printed the orange turtle (and I didn't print two at once)

Hey thanks. I got used to print at 230° on the UM2 so much that I forgot to lower the temperature for slow prints. Will try again at 190°-200°.

It looks like the infamous "banding" produced by "z-wobble". I fear you can't tweak it in software, you'd need to disassemble your z-stage and make sure the big brass nut is centered on the z-coupler at the bottom. I've had quite some trouble with this issue too. (link)

Print settings: layer height: 0.1 shell: 0.8 retraction: on bottom/top: 1.2 fill: 0 speed: 30 temperature: 230 combing: on

Hi, Do you have some advice on how to improve the top layer quality? For this object the nozzle drags filament strands upwards when it finishes the objects which results in an ugly top layer: This same objects (printed some time ago) does not feature the same problems. Sadly I forgot to write down the print settings :/ Thanks.

I can't say for sure, but I think it happens randomly and it is not tied to a specific model. And since I am shutting off the printer while it cools down (3rd fan broken and loud), I think I power cycle before most prints.