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I experimented with the fan speed again last night and am now more confused. Sure enough, when I set the speed to 75% when the program wanted 20% after a few seconds it went back to 20%. Now my question is, if the speed a user selects on the UM2 controller is constantly getting overwritten by the gcode, why is fan speed even an option. Kind of gives the operator the false idea that he/she has control over something they really don't.

I recently forgot to turn off the fan for an ABS print. As the print progressed, the fan increased speed as the file instructed it to. When I turned the fan speed to 0, it returned to the programmed speed after a few seconds. The only way I could keep it off was to keep the fan speed screen active and set to 0. What am I missing? Other settings like print speed or flow % don't get rewritten after I change them. It has been a while since I updated the firmware on my printer. Is that it? Thanks

I'm sure something exists, but I have not been able to find a quick/easy way to determine the amount of filament left on a spool. How about making the spools with a series of holes along both side walls in identical positions. You put a rod through matching holes to determine how much is left on the spool. The approx amount remaining would be molded into the plastic. No scale or math needed.

Hey!! I am using what I think is the latest version of firmware for my UM2. I have been having retraction problems and tried to turn it off during a print. I set the retraction speed to 0. This caused the printer to lock up and I had to reboot it. Luckily the print was only 1 hour old. I tried other values for the speed and it did not lock up. I also tried putting 0 in the distance value which worked ok. May I suggest changing the minimum value for speed to 1 instead of 0. Thanks

Deretraction - is that a word?? I think I read priming is the proper term. For some time I have been having problems with the retract/prime process. I have largely ignored it until recently when I started printing the P-38 Lightning from 3D Lab Print. With that model it is very important to have good layer adhesion. The problem I have is the retract step leaves some material oozing out of the nozzle. This results in strings and blobs deposited in my print - not a big deal other than added weight. On the prime step, there seems to be a little bit of material missing and I get small blank spots where the filament has not fully primed. (Possibly mathematically not accounting for the material that oozed out of the nozzle???) I have tried various retraction settings with little success. Speed does not seem to change anything and longer distances seems to make the prime problem worse. I have noticed the bowden tube moves up and down in the print head during the retract step. I am going to experiment with ways to hold it firmly in place - maybe adding more of the clips that hold the "tube pinching device" in place. I think I read once about an over prime value that some slicers use to make sure material is fully primed in the nozzle to account for the amount that oozes out. I am using Cura 15.02.1. Is there some way to over prime the nozzle?? Thanks in advance for the great help. I have always gotten good advice.

Well Blarp!! I finally had to switch to a .8mm nozzle. By the time I figured all this out I had used too much of the corkfill. Had to finish the print with bamboofill. Still looks ok, although it was not what I hoped for.

Very nice. I consider myself pretty good with the UM2, but I just don't have the nerve to start a several day long print. I would have to divide it into sections.

Oh yes, I checked the colorfabb site and they do not mention anything about nozzle dia. That would have saved me a lot of time and filament.

Thanks for the help. I knew I would get good advice once Europe got out of bed. I switched to the Olsson block and a .6mm nozzle, resliced and started the print. We will see in a few hours what result I get. A bigger nozzle makes sense. I was always getting a plugged nozzle.

Blender. Its free!!

Hey!! Here is what I know does not work: Olsson nozzle assy at .4mm, various nozzle temps and a maximum extrusion rate of 60mm/sec for the infill. 5 failures using these settings. The most frustrating one was at hour 18 out of 20. All of the failures were a plugged nozzle. Before coming to work I put the original Ultimaker nozzle back on. I resliced the print so the speed was not higher than 45mm/sec. I started it again at 210C and 55C with a fast retraction speed. These new settings came from the colorfabb web site. My wife told me it failed. It seems the very first layers did not get built properly and I made spaghetti. So, has anyone had good results with corkfill and how did you do it? Thanks

Ok. I guess I'll wait . . .

This is a pump holder for a bike that I designed. Is there a way to change the fill % at different levels? What I want to do is have the base filled at 20% and once the print gets to the round clips (about layer 70) I want to switch to 100% fill to make the clips stronger. I tried the "Tweak at Z" plug in and it did not seem to do what I want. Thanks

Bad news. The "experts" on the internet formus say it is way too heavy. I guess I will rebuild the fuselage removing a lot of the plastic. Another year goes by . . .

Good news! I have blown off most of my spring time chores and continued working on the plane. I have tested the motors and 1 motor produces 250 watts of power. Next I need to weigh it and figure out if the math says it will fly.

Still moving along. The control surfaces are all installed. All of the printed parts are shown except the main gear doors. As shown here it is very tail heavy. I think batteries in the front will solve that. Spring is near. I'm not sure if this will be the year for a test flight or not. I have over $1000 (approx 900 Euro) in it so far.

Hi!! Remember me?? Summer is for flying RC not building RC. Winter is almost here and I am about to continue my C-130 project after doing basically nothing to it for several months. If you go back through this topic there is a photo of the nose I printed. I am still very concerned about weight. I had what seems like a great idea - vacuform pieces over the printed parts. I made all the stuff for vacuforming and tried to make a new/lighter nose. I know, I'm trying something pretty complicated which I still think no one has done yet. Why not make it even harder? (Tip: Using your kitchen oven to soften the plastic results in a stink your wife will not approve of.) Without any more delay here is my first result: I know the plastic is hot, but I didn't think it would transfer enough heat to soften the printed part. The plastic did not melt into the PLA which is nice. When I cut away the plastic it separated easily from the PLA. My next plan is to fill the nose with plaster. Hey, Edison didn't get it right the first time either . . .

The printer has a setting for extrusion% or maybe its flow%. Typically this is near 100%. You might be able to increase that value and get a good result. I'm not sure how high the % goes. I also have no idea if it will feed correctly. I don't know how retraction would work with the extra slop in the bowden tube. Then there is the problem that the nozzle is designed for 3mm filament. The more I think about it, I'm not sure it will work. Sounds like a lot of tinkering and experimenting to make it work.

Yep. I know that people use basically the same process I did and cut out the bulkheads and ribs. But wait - isn't one of the features of 3D printing limited waste? Laser cutter mod for the UM2 anyone? It has been suggested. I want one.

I recently received a new nozzle, bowden tube and teflon piece. Before I replaced these parts, I printed the feeder parts Daid supplied out of PLA. I will no longer see black specks in the tube and print. I am happy to report that my printer has printed 5 out of 5 perfect cylinders using Ultimaker's PLA. I have some PLA from Makershed that I have problems with. Once it is gone, I will not order from them again. It's hard/impossible for me to throw away 2 spools of filament so I'll fight it to the end. Using that PLA I printed 1 cylinder that scored a 9.5. The very next cylinder scored a 5. I switched back to the Ultimaker PLA and printed a 10. I really thought I had a problem with the feeder motor. I'm not convinced that teflon is the proper material for the white spacer. I wonder if there is too much heat transfering up that softens the teflon. Combine the heat with the spring pressure on the teflon, which seems excessive to me, and you get the deformation we have all seen. I have access to a machine shop and a buddy who is a ceramic engineer. Maybe I'll start a side business making the spacer out of some fancy material. Fancy means expensive.

Acetone vs carbon fiber arrow - no problem. It did remove the glossy finish. I soaked the part in acetone for less than a minute to try and soften the CA glue. Acetone vs CA glue - I did not notice any change. After soaking in the acetone the glue was as strong as ever. I had to pry, cut, twist and cuss to remove the section I had glued in place. The arrows held up very well against this abuse. Tonight I cut apart an extrusion test cylinder to compare the weight of 1 thickness of PLA to 1/16 inch balsa. The section of cylinder measured .42mm thick. I cut a section of balsa the same size as the cylinder section. The balsa measures 1.64mm thick. The cylinder section weighed .61g and the balsa weighed .39g. The balsa is much stronger. Tonight's conclusion is there is a reason RC planes are made from balsa. I have seen the videos of printed RC planes flying so I know it can work. If you have enough power you can fly an anvil. I'm trying to keep things as light as possible.

Good news, bad news. Good: - Today I traced a bulkhead I had printed onto 1/8 inch hobby plywood and cut it out. (1/8 plywood is the standard material for creating bulkheads in large RC planes.) The plywood measures 3.1mm thick. The part I printed measures 2.6mm. (I chose 2.6 because it seemed "about right.") The printed bulkhead was in ABS and weighed 9.78g. The plywood weighed 14.69g. Converting the weight of ABS to PLA gives 11.64g for PLA. The printed part has .4mm top/bottom thickness, .8mm shell thickness and 20% infill. The printed part is not nearly as strong as the plywood, but a bulkhead's function is to create the shape for gluing balsa to, not providing strength. This is good since I am very concerned about the finished weight of the plane. - I had previously machined the main landing gear out of aluminum. I have redesigned the LG to be incorporated into the printed sections of the plane. This results in less overall material, and that material is lighter. - I am almost finished printing parts for the plane. Bad: - Today I traced a wing rib I had printed onto 1/8 inch balsa wood and cut it out. (1/8 balsa is the standard material for creating ribs in RC planes.) The balsa measures 3.3mm thick. The rib I printed is also 2.6mm. The printed rib was in PLA and weighed 9.63g. The balsa weighed 1.4g. Converting the weight of PLA to ABS gives 8.1g for ABS. The printed part has the same top/bottom, shell and infill values. The printed part is about as strong as the balsa. This is VERY bad since I am concerned about the finished weight of the plane. - Although I am almost finished printing parts, I am no where near finished with the entire plane. - I had to modify a part I had already printed and glued in place. Stay tuned to see if acetone works well for dissolving CA glue and to find out if it attacks carbon fiber. (A quick internet search gives mixed opinions on acetone vs carbon fiber) I will have to make the majority of the wing ribs out of balsa to save weight. This project isn't turning out the way I originally intended - a 100% printed RC plane. I don't think it will be magazine worthy. No island for me.

Set up the printer to display the most recently saved files on the SD card at the top of the list rather than the bottom. I know this is a minor inconvenience, but it will save me 3 seconds.

Still moving along. Nothing picture worthy. However spring is here and the outdoors call. Still printing parts - slowly. Replacement parts might be here next week then it should go faster. If this works, I've already decided what planes to make next. I have a 90mm ducted fan that I am going to build an EA-6B Prowler around. Not the most exciting plane, but I have a friend who flew 2nd seat in one. Additionally, you see all sorts of F-16s and F-4s. You never ever see an RC EA-6B. Next will be a Tupolev TU-95 Bear. Once again a plane that no one else will be flying. I'm a cronic project starter. There are lots of projects around my house that I have never finished. A psychologist could tell you this is a sign of something. I will finish the C-130.

Hi!! Remember me? I'm one of the last people on Earth with a UM2 that does not work like it should. I have been hoping that someone would declare victory, but that hasn't happened, or I missed it. My printer is now amazingly slow. I'm afraid that in my desperate attempts to get the thing going I have permantely damaged some part. Most likely the nozzle or white teflon piece. Sander promised me a new nozzle and teflon piece on April 17th. Still no sign of the parts. I sent him a PM recently asking about delivery, but I have not heard back. I'm stuck right now printing C-130 parts at less than 2mm3/sec. Big parts + slow printer = 20 hour + prints. When I have tried a cylinder, it fails in the 3 ring with every filament. Sigh . . . Maybe I'll sacrifice a chicken. My printer's slow it will not go. My printer's slow. Why? I do not know. I've tried this and I have tried that. I even tried to print Daid's cat. I'm waiting for parts to arrive, then maybe my printer will come alive. Patient I have been you see. I want my heart to be filled with glee. I also have a song that follows the "You Were Gone" song from Hee Haw. I figured no one in Europe would know what I was talking about.