dannyg

Hi Nick, gr5, I didn't realise this post had gotten past the moderators...it was taking a long time ;-) So I performed an operation or two during the weekend before seeing your posts so I think some things have been solved. I disassembled the hot end using my gas hob as a heat source and found a 'collar' of PLA inside the PEEK insulator. I suspect this may have been my source of poor extrusion. I cleaned this out. I also noticed that my z-axis couldn't reach the bottom end stop and ended up making a loud grinding noise with the z stepper. This was due to my bed not being properly assembled. This also made it hard to level my bed as the plywood parts of the z-stage were at a severe angle. This has now been solved, the bed is much more level and I have the full range of z-axis :-) I also cracked out the calipers and had a look at the filament. It measured 3.3mm!!! this is the Ultimaker silver PLA filament you get as default with the unit. So I have adjusted the filament diameter to suit. This may be the source of the over extrusion? So tonight I just printed a 20mm cube and here are the results. Isometric View Top Infill This is the bottom, i had the head too tight to the bed and had to adjust on the fly. The gap is an area that didn't extrude at all :-( Looks like the z-axis issues have been resolved. I am still having trouble with bed leveling and extrusion but this is something I shall play with. Danny

Hi Forums, This is my first post as I have only had my Ultimaker for a couple of weeks. In those weekes everything has gone great, it worked perfectly after being assembled, no under extrusion, accuracy was bang on and apart from retraction blobs everything looked awesome. Now I am having a few issues and would like some opinions (in all the photos the part on the left is what I am printing now, the identical part on the right is what I printed only a few days ago): Sparse first layer and what I think is low nozzle pressure I am having issues with a very sparse first layer, the infill doesn't touch the walls very well. I think the main reason for this is that I have been having to set my z-axis very slightly higher than specified with the nozzle just slightly higher than the bed (probably 0.05mm or something). I know this isn't what is supposed to be done but if I set the z=0mm during bed levelling the print will work fine for the walls but stop extruding on the infill. Then if I lower the bed very slightly a whole load of material comes out.then it works fine. I think I might have a partial blockage :sad: any tips on how to unblock...? Far Far more warping than before The part is warping more than ever and I don't see why. Perhaps this is a symptom of under extruding.. Also on the side photo you can see something that I think is retraction blobs and overhangs when the print is doing a top fill...weird. My Settings Note that though the screenshot shows 240C I have been using 220C typically, 240C was me doing a manual feed through the hot end. Hot End and Extruder because I know you guys ask for pics of these from time to time :smile:. On the hot end you can see residues frmo when my brass part wasnt fully tight into the alumium block cause it to leak. This has been sorted now. Thanks for any help! Danny