chrisp

I hate to beat a dead horse, but can you check the gap between the teflon and the milled fitting again? When my prints were failing everytime, the only change I made was to the space between the teflon and milled fitting. (Posted in this thread somewhere) Since then my issues of under extrusion are gone. I don't understand why, other than the transfer of heat in the form of conduction is very accurate where the heater, nozzle and milled fitting all sit together. Or maybe I just got lucky and failing mechanical parts are now working? Very Unlikely Everytime I use the Orange PLA from the Ultimaker store I got a clog almost instantly. I did buy some cheap white PLA off of ebay which is printing better than all of the colors I've tried so far(go figure). I hope you find the solution!

The Hobbit does a really nice job with little effort on my part. I basically set the bolt into the carriage with the dremel on high speed and let gravity do the cut. The only thing is, the notches have to have a slightly bigger gap in between the teeth and depth of cut. So I will try a 20 tooth gear instead of the existing 24 tooth gear and I will make the insert for the dremel slightly taller for a deeper cut. Here's a pic of my first try:

At least you get an ERROR code to tell you something is wrong! I wish I had that instead of trying to fix everything and wondering what it might be. Before you submit that ticket or send it back to Ultimaker, make sure to check where the heating element plugs into the main control board. That is, if you haven't already done so..

I've been trying to find a hobbed bolt I can use with this build, without any luck it is time to get creative. I looked at a few different ideas on Thingiverse, but nothing was really designed to do the job right. Or it was for the wrong use. Then I thought, how hard can it be to make one with my tools at home and this extremely useful 3D printer. Here's what I came up with..... This is called "The Hobbit", which is a fitting name for sure. It runs off of bearings, just like all of my prints do, and it also locks into place for each cut.

No problemo! That would be great to have someone else to build/compare the Tantillus to. I can only keep my attention at one forum at a time and the rep rap forum for this build is not where I want to keep searching for info. I was thinking about redesigning the case of the tantillus so it can be printed with less pieces, but the top 4 pieces have to be printed in 4 pieces in order to put the x & y rods in place. Or modifications can be made to the top section so the rods can pass through the case, kinda like the UM2. So many options, so little time. Anyhow, thanks for the interest and it's great to see some others wanting to try out this open source printer.

I feel your pain brotha!

Ian, "thats really cool ! Does the bottle really stay in there... nice and tight... or does it shake about a lot ?" The bottle kind of pops in. The two arms/prongs at the top snap around the bottle neck. It's not super tight, but a very nice fit.

Got this cool beer stein off of thingiverse. Very little cleanup to do after the epoxy is set in. Will be finishing it with a Dark bronze. More to come.

AaronAlai, it just depends on what is required really. Sometimes I have to take apart the extruder, sometimes I have a partial clog below the teflon fitting, sometimes the filament gets stuck in the bowden tube during retracting it to change material, and sometimes I get a complete clog where everything has to come apart. I have not figured out the cause of the clogging yet, except that it could be the Orange PLA from the Ultimaker store. (But this is not confirmed) Almost all of my prints are set at 0.1 layers, 220 degrees celcius, and 50mm/s, and 15-100% infill, which doesn't really matter. Last night I had a partial clog in the nozzle section. I found this out by changing from PLA Blue to PLA orange. When i went through the change material process, everything came out nice and orange flowed from the nozzle. Once I started my first print, the filament stopped flowing. I then began my 15 tries! (YES I SAID 15), material changes to try and clear the clog. I removed the orange and started using Pearl White to clear the clog out so I could see in detail, the orange color coming out. Every time I would feed to the hot-end and then retract to perform a material change, I found a little bit of orange on the tip melted. After 15 tries I stepped away and had a couple beers next to my firepit outside, then went back in to open up the hot-end. I also try to heat up the nozzle to 250 and manually move the filament via the controller, but for some reason, it would not make any noise or move. I decided to take a few short cuts, which is the same method I posted on Nicolinux's post. I was able to pull out a huge burnt piece of blue/orange/white filament. Now keep in mind that before every material change I do make sure that the new filament is shaved nice and clean so there is no way it can obstruct itself from entering the 3mm opening.

Nicolinux "By the way, the two white switches on the extruder do not move a notch. I don't want to break them, but I cant move them at all. The one next to the knurled bolt - I can't get a flat screwdriver between the switch and the black margin. It pushes very hard against it. The other switch I can move down a bit but it jumps back as soon as I remove the screwdriver. Are these switches intended to be flipped when there is no filament in the extruder?" Those two white switches only move by turning the screw that is located inside the top of the extruder case, next to where the Bowden tube goes in. "Don't use a screwdriver to push against the white tabs! When you turn the screw righty, it loosens the bearing up against the filament. When you turn the screw lefty, it tightens the bearing against the filament and the white tabs will move down following the indicated lines on the extruder case.

(Not to sound like a nag or know it all), but you guys should really try a spool roll with bearings! My tension/friction problems with the extruder are not an issue anymore.

Nicolinux Did you clean out the nozzle really good, or did you just stick a wire through it? I use a straightened paper clip and twirl it around and almost always a burnt clump comes out that is stuck to the inside of the nozzle. I also have a much faster/better way to clean out minor clogs now that only takes about 10 minutes. Take off the red clip to the bowden tube, push down on gray fitting holding the bowden tube in place, then lift bowden tube a couple inches out of teflon fitting. Then loosen all 4 long screws holding the hot-end together. only take the back 2 all the way out, then lift the front 2 enough to drop the aluminum with hot-end attached, like in pick. The 2 screws left will hold the carriage in place while you work on it, no tape or supports needed. You can heat up hot-end (180 was sufficient) while holding one of the side fans so you can use the other hand to clean out nozzle. By doing this you can skip taking the side fans apart and releasing the tension between the teflon fitting to the milled fitting. (This only works if you clog is below the teflon fitting)

Finally got around to taking a pic of all the printed parts in one shot. There are a few parts I haven't done yet, like LCD panel knobs and fan brackets. Those are easy prints and less time consuming. I ended up just printing in blue to finish up because the orange has given me nothing but headaches. I tried the orange last night and got an instant clog. Anyhow, here's the latest pics while I wait for my rods, bearings, and electronics.

Nicolinux, I have taken apart the extruder about 5 times and I can tell you that it would definitely be worth checking it to see if there is play. I thought that might be an issue about 1 week ago on my machine, so I took my set of allen wrenches and removed the extruder and motor. After marking the exact position of the gear which moves the filament, I then unscrewed the set screw and removed the gear. (This is much easier than taking apart the hot-end, but it's very difficult to get everything back together because you need a third hand). You have to take off the metal cover inside that covers the motor, I think there was just (1) screw. Then take out the (4) screws on the side of the extruder, but be careful because the motor can fall off from the inside. All of the parts in the extruder are extremely easy to take out and put back together, just try not to mess with the adjustment screw, which has a nut on it. Once the motor is free from the case, you can take the allen key which came with the printer and remove the gear. When you put it back on, make sure it is extremely tight. When the bowden tube goes back on, it has to be seated tight against the inside ridge of the extruder, You have to hold the motor in place, extruder cover on, bowden tube tight against ridge, and put screws in, all at the same time. It's possible, but difficult. If you need help, I have a teamspeak server and we can link up and chat about it.

Just ordered the rods, springs, and all the bearings. Just need the electronics.

gr5.....I'm waiting eagerly for these tests you speak of!

I have been smooth sailing for the past couple of days, trying to finish up the Tantillus 3D Printer build that I'm currently working on. So far, so good on my end, but that is still to be determined. I am probably going to go back and try my Nemesis tonight(Orange). That's odd that the code designed specifically for the UM isn't working as intended. Are you sure you didn't accidentally purge a minor clog from the hot-end?

Xeno Awesome VOC ship! That has some crazy detailing. How long did that particular one take you?

I've had similar results when the nozzle was leveled too close to the buildplate. It slowly creeps up with the build.

I've been wondering why everyone keeps their build plate heated to such high temperatures? I set mine to 55 degrees celcuis and it sticks perfect. If I set it any higher than 55 degrees celcius, then I get warping at the bottom. Not really warping, but it melts to the plate causing minor deformities. Maybe it's the temperature difference between where we live?

Maybe I worded it wrong. You just load a photo into Cura the same way you load an STL file. You can adjust the x,y,z size and if you want it to be engraved or embossed.

Here's an update, since I have been getting some quality prints lately. I still need to take better pics, but I have about 12 more parts to print until I can start putting everything together. The hardware cost me $22. You can order all of it from here:http://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/ All of the nuts, bolts, washers are stainless steel. Any quantity, no tax, free shipping to me. I still have to find a good place to order the rods and electronics. I'm projecting the total cost of this project might be around $400.00 or less.(not including my time spent) Anyways, here are some pics:

No issues here, just wanted to express how excited I am to find out (after reading the Cura manual for the first time), that you can upload photos to print. I've been looking for a way to do a portrait print of my son, without having to buy a scanner or spending alot of money on a gadget. Kudos for Cura!

Just take pics before and mark everything. I've had the hot-end apart about 6-7 times now. The smallest adjustment means the world.

I'm trying to run through everything I experienced over the past month to help you. Are your under extrusion lines always in the same general location on the Z axis or are they at random? Also, from the video you showed above, your nozzle looks like its sitting much higher than mine in reference to the fan bracket at the bottom. What is the gap between the teflon fitting and the milled fitting? The gap looks like it could be 2mm or more from the pic.