blackomega

See >>>>>> below

:-P So I'm not the only monkey to be trained by an inanimate object then! Safety in numbers!

That is a good idea although requires a bit of effort. I'm still learning this stuff and noticed it often requires a bit of lateral thinking to get the optimal layout. I been considering splitting the troublesome models long ways so each half is flat against the build plate and then glueing whilst done.

The white square is at the top already. It has been suggested that the grinding may be a secondary symptom of the back fan not working on my unit.

Thanks for the tip. I'm glad I asked and I will be having a look at that asap.

I've never needed any glue stick when printing directly to the glass and the build sheet is at the standard 75C. The models come away cleanly I find if you use something with a very thing edge like a pallet knife. Even better if you file the edge to be really sharp.

I first used the glue stick for prints but then decided to stop and use nothing. I have not noticed any adhesion problems when printing PLA but then again maybe I've just not being doing sufficiently large prints.

I'm new to 3D printing and new to this forum so apologies for my ignorance that may come across. My Ultimaker2 arrived a couple of days ago and after reading several posts of a negative nature I was a little apprehensive but I thought I'd share my initial discoveries. 1. I was pleased to see that the glass build plate is now packaged in a way that means it cannot be damaged or cause damage easily. I found it was securely bubble wrapped and packed on top of the unit itself. So a welcome improvement based on peoples comments. 2. The LED lighting strips are not secured very well. I have noticed that if the unit is on for a while then they come away from the insides of the unit and, in the case of the top strip, actually interferes with the front-top pulley. I keep having to press them back into place. I'd suggest using a glue that is not affected as much by heat. 3. The levelling of the build plate is a bit vague I found especially when it gets to the paper adjustment step when it says to adjust until your feel a little resistance. How much is a little? I chose to put it directly at the point where a single notch in the wheel (or slight turn of the screws at the front) is the difference between no resistance and something detectable. Don't know if this correct. Could some sort of automatic levelling using a laser not be possible? 4. The manual albeit ok, could do with some proof reading as there are a few spelling mistakes and at one point an incorrect reference. There could also be more pictures especially when there are references made to screws (i'm thinking largely in the troubleshooting section). 5. As reported by others, the filament spool uncurls and wraps around the spool holder need the back of the unit. I plan to design and print out a sort of extended spool lip that should hopefully keep the filament on the spool itself. 6. Feeding the filament is a bit of a pig. I've found it often jams so the knurled feeder just grinds into the filament and your print job is destroyed. This is using the PLA filament roll that comes with the machine. 7. I have noticed that prior to printing (during the warming up phase) my print head oozes a lot. The result of which is that the beginning of my printouts are always untidy unless I sit there and pull the oozing out just prior to the machine starting its job. 8. The print time estimates are wildly inaccurate. A 30 minute job as predicted by Cura and by the unit can be nearly out by factor 2 in some cases. Unfortunately I've not noticed a consistent pattern. I can't comment on the length or material usage predictions. 9. What is the purpose of the rear fan on the print head as I've never seen it move. The two sides ones switch on as expected though. Is this a fault? 10. USB connection to a Mac doesn't appear to work. Cura detects it but I've never managed to get a print job to actually work that way. The unit just sits there doing nothing after you select "Print" etc from the menu. Having to swap SD cards back and forward is a bit low tech. The unit should really have an ethernet port or even WiFi capabilities or at the very very least get the USB connectivity working. 11. A 3 month warranty? You are kidding me right? From a marketing perspective this a bad thing as it tells people you don't rate your machine lasting more than 90 days which is shocking on a 1600 GBP price tag. I'm hoping it lasts a hell of a lot longer than that. 12. The Cura software on the Mac is a bit weird often when using the track pad. I noticed that you can get it to rotate the view if you press two fingers down but more often than not this just moves the whole view around the screen with the same perspective. i.e. the model or indeed the representation is not rotated at all. 13. It would be nice if you could control the amount of material used in supporting structures as I find that such structures uses massive amount of material that is then very difficult to separate from the actual model. I think for most cases a very simple box structure would be just as effective but use very little material and be much easier to take away afterwards. 14. If the feeder jams or the filament stops feeding for whatever reason then it would good if the print head detected this and simply paused the print (and moved the head out of the way). This would enable jams (and refills if the filament simply runs out) to be corrected without wasting a 10 hour print. 15. It would be good if the Cura settings when on "quick print" where transferred to the "full settings" mode. Most often I'm happy with the quick print but just want to only modify the speed or a few properties leaving everything else the same. Also it would be useful if the "ultra high quality" settings were available via quick print. 16. I think the build quality of the unit itself in pretty good barring the issues above. The quality of the print outs are generally excellent when everything is going well.