nooby1973

So, finally got a complete print of a part, I would say 90/95% accurate print. The stringing was easily cleaned up, a bit disappointed that the four corner supports failed to print correctly (they actually printed fine in earlier attempts), but no biggy, I can amend the other objects that I need to print to compensate for that. The support in the four recesses are very densely packed however, which wasn't the case in my earlier failures. I think, as illuminarti suggests, adjusting the extrusion rate will resolve these issues for my remaining prints.

Ok - so I printed a small (10cm) version of my object and all in all it wasn't too terrible: Good points. 1. It finished without a major screwup 2. It looks like the 3d model I designed 3 issues. 1. Rough infill 2. Infill not meeting edges (backlash?) 3. Rough surface/bubbling (too thin/too hot?) I ran this at 200 degrees, 100mm/s print and movement, 0.2 layer height, 0.5 top/bottom layer, 0.5 walls, 20% infill and 5 seconds cooling. The larger object is still printing, set to 75mm/s for print and movement, 0.05 layer height, 0.7 top.bottom layer, 0.7 walls, 20% infill, 225 degrees, 5 seconds cooling. Am i over extruding or running too hot to get these awful rough surfaces? There is some flexibility in the bed since I changed the springs so the head is not jamming and causing the print to become offset like earlier posts. By running below 100mm/s I have pretty much eliminated the backlash issue, but it does mean prints take an age (anyone else noticed the Cura estimator is way out in terms of time per print?) so it is entirely possible that I will lose the current print as it will take around 24 hours or so and every time I have left a print to run overnight it has failed for various reasons.

The problem wasn't hardware related. I dropped my 3d model into cura (200mm x 200mm x 50mm) and the print dialogue wouldn't activate. I scaled the object to 0.99 and the dialogue was then available, so I am unsure why this should be. I wouldn't say the belt was 'twisting' as such, more moving backwards and forwards, I am printing uch slower now and that has reduced the effect but reading on the topic suggests replacing the pulleys and gears with GT2 as they are designed for switching direction, which the standard ones aren't (apparently), but I will look at adding those washers as I was having an issue with the short belt rubbing the wooden case.

I am really considering upgrading to GT2 belts/pulleys having read around the topic, Did you go ahead with your upgrade? If so did you notice a reduction in backlash, or any other benefits? J

Just noticed the short belt - particularly on x axis has a very noticeable shift back and forth when the direct of the print head moves back to front (y also but less so). I did tighten these not 12 hours ago and there was no discernible lateral movement - wondering if it might be worth replacing the grub screws that attach motors to frame? I have also noticed that there is what looks like backlash on some interior areas where there are concave areas in the print (fill not meeting walls) although the exterior walls seem to be fine.

So..... Test print came out fine - no obvious backlash/over/under/extrusion. Set to print my big square object and I had exactly the same problem as previously posted - except this time the top half of the print was only out on the x axis - not the x and y axis. I did notice some very rough section of infill so I'm guessing it caught on one of those again. Temp and extrusion speed was the same for both objects though 100mm extrusion speeed/100mm travel speed, 210 degrees temp. Maybe a higher temp to get a smoother layer? I am printing as we speak at 50% scale - maybe the size of the object is part of the problem?

I had similar problems with the rear being higher than the front - I replaced the front springs with slightly larger ones and leveling is much easier now.

Well i have spent 30 minutes tightening all the loose grommets and they were a lot of them. Cura cannot handle a 20cm x 20cm object - it's too big so i dropped it to 19cm x 19cm and that was accepted no problem - so bit of a porky pie on Ultimakers claim of a 200mm x 200mm printable area there! It is currently printing said object and so far all seems well - I will post an update in around 2-3 hours when it completes.

I think in relation to some of my issues you are probably right about the brim - it wasn't something I had considered - I will try to print it later today with the brim turmed off.

Ok - everything in Cura was A OK, it's the latest version, all objects were within the print volume and set to 100% (with the exception of the calibration square - I printed that at 95% so approx 195mm x 195mm x 10mm) I checked the scales in the CAD program (3ds max) and the settings were correct (I got caught out by that one before!) The cross object are like this: so instead of being a regular + it's starting to look like a swastika - which is not what I'm after as they need to fit into an object that is the mirror opposite - cross is recessed rather than proud. But I'm certain it's an x,y alignment issue with the software not knowing where rear right and front right actually are (being about 25mm and 20mm out - see previous circled image).

I appreciate what you are saying - but its seems odd to me that the wizard will zero out to two of the corners that jogging will, but not to the others. My bed is level - I'm just using it at this point to check if the misalignment is software or hardware related - I'm definitely moving toward the software error option at the moment. As you can(hopefully see from the images of the cross objects x and y are definitely out. Any thoughts on why my calibration object printed at 50% when it should have printed at 100% btw?

The problem is my X and Y is out of alignment - the only relevance that the bed levelling wizard in Cura has is it auto guides the print head to the 4 corners of the build plate, except it is missing two of the corners by a significant margin - I don't think it is down to belts/cams, etc... as the Jog feature in Cura hits the corners perfectly.

You can also see where I have marked out in red and yellow the points in red where the jog feature places the hot end, and in yellow the misaligned points where the bed leveling sets the hotend

hi all your suggestions seem to be right on the money - had an engineer friend over at the weekend and he suggested tightening all of the belts that he could see a well as all the grommets (Belts all done, grommets today). With belts tightened properly all the weird noises have gone only major issue now is x and y alignment. When I jog using cura the print head hits all 4 corners 20cm apart, but when I use the bed levelling wizar the front left is fine, as is rear left but rear right is around 25mm too short and front right is about 20mm too short. I shall post pics once uploaded to gallery.

I repositioned the motor again and whilst there are still 'musical' noises coming from the motor it doesn't sound as stressed as it was. I'm going to create a new post for the calibration of X + Y. Thanks for your input :-)

I have reposted the pics and video - the red circles shows the print movement. There is no raft - the piece is basically a large square with built in hinges and it the hinges and the bottom srface of the square that have moved approx 1cm. I don't think it is backlash as no other prints have done this - I think your previous guess of an errant line of code or catching on a section of the print and getting stuck are probably what happened. The noise is really disconcerting - hopefully the wmv video is playable (you may need to download vlc player to play it in chrome). This is the 3rd time I have replied to this so not sure what is going on with the forum :-s

Hi Pics are now loaded - printed some small items and noticed the x-y alignment was also out so tried moving the motor to tighten the short belt as it seemed slack - and now I have this weird whiny noise - and my alignment is no better iether. I'm now officially stuck!

Still getting to grips with the Ultimaker - thought I was doing well then this (see pics). I had a feeling the print would fail about 3 hours in as the infill was very stringy with lots of holes but I thought I would let it continue. The infill problem didn't effect the overall print - the surfaces were really nice - unfortunately the edges seem to have delaminated from the infill and final top layer (infill issue again?) but more worryingly the whole 2/3 of the upper part of the print has been printed approx 1cm to the left for no discernable reason. I have sent the part to print again to see what result I get. I had layer thickness set to 0.075, wall thickness to 0.8, temp at 200, print speed at 100, travel set to 150 and everything else default. Also, when I reset the printer a few hours after the failed print there was a horrific grinding noise and then a 'clatter' as though something came off the printer but nothing than i can find and it all seems to be working ok, so, any thoughts?

Fitted new springs and washers, adjusted switch and (so far) everything is working - thanks for the assist!

OK Just removed the plate and now the problem is really obvious - the rear left spring has been over compressed and is only 50% the size of the other 3 - new springs!

Hi Thanks very much for that, been adjusting for about 30 mins but with no real success - I think the problem is the wooden support that the plate is screwed might not be quite level and this is removing any benefit from tweaking the level screws on the plate - might longer screws/springs help to resolve this do you think? Thanks

Hi All I have just bought a 2nd hand 1 year old Ultimaker (got fed up waiting for My Form1 to turn up :-E ) and I am having major issues with the bed/plate. From what I have read on forums it is not an issue with Cura, print speed, flisment, etc... it seems to me that the rear of the bed is screwed down to within a micron of its life (particularly the left rear) while there is a ton of play in the front. If I adjust the front to be as tight as the rear there is not enough tolerance and the hot end simply tears across the plate through the tape, if I leave the play in the front then whilst I do get extrusion it is very messy, stringy, all over the place. My common sense tells me I need to lower the rear of the bed but this is physically impossible, so, any thoughts out there? Thanks in advance for any thoughts or comments.