swordriff

Couldn't find copper right now... when we have guests for dinner they ask to have them! Haha!

I have printed a lot with bronze- and copper fill.. (btw, in my subjective opinion bronze is easier to print!).. I use it for prototyping a new guitar pedal enclosure, and the knobs also..fantastic material, investors dont even think it isn't real bronze! The material does not enlarge the hole noticeably, but it rubs its nose and "flattens" the nozzle, giving it wider shoulders and eventually increased plate-distance (frequently a good thing if you can make the material stick.. it all "evens" out after a couple of layers.. I use quite high plate temp initially in the hope it sticks better (60-ish), then quickly lower to 50--). My reco is a 0.2 Z-hop, to help a bit, but it still rubs.. I am eagerly awaiting the Brass material!

try lowering the printing temperature

Teflon tip; Unteres Loch ein BISSCHEN erwieitern, könnte es retten... 080 sehr gut fürs Holz. Der "Guss" zeigt sich nicht.. geht alles in Einem! woodfill.. ; Retraction OFF (muss immer fliessen!!), 210C, 75-100mm/sec effektiv, 0.15 od 0.2 Höhe.. 130% material. 0.80mm Düse... Wirklich! Mit bamboo u holz muss es immer fliessen.. Zum Guete!

Anders's latest arithmetic is beoynd my understanding! I'm on my way to may math-books.. Ok.. I get a lot if PM's- nice! The stuff should ship this week. You all get individual PM's.

UM2 hat nozzle und block ein einem Stück. Nozzle kann nicht ausgewechselt werden. Atomic Method versuchen, gibts im Forum. Es gibt auch eine Custom Heater Block, mit auswechselbarem Mundstück.

Is gibt schon eine Custom Heater Block, die vom schwedischen Ingenieur Anders Olsson hergestellt ist, im Handel. Die kostet 59€, und braucht auswecheselbare Nozzles von zb, UMO, oder E3D. Kann bei mir bestellt werden. Gibt im Forum eine thread.. Custom Heater Block..

Good point! a new block will not help underextrusion unless the old one is blocked, and depending on the reason why the old one is blocked, the new one will block also. An endlessly long meltzone length will totally stop retraction, depening on temp. A too short meltzone will hinder extrusion, depending on temp and speed. Something inbetween will work depending on material, printing speed, temperature and retraction policy.

I guess Atomic is sometimes necessary at 260. I try to avoid that! Take care!

Ciao! At what temp do you do Atomic Pulls? I try to stay below 235. The Teflon decomposes quickly over 230. It is really strange, how for some the Teflon piece lasts "for ever", and for others not. Maybe, just maybe there is a connection with how far down the steinless steel coupler ( the one with the radial holes in it, holding the teflon piece) is screwed down onto the brass, changing the pressure point between the Teflon and the hot end top end. Your Teflon looks like it has been hot under pressure. Another tip: The oldies here do not overtighten the 4 print-head-assembly screws, the long vertical ones. just tighten using fingers not too hard. Make sure the sliders still fit correctly. Play with it. I would still try to use the teflon piece, using a "reaper" to clean the edge of the hole. Cut as little as you can. IF YOU touch the stainless steel coupler (with the radial holes), remember to do a bed alignment so you will not suffer a head crash, better not.

I am being PM´d by people asking if the Block can fix underextrusion, and I think maybe some folks believe this and do not ask. Good question! YES! The Block will solve underextrution problems IF YOUR EXISTING block/nozzle was the ONLY issue in your printer (clogged, improperly inserted sensors, improperly mounted block). Underextrusion is a large subject covered elsewhere here, but I repeat some keywords, in arbitrary order: Temp sensor, sensor connection, heater connection, PCB connection, heater, high printing temperature, low printing temperature, swapping material, extruder jamming, bad filament, nozzle cleaning, printing speed, cura nozzle settings, cura settings. If I had to chose one single subject: atomic method, check it first. The Block has started shipping. We are waiting for some high quality nozzles to arrive before the biggest batch can ship. Thank you for your patience.

Puh.... I need sleep. This is beginning to confuse me. How making your own block can take down printing temperature from the 250is to the 210s, I mean that FANTASTIC. Devolian even, to borrow a phrase...I´ll call Stockholm in the morning! it´s, it´s, ... eh.. ehemm.. cool! Yes, very COOL! Good night!

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:132498 This is a trial print using E3D 0.30mm nozzle on an UM2 (worlds overall best 3d printer). PLA , 215, 40mm/s, layer 0,2 (!!). Fill 100%. PLA: Ultimaker original GOLD 2.85mm. Support everywhere, Lines, 0 degrees, Fill amount 10, Distances 0.8 and 0.2. 2 min support removal. Some of the stuff is smaller than the nozzle, which is why it looks like the Dragon suffers from Lepra. The detail dots right below the edge of the table are crummy, I think because I used a too far Z (and also X) distance for my minimal support material. LIke it is now, it tried to print this "dots" upside - down. Will try a safer configuration, and a smaller layer height!

Gixxer! We are so happy about your enthusiasm about this thing! To try to answer your (good) question: I think it will never be an upgrade. Ultimaker focus on bringing out 3D printers "pushing one ore more edges", they cannot sanction a product which will add to support. Their minds are now on the next thing more than on the "old" thing. It has to be like this. Look at it this way; the the new models are "natural" evolutions of their existing product. By changing little, (mostly panels and so on.. not entirely true but passable), they hardly add to support pressure, while satisfying a demand in the market. The suppert takes care of itself, more than less, in these fantastic forums. There are a number of veterans here with huge experience and a ready answer to almost any not previously formultated question! Let us face it, the original heaterblock is dead-easy to use! Atomic works well, it heats quickly (even with the 20-25W standard heater), less moving parts etc. The only things Anders´s Block does, is to make UM2 available to people who -refuse to buy a printer where you cannot quickly change the nozzle, and -people who print abrasive material, which I think will be more frequent.. -people who need to quickly change between small and large nozzles. Other than that, better stick with the original!

--Gentlemen ! You are all correct. What we can focus on in addition, is that when the PTFE starts to emit fumes (the bird killing ones), it means that it starts to decompose. When it starts to decompose, it begins losing its properties. When loosing its properties it does not get any better, (if that was the case, it would already be pre-cooked when we buy the thing), no- on the contrary it starts to decompose more quickly, losing even more... etc.. As several of the oldtimers in here have pointed out, the PTFE decomposes much quicker at ca 250 than at ca 220. I am not mentioning 260+. Then, after an amount of hours at 260C it starts to soften up permanently, losing mass, etc.. Maybe shimming with teflon is a cure, if one in need of servicing!

In the comment on Youmagine, Anders says you have to make the change quick so the tool does not melt. This is more so the case when your pipe is brass (usually nickel or chrom plated and cheap), and MUCH less so if it is a steel tool. It works perfectly with a cheap brass/CR tool, but gets hot surprisingly quickly, within seconds. This is also a far angle at the discussion about the teflon spacer, which is surrounded by a steel "tube", the one with the holes in it, while resting directly on the brass metal hot end top end.. (sic..). While stainless steel (the coupler with the holes) is a poor heat conductor and in our case never a threat to the teflon spacer, the hot end on the other hand tries "to be the same temperature everywhere". I speak about the tiny surface shared by the teflon part and the hot end top end. Hoping not too off topic. Please ask me to move it..

Haha..! This is one funny thread! Wiki says: The [29] While PTFE is stable and nontoxic at lower temperatures, it begins to deteriorate after the temperature of cookware reaches about 260 °C (500 °F). "Everything is true and legal, only the timing is sometimes off.."

Delta Tower has some fine, high-end stuff! (I am not affiliated with them). Their nozzles will work very well indeed with the Block.

So.. the waiting is coming to an end. Thank you all for the patience. We are removing one of the most important deal-brakers for investing in an UM2! Many thanks to Mr Olsson for his engineering efforts over Christmas, and Godspeed to him on his way to a vacation back on his home planet. The time taken has been due to a number of small engineering and manufacturing issues, which are now ironed out. The Block will ship with a 0.40mm (exchangeable, of course) from E3D. E3D and another Swiss company manufacture fine nozzles compatible with the Block. Meanwhile we have tried some Asian nozzles, and allthough they do work, the holes are not round, surfaces too rough, size not correct, incorrect markings .. we would happily save 6 USD to ship one of those, but it is not complimentary to such a fine printer you have, and the time put into each print. (Yes, we know you sit and nurse the print, making adjustments etc.. why waste the time on non optimal parts?) Using quality parts is one way of ruling out equipment short-comings; you can then only blame yourself, and get better by learning and sharing! There will be an additional nozzle package available at nominal pricing, 0.25, 0,40, 0,80 nozzles. 0.25 is used for VERY fine little prints. The difference between a 0.25 and 0.40 nozzle is best shown with the application of the formula for circle area (A); A= PI x r2. For 0.25 the area of the opening is ca 0.049 mm2. For 0.40 the area of the opening is ca 0.1256 mm2, - 0.40 is ca 2.56 times bigger. For 0.80 the area of the opening is ca 0.50 mm - so ca 4 times more throughput with a 0.80 than using a 0.40 nozzle is possible. The last thing Mr Olsson did (for now), was to construct a printable torque wrench. What it does is to ensure that you do not overtighten the nozzle when mounting. The STL file is available for download, you only need a 7mm socket pipe with 1/4" attachment coupling (this is very standard and costs 2-4 USD). Attention: To some, it may be challenging to get the temp sensor out of the original block, the heater is usually easy to remove. One tester destroyed his temp sensor when trying to pry it from the original heater. The best method to avoid this seems to be to bite with narrow flat, ribbed pliers (spitze, flache Zange) on the end of the steel tube (not grabbing the cables only), and carfully/firmly wriggle the thing out. Be adviced that destroying the sensor may happen, requiring a new temp sensor. Chinese "replacements" as of 20th January do not work, we really would want them to! The new Block is engineered so that the temp sensor will insert more lightly and then fasten with a special screw provided. A lot of consideration has gone into this procedure, and it works beautifully and simply. You can now change nozzle whenever you want, print aggressive materials without having to change the whole heater block "every month". You can print Woodfill (totally wonderful!!) using 0.8mm nozzle, and happily squeeze away at Bronze, Brass (soon!), Copper, Glowfill using 0.4mm without replacing expensive parts. With a properly tuned UM2, you can build ABS models at astonishing speed using the 0.8mm nozzle. The kit is available for shipping in the last days of January. To conserve shipping costs, this is the arrangement: For USA and CANADA please PM gr5 on: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/user/1527-gr5/ The rest of the World (what is left of it) please PM swordriff on: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/user/26134-swordriff/ There is now yet one more reason to get an Ultimaker 2! Ooops.. it works with UMO nozzles as well, of course! Happy printing!

Printing at lower Z resolution is much more difficult than at higher. Here are some factors: Size of the object is important, if it is small then there is not sufficient cooling time before layers, again depending on your minimal layer time, and the initial buildplate height also plays a part, more at low levels/thin models. Frequently people adjust the buildplate too close. Personally I adjust by eye only, and when using a 0.4mm head i adjust from "nozzle touching glass plate" and "3 clicks down" in the inner point. Then I adjust by eye only the left and right screws, tapping the buildplate from below to see that there is a movement. If the distance is too close it is more of a problem with next layer nozzle move digging into the previous layer. If it is too big, lets say more than 0.5mm (with 0.4 nozzle) then the only issue may be 1st layer not sticking so well. But if you pass THAT obstacle, then height "adjusts itself" in the "setting" of the first coupl'a layers, and prints better. Also, like the old foxes in this forum always re-iterate; print slowly. Remember; if you keep 50mm/s in Cura ( I do and most others ), then the speed setting in UM2 at 100% gives you just that, 50mm/s. We call this speed setting in UM2 a "modifier". When you keep Cura at 50, (advised), then putting UM2 at 80% calculates like this: 50mm/s (from Cura) x 80% (from UM2) = 40mm/s speed. Quality of material is also an important factor. I have printed a lot of different material. From aliexpress, from ebay, from other sources. I find that the PLA i bought from Ultimaker is absolutely top class (I am in no way affiliated with them). There are different characteristics in solidifying speed, temperatures, thickness, foreign particles, etc.. Many problems go away when you print quality PLA at 220, height 0.2, 30-50mm/s effective speed, and use the Atomic Method between all material changes and even more frequently. : TinyDancer is confirming what many others have found, that Z axis resolution is not the most important factor.

I have the complete opposite finding! When it clicks and shoots back the filament because of too high pressure in the tube, it helps either increasing print speed and or Temperature or lowering M. Puh.... its tough! Anyway.. it prints. If you print at M100, then you get the skipping back every 5-10 secs. Lowering M changes it gradually intil the skipping stops, and the vase has no faults in the sides! Thank you for your combined help, and I will study the Diagrams very carefully, gr5. Im signing off for the weekend..

Im avoiding the skipping by turning down the M, or turning up the speed. Just tried it. There could be something wrong with my UM2, of course! Today, my feeder assembly loosened... I fail to see the logic of less speed-- less jumping back of material.. Im my UM2 it is the opposite.. "Lend Ears of You in Heaven!"--

Thanks for all the feedback. I did make some mistakes,and am editing the article. Agree to most, but everything is clear if you PRINT the thing. I do not concur on slowing down print speed to avoid the chuff jump of filament. Slowing down will (if anything) increase the jumping back of the material. I am really interested in the calculations of the speeds and other settings, and still have a lot to learn, but I feel a little like Im on a steamer upwind of the Mississippi. This just works. I did make some changes, especially wrgt the SD card usage, speed settings (amended the article). The thickness is set ententionally, so that any misalignment is really easy to see while it is printing and you can make adjustments all the time! Thanks for all the feedback guys, Ill tread more carefully next time.

This works. Bergis! If you enter the settings I provide, the Vase will print perfectly, unless the feeder is adjusted differently. As you can see from the blue vase it is nice, and the blue provided by UM is a much more "difficult" material than some other colors. (The color agent greatly influences "printability"). Now.. the base is not perfect, but the vase is, and printing very quickly at 0.2mm, an unbeatable value. Keeping Material flow at 100% makes the material jump back every 5 secs, making trouble as indicated in the yellow vase. I am printing (according to settings) with only 1mm walls (very fragile, but nice and transparent).. and these are the correct settings. By manipulating Temperature and Flow in the beginning, we are helping the fil to stick, avoiding the glue, and when its cool its dead easy to remove the item.

Updated! Dear reader, these instructions are weak in the sense that they will not print much else than this vase correctly, and certainly not the water pump from simcity2000 in thingiverse.. Wich I recommend for beginners.. Try and see! However, it is fun to see this ultra thin item print so quickly and look so good, it is much nicer irl than my photos! and it consumes very very little material too. It has been pointed out to me by much more experienced and "older" members, that many of the settings here are extreme, and close to impossible. It is therefore important to understand that these settings will not work for most other objects. While printing this vase, feel free to fiddle with TEMP, SPEED, MATERIAL FLOW, while it is printing.. and see (and hear-- read article) how this influences the print. Once it prints perfectly by maybe tweaking my settings, try another material, try increasing outer shell to 2 mm, try changing fills.. etc.. All the comments here are right, but the vase still prints. Perfectly printing the “vase”. http://www.thingiver...6/#instructions This is my second article for the beginner. The first is about levelling the build bed correctly, which you can find in this forum. (DON’T do it yet, we need you to upgrade the firmware first) : , https://ultimaker.co...es/our-software This vase is not water proof—but will give you a sense of accomplishment, and it really looks good too! You can put a led light inside.. Guarantee! – that this print will work for you on UM2, at room temperature, Gold or stock Bue PLA filament. Again, if you are already an expert, you don`t need this article, and there are no new “secrets” here. Here are detailed instructions and photo examples on how to print this vase: Step-by-step CURA -2. Upgrade to latest CURA by downloading from here, https://ultimaker.co...es/our-software and install it (if you have not already) -1. Connect UM2 to computer w/ supplied USB cable, and turn UM2 on 0. Update UM2 firmware, In Cura: Machine, Install default firmware. Detach cable. 1. Level build board. (follow instructions in UM2 Manual or more explanatory, but not better, in this forum. http://umforum.ultim...for-best-print/ 2. Download the vase, and open it in Cura. 3. Set Basic, Expert, Advanced settings in CURA according to my screenshots.. FIRST MAKE a note to your existing settings, especially in the expert section. Cura basic: Quality Layer height 0.2 Shell thickness 1 Enable retraction ON Fill Bottom/top 1.2 Fill dens 20 Speed 50 Support type None Platform adhesion Brim Advanced: Nozzle 0.4 Initial Layer 0 Cut off 0.0 Dual extr 0.2 Speed Travel speed 150 Bottom Layer speed 40 Infill 0.0 Cool Minimal Layer time 5 Enable Cooling fan ON EXPERT Retraction Minimum 0 Enable combing ON Minimal extrustion etc 0 Skirt Line Count 2 Start Dist 3 Min length 150 Cool Fan full height 2 Fan speed min 50 (generally ignored by UM2) Fan speed max 100 Min speed 10 Cool head lift OFF Infill Solid top OFF Solid bottom ON Infill overlap 15 Support Fill amount 10 Dist 0.8 Dist 0.2 Spiralize ON ( REMEMBER TO REMOVE THIS WHEN FINSHED VASE) Brim 8 Leave the rest Fix Horrible All OFF 4. Save to SD card like this: File,Save Gcode –choose destination, or: Press “save to SD” icon on screen.. Remove card after Cura replies "Saved to ..{card destination] 5. Insert SD card with this file into UM2. (Cura is done now. It has divided your vase into a large number of slices, telling the head to move from here to there, lower the bed, move at this speed, etc, with or without printing, etc.) ULTIMAKER 2: (the SD card is now inserted) 0. Clean bed glass ! (In Norway, we use water, a little “Zalo” (same as Fairy Ultra, a green dishwasher agent you can probably drink or at least mix with something,) pluss a dash “Salmiak”. This will remove nearly everything from the glass, leaving it dry. Or use the other potions recommended in these fora…). Alcohol is not a particularly good fat solvent, but may work too. 0.5 No glue or tape this time.. 1. Load Blue PLA (came with UM2) or Gold (from https://ultimaker.co...oducts/pla-gold) (these detailed instructions are not guaranteed to work with other makes/colours, more on that in another article not yet published..) 2. Select PRINT, then vase (or whatever its name, from SD card, the USB cable MUST be removed already) 3. Wait ca 2 mins for heating of bed and nozzle, follow indicator.. 4. AFTER and WHILE it makes noises to start printing (UM2 has now received instructions from CURA via SD card vase file). Select TUNE, TEMPERATURE. 230. Select Material 100%, Speed stays at 100%. 5. While it starts printing, remove long string decending from nozzle, use finger. The first couple’o turns may not stick on the glass, because the hot nozzle let the front of the filament pour out on its way to the print area, but with correct bed height it will after 2 “turns”. The high Temps are to help the very first layer… PRICELESS INFO!... haha.. Dieser Jägermeister ist sehr gut) If, at this stage, it really %/)-ed UP, then your BED is too high or too low. == ABORT, Adjust Bed and try again. http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/gallery/image/2027-blue-vase/ The photo show the BRIM, automatically added by Cura to help making the print stick. As you can see, it didnt stick too well in the beginning, because of slightly incorrect bed height.. But managed to save this one! So Even if the “start is bad” it can be nice at the end! 6. LOOK: The Brim or “star” may look almost perfectly like mine, or be a little corrupted, due to bed height fault. Wait a few turns and see.. If the Middle turns out well; nice even lines in all directions, it will still be very good. 7. After 2 layers ( 2 minutes ca) go to Tune, and make the following change: Temp 220 . This is your setting for the next small hour until finished Except: Hold a finger on the filament in the back under the feeder. If the filament quickly “jumps back” with a “choff” noise, then there is too much feed for this print. Slowly back off Material %% until the choff noise goes away at least a minute. WARNING: These settings will not work for a building or many other prints, like the experienced moderators are pointing out ! Failure to adjust M will give uneven print, like lower part of yellow vase.. 8. Watch the vase in the making! 9. When Finished, wait, Wait, WAIT 15 minutes for bed to cool down. Then even a fly can remove your vase! (PLA..) About the settings and AVOIDING THE GAPS Increadibly, printed at 0.2mm http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/gallery/image/2019-blueyellow-vase/ I will not explain everything, only that when you look at my shots, the blue is nearly perfect, and the gold (ehemm.. yellow?) has more faults, especially lower down, and I will share why, and how you can copy the mistake: The yellow vase, where there is trouble, is trying to over-feed, pushing more material from the feeder in the back than is actually printed. (thanks IrobertI) If you, while printing the vase put Material to much more than 53 (lets say 100) (this could be another figure on your UM2 depending on the settings of your filament feeder 40-70?, sorry),then you get the gaps when the filament jumps back. Try it, you can set M at 150 and it jumps all the time. Remember to put it back!! ********************** You need to learn to hear the difference between the retraction (mechanical brrrrrr noise) and the jumping back of the overfed filament (chuff-noise). ********************** Put a gentle finger on the filament where it enters the feeder. Feel what it does while printing. As long as there is a CHUFF noise and the filament jumps back, reduce Material by 5, until the skips stop. The vase will amost never retract, so it’s a poor example of just that ( retraction is pulling the filament back 45 mm very quickly when the head makes a jump, so not to get bridge or string, perversely in this particlar vase model there are almost no jumps..). Now.. as long as you every 10-20 secs or more often get the “chuff” and jumping back of the filament, YOU CAN TURN DOWN THE MATERIAL FLOW, and eventually there will be no jumps and your vase will print perfectly like my blue one! End. The following changes have been made after feedback received. I leave the text for completeness.. it has no impact on the print and is already emplemented in the text. Very important to understand, after feedback I have received, that speeds are relative. Settings in Cura are modified by multipliers in UM2. (example: Cura speed 50mm/s, UM2 Speed 50%= effective speed 25mm/s. Thanks gr5, illuminarti, iroberti and more.. Great eye-opener for me! Solved many problems I had. Actually setting the speeds directly in CURA makes sense, It will then be saved inside each gcode file and saved for next time! Thanks, illuminarti. If that's what you want,for this print, then in Cura set Print speed to 50, and bottom layer speed to 20. Then in UM2, leave the speed at 100%. In many other prints you want a lower speed. If you set it in Cura, it is saved in each individual gcode (model) file, smart. If you set it in UM2, by changing the percentage, it is much quicker.. but not so smart, it is not "remembered"... How quickly can you print the vase? 100mm/s? Try playing with speed, Temp, Material.. etc. Thanks for reading and lets know how it goes ..