shadowfiend

Sorry that was supposed to be a table, it worked fine in the preview :-/

Hi Daid, That sounds really interesting, I can appreciate that sometimes interface functionalitly can be more difficult to impliment than the actual feature itself. I had an idea based on the Autodesk Maya Attribute Spreadsheet. Object ID Object name Printing order Shell thickness Print speed Bottom/top thickness Fill density Layer height Support type Platform adhesion type Flow Minimal layer time Cooling Fan 1 Wipe tower 1 0.8 10 0.6 100 0.1 None None 100 30 1 2 Bracket 3 1.2 30 0.6 25 0.1 Everywhere None 98 0 0 3 cap 4 0.8 40 0.6 50 0.1 Everywhere None 98 0 1 4 ball thing 5 0.8 50 0.6 100 0.1 Everywhere None 98 0 1 5 Wipe tower 2 0.8 10 0.6 100 0.1 None None 100 30 1 This is one way you could add tremendous flexibility and power to Cura, though a simple interface. Please let me know your thoughts. Many thanks. Ian.

My feature wish list here would be:- Sequential and editable printing order Editable speed or time spent on each object More control over the cool head lift like height adjustment, X, Y offset and where it would happen in the printing order If there was the option to control the time spent on each object, we could use smaller wipe towers that would waste less material. I really think that serious improvements are being made thanks to the support of people in this forum and of course the continued support of Daid and the Ultimaker team. I'm getting some good results thanks to the suggestions made in this thread already, almost zero strining and the two wipe tower idea is working great :C) Many thanks.

Hi Titus & Gr5, I have tried the two tower sugestion on a dry print and this does indeed seem to work exactly as you said, I will try this on my next big print. Many thanks :c) In an attempt to get round the very frustrating oozing issue I am going to try something a bit radical. I'm going to tilt the printer forwards off the table, in the hope that gravity may have less effect on the nozzle! I'll let you know how I get on :c) Thanks guys :c)

Hi Gr5, Thanks for your reply, I tried the suggestions you made and found that you were right ;c) Although there was no vertical spike left on the part, the oozing started to happen and a big mess resulted. So I did a couple of tests with the wipe tower (print all at once enabled) and noticed a few things. Although this works much better there is room for improvement. As the slicer is optimised for the fastest print time, the nozzle may (and often does) print 2 layers on the same part, resulting in overheating and curling in some cases. Also, unless a large wipe tower is used there is no way to control how much time is spent away from the main part for cooling. So based on these findings I am looking to try the following:- Find a way to change the time spent on the wipe tower, whilst maintaining the speed setting for the main part. I think this would be beneficial because a smaller wipe tower would waste less material. Find a way to make the slicer go through the objects to be printed sequentially to allow even heat distribution and maximise cooling. I think Daid may have mentioned this in another thread. I know that I could submit these ideas as feature requests, but I would rather experiment to see if these things actually work first. Many thanks.

Hi gang, I would like to try an experiment with the cool head lift feature, where the Z platform stays put at the current layer height and just moves to the side to allow cooling. I think that this may be better because it always leaves a blob of plastic as the Z platform drops down. Also the X Y movemet is much faster than the Z and can usually be fast enough to stop strining. Another thing I want to experiment with is a wipe tower that is printed at an ajustable speed to alow the main part time to cool. I will attempt to do this by hacking the Gcode but I do realise that it is not an easy thing to do. Please tell me what you think and if you have any sugestions on how to achieve ither of these things. Many thanks. Ian.

Could I suggest that a slight but important change to the above; When pause is pressed: Fast move off to a safe (empty) spot, to avoid stringing Retract Lift Move to home Lock motors Just a thought, because the Z motor cannot move fast and always leaves a big strand of plastic. Actually I would like to see this as the end behavior too. :c) Cheers.

Thanks again everyone, I'm back up and printing again YAY :c)

IRobertI, you are a Genius :cD I found a thin scrap of polycarbonate that I lifted just one of the tabs and down it came. Minimal effort and took no time at all. Brilliant :cD I can’t thank you enough.

Ahh good thinking IRobertI !!! I think that the very next thing I will be printing is a Bowden clamp extractor tool ;c) Many thanks guys, I'll let you know how I get on :c) Ian.

I remember back when I was assembling the printer the first time that I had let this happen. Even with the force of the four long thumb screws this thing was not moving. Fortunatly back then I had not put the clamp on the other end of the tube, so I just slid the clamp all the way down the tube and off. The problem now is that there is one at each end. I suppose I cut a bit off the PTFE tube at the extruder end, but I'm still thinking there may be another way. Thanks

It's the little white clamp that I foolishly allowed to slip up the tube. It has little teeth that only let it move one way and bite in hard the other direction. As there is one on the other end of the tube I'm a bit stuck :c/

Hi there, After trying to dismantle the hotend on my Ultimaker original, only to get the fan out, I accidentally pulled the white bowden tube clamp up the PTFE tube. I know that this is not coming down again. Any suggestions from anyone that has done the same thing would be most welcome. I feel like a complete idiot :c/ Many thanks.

Hi there, I found that option but things are still missing. For example there used to be a pause button that was very handy for priming the nozzle, not there now. Also I used to be able to adjust the temperature and speed whilst printing. Can I still do this? I know that software development is an iterative process but please don't take out features Daid ;c) Please forgive me if there is functionality that I am unaware of :c) For the moment I'm still using 14.01. Thanks.

Hi Minfacture! Excellent job, I'm doing the same thing using polycarbonate. I love the simplicity of your design. My project has got a bit complicated ;c) Thanks.

A thing of beauty. Truly awesome :cD

Hi guys, I had an exhausting day at work today, but would like to thank everyone for the continued interest in this project and I'm really keen to push forward with finalising the design so I can get the parts ordered and build the thing. Rai, I am more than convinced that the enclosing of the printer is the way forward, from being able to control the temperature and airflow to extracting the nasty fumes, it has so many benefits. It's a shame that the 2nd extruder temperature control looks like a non starter, but on the plus side, using a Triac seems to be a much better aproach, after a very quick Wikipidia read, they seem to alow a variable alternating current, but my poor tired brain cannot handle electronics at the moment :c) I like the sound of the Triac solution. You know I haven't really decided on the exact setup for the heating yet so the hair dyer is just a stopgap. Here is a summary of the project:- Only air heating, no heated bed Crossflow air circulation externally mounted, direct drive steppers A small fan at the rear for fume extraction An adjustable hot / cold vent to vary the recirculation of air All of the electrical componentes to be under computer control I have decided to break down the project into phases:- Phase 1 Mechanical Design. This is 90% complete now and I will have a bill of materials in the next few days and I will also upload the digital files to youmagine Phase 2 Mechanical Fabrication Ordering the parts, commisioning a laser cutting beuro for the chamber, printing the exhust fitting, tricle vent fitting and other bits. Assembly. Phase 3 Heating and Temperature Control This is where all this good information will really be helpful. Thanks again :c) Phase 4 Software Interation What would be really nice would be to have a full production control system, like plant control for factory equipment. So you load the model to print and define the material and some quality / speed paramenter and hit GO. The software would begin heating the chamber and the print head, start the circulation fan, start the extraction fan etc. At the end of the print would be the slow cool down process to minimise shrinkage problems. At the beginning of this project I hadn't realised all the work involved, but now that I have started this thread I no longer feel like I am doing it alone. Cheers :c)

That setup looks awsome Rai! I'll reply tonight after reading properly, I've got to go back to work now though :c( You beat me to it! I'm really glad it's working for you ;c) Well done :c) Cheers.

Hi aviphysics :c) Some excellent ideas here! The hair dryer actually goes up to 2000W on the highest setting! So power is not an issue. I have actually bought an AC light dimmer for the very purpose of controlling the hair dryer, but I've just realised it is only rated to 250W. Oops! Rethink in order ;c) I'm sure there will be something on eBay that will do the job though. I really like the idea of controlling the hot / cold air mixture, a sort of Ultimaker carburettor ;c) I’m already thinking of designing an additional component to do just this, based on your idea. Thanks man! The window vent has no fan, so I’m putting a 50mm fan at the back of the UM, check the pics, it’s at the back between the chamber and the exhaust fitting. The idea being that it would create a reduced pressure enough to have a small inward flow of air through the gaps in the printer forcing the fumes out. So this is exactly what you are saying, loving the smoke wizard too :c) I was thinking of using an incense stick to do the same job. I found that the fan in the hair dryer (I actually had it inside the printer) did a good job of circulating the heat inside the printer, much like a convection fan oven. You know since I started this thread the design process has taken quite a few twists and turns, this is what I love about the open source ethos. Magic.

Hi aviphysics, When I have finished the design of the chamber I will release the digital files on youmagine.com. But any system for enclosing the Ultimaker would benefit the printing process, I believe. I managed to get an internal temperature of maybe 45C by just using a hair dryer and some oven bags. This was with great big gaps all over the place ;c) However the hair dryer was probably kicking out 1800 watts! I know that this is not efficient but with a much more controlled airflow in and out of the chamber, I think that much less energy would be required. The majority of the energy will be escaping through air convection and not through the materials of the construction in my opinion. I think that you are probably right that cardboard might be a better heat insulator, but in my case, as I mentioned before, most of the heat will be going out of the window ;c) I am also using this project to learn how to use Solidworks and boy is that a learning curve! Maybe my next development could be a heat exchanger to get the heat back again ;c) I love that people can build some highly functional things with everyday objects. Please let me know how you get on :c) Thanks.

Ahh so you got it working, that's great :c) Just thinking that there may be a setting somwhere that controls the frequency of the relay switching, so your heater is not stressed as much. Cheers.

Hi Rai, That is a lot of information! Regarding the thermal conductivity, if I understand correctly, you are saying that the insulating properties of both materials is similar? I was thinking that this would not really be an issuse to worry about because any heat loss through the material would easily be compesated by putting more power into the heater unit. In my case most of the heat loss would be going out of the window anyway ;c) Your temperature control system sounds great :c) there is still a lot of work for me to do after the chamber is built and I think an arduino will be on my bill of materials. I'm wonering if instead of a relay a viriable voltage? control could be driven somehow from the arduino. This is'nt really my area but that may be a way to get really accurate control of the temerature. I like that you have 3 temperature sensors. How are you controlling the arduino, I mean software wise? It would be nice if I could use the existing arduino in the ultimaker to drive the temperature control, as this would mean that I could keep it nice and tidy. I also like the idea of using the 2nd extruder as a temperatue sensor. Nice :c) Regarding the toxisity of the ABS fumes, well let me just say that the black filament I baught made me feel sick to my stomach and gave me an awful headache. It was one of the main reasons for building the chamber. I could go and do lots of reasearch, but I really dont need to. That stuff is toxic my body told me so ;c) To be fair though I did read that it can be the pigment in the ABS that is toxic, but I don't want to go through that experience again :c) Many thanks.

Hi Rai, Thanks for your reply, I must say, my idea is by no means original, but it's nice to know other people are building similar designs. I'm guessing that 'metracrilate' is perspex? The reason I chose polycarbonate was because of the streangth and heat resistance over perspex, but I think the cost will be higher, probably quite a lot ;c) I would be interested to know more about the temperature control setup you have. Regarding the trickle vent, this is the only way I can get the fumes out of the room, so it goes like this. The fan at the back of the chamber pushes air through a flexible tube up to the fitting that attaches to the trickle vent in the window. I will need to have a speed control on the fan so that I can be sure that all the fumes are vented outside, but not cool the chamber down too much. As for the heater, well it's a hair dryer for the moment. I want to test the effects of only using heated air in the chamber to begin with. I'm thinking that the 'air only' method may distribute heat more evenly over the printed part, and therfore lead to more uniform and minimised shrinkage. I don't know what heater to try next, it's a bit experimental ;c) What air temperature are you running at Rai?

I found a link that shows the transparent flexable sheet that sits on top of the print bed. Check out at about 2:48 into the video. Does anybody know what that material is?

Hi UniversalLSRS, Thank you for your post, I'm very jealous of your 1200es sst ;c) This was part of my thinking after reading about commercial FDM machines having around 70 heated chamber. I have also seen an interesting video where there is a transparent maybe 1mm sheet over the printing platform, where the guy just bends it and the printed part comes away really easily. I have been wondering what the material is for ages, will try to find the link. I have been thinking about aluminium or glass for the bed, but I want to get away from having to use tape in favor of something I can just paint on like wood glue and water, or the acetone ABS juce. Good point about the acrylic bed, I was afraid of distorting it at higher temperatures :c/ Cheers.