philip

Hi everyone, I used to get e-mail notifications from this forum when it was on the former layout/format around 1-2 months ago. Now I don't receive anymore. I tried to change setting in my profile to get notifications when a new thread has been started, but it doesn't seem to work. Is it still possible to receive e-mail notifications? If it is how can I get them? Thanks!

On 3DHubs you can list your 3Dprinter and joining the competition. I did at the beginning in 2013, however, even if I get orders, at least a 50% of them I have to decline since people send stuff that is not printable on an Ultimaker. Also the customer service that you have to provide is quite time-consuming (accepting the order,checking STLs, explaining quality and materials,print settings, shipping or wait someone to collect, dealing with bad reviews when they don't know the difference between traditional process and consumer 3Dprinting...etc). If you have a full-time job and you don't have the 3Dprinter in your office I would say that it is not going to work, but I might be wrong. It is still "early days" on consumer market and there might be a day when Consumer brands will ask to 3D print locally to hubs. When you will have the file and the settings ready, customer service will be the only thing you will have to care about. About the object that you asked to print, usually what should concern most is the print time than the material cost.

Hi Peggy, thanks for your answer. Unfortunately, I broke the connector in the attempt to use it with the wires of the new fan. Thanks anyway!

I have to replace the head cooling fan since there might be dust inside and is not reaching maximum speed (if I make it run at middle speed I have to start manually). I am in a bit of a rush (quite desperate though) and I can't wait the shipping time from Ultimaker. I live in UK and I bought this one from Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/50-mm-dc-cooling-fan-ry86t The problem is that the wires are not connected to the right connector . At Maplin they don't have it. I went to http://uk.rs-online.com/web/ and they weren't so keen to help me since they said that there are thousands of them and I need to know the specifics. In the pictures, I need the specific of the connector inside the red circle. Otherwise, if you know any shops in UK that has the matching fan, it is even better. Really thanks in advance to anyone keen to help.

Many Thanks for your answer Macua!

I got a second UM original and when I opened the Electronics Box I discovered that a heatsink on the mother board was detached. I mounted anyway and when I finished to build the 3D printer, I switched on and is working. My question is the absence of the heatsink is going to cause problem?I plan to use the 3D printer for long prints. Is there a way to stick this heatsink together or is better to ask for a replacement directly? Many thanks!

An update: two replacement e-clips were causing under extrusion. The thickness of these two together was more than the original Delrin Clip. I removed one and now there is no under extrusion. However is it normal that the wooden gear is not perfectly aligned with the motor gear? I also notice that after a while it went back aligned. Anyway, I will print a copy...thanks IRobertl for sharing!(I just have to figure out how to convert a STEP file in an STL... :???: )

Thanks for your super fast answer! I am doing a print test, hopefully is gonna work!

Hi all, I broke the extruder Delrin Clip of my UM original. I had a look on the web and a guy has replaced with an e-clip. I bought myseld few of them and I applied two. I am asking if they are going to be good or they can cause malfunctions or breaking the 3D printer. What do you think or did you have had the same experience? There should be the stl available on Youmagine, but it seems the website is down, I can't access it. The Delrin Clip received with the 3D printer has a different and I am wondering if this shape is necessary for keeping the wooden gear in place. I have to leave the machine working this night and I do not want to break. Many thanks for any kind of answer!

Anyway thanks a lot for your support Gr5, I submitted a ticket last 18 june to Ultimaker support, I updated the situation, but I am still waiting an answer from them.

Hi Gr5, I did experiment with the power off, moving the head by hand and I need to force this movement,it's not happening easiky. I saw in videos that people can move the blocks with fingers without any pressure but it has never been my case. After I built the printer, I had been in contact with Official Customer Support of Ultimaker and they told me that since the printer was working fine anyway, it wasn't so a big deal. Indeed it has worked fine since that episode with that big model,even without smooth movement of the header and with the short belt touching the wood panel. After the episode, I dismounted pulleys,rods, X motor, I made all the changes suggested me but there are still problems: -I didn't experience missed steps or sudden shift, but I printed just that small object in the picture -however it doesn't print rounded objects correctly - the short belt doesn't touch the wood panel anymore - the belts, both short and long, do not twist - the pulleys are aligned and tighted to the rods - the movement of the header is still not smooth but I need to force it My concern is that there is something damaged or broken, I don't know a bent axis?

Ok, we are getting better. In this picture the object at the top is the last one I printed, the one at the bottom is the correct one that I printed two months ago before the arising problem. It's still not rounded but it's better than the black ones and others that I printed in the meanwhile. - I added the washers to the screws of the X motor and now the short belt is not twisting and is not touching the wall - I moved also the pulleys on the rod connected to the x motor and I think the long belts are not twisting too - my long belts are also loose and the sound that I can hear is similar to the one in Erik's video - the sudden shift that has happened with the big model was probably caused by gcode weirdness as you said and as was my concern that that model was not correctly designed - your point 3, gr5: here we are. I am not able to move very easily the header with one finger in each block. The thing is that I have never been able to do it, even when I was printing properly well. However the movement on the X axis is less smoother than when I push the block on the Y axis. Probably the problem is here, but I am sure the pulleys are aligned. My concern is that the wood panels of the headers are not perpendicular each others and I need to dismount the extruder. Do you think it is the case? Thanks a lot for your help!

Guys thanks for your answers! I am from UK. I am going to check and make the adjustment you suggested me. I can already tell you that when I mounted my UM Original I replaced the black screws in the pulleys with the silvery/shiney and I had tighten those as much as possible. I also made markers on the rods for checking if they were moving during the printing but it was not happening. I am going to change the alignment of the pulleys, I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks!

Hi everyone, I printed very well for few months but now I got a technical problem and I am at a dead end on try to solve it. Probably the problem has been triggered when I tried to printed a big architectural model, almost the size of the building volume, I left the machine working alone and it went out of control at one point printing in the air for 2 hours. I didn't design that object and unfortunately I wasn't able to check properly the file, it was water tight but probably not the best file to be 3D printed. First of all, have a look at the pictures of these samples that showcase very well the issue. The blue one is the one that I printed before when the printer was working properly. the black ones are the latest that went wring. In the last picture you see the black one that is not circular. From my knowledge, this can happen when the short belt of one of the motor (in this case the one that is moving the X axis) is not tight enough. It has happened before so I tightened more, however what has happened is on the second picture:the object is circular but at one point during the print the extruder slipped and started to print in another position causing the dislocation of the last part of the printing(this has happened also during the printing of the big architectural model). As far as I know this can happen when there is too much friction on the axes. This is actually happening: when I am trying to move by hand the X axis it is not smooth at least as the Y axis. I moved the pulleys and tried different positions but it seems nothing is going better. The short belt of the X motor was touching the wood wall but I moved the pulleys and now is the belt is tight and doesn't touch the wood panel, however the problem persists. I checked all the pulleys and they are strongly tight to the rods. I made some videos, if you want to have a look for looking at the behaviour of the machine here the links: I had already done this checks and fixing: -the short belts of the motors do not touch the wood panels -all the pulleys are tighted to the rods and they are not slipping during the printing -the pulleys are aligned to each other -the belts are tighted Let me know if you spot anything wrong and if you need more pictures or infos. Thanks to everyone will take the time for helping me.

Hi everyone and thanks again for your answer. gr5 I can confirm that only the x axis that is slipping. I am not English, so apologies if I am saying a silly thing, but I would use "jumping" rather than slipping because when it happens I hear a sharp sound, like a knock on the wood. I don't have an Ulticontroller, for the same reason I am still using Cura 13.12 but I bought the printer on October and I update to the last firmware. To sum up, from what you said, it is definitely an hardware issue and not a software issue or the design that I was trying to print. It was an STL file that was watertight but I didn't design by myself and the person that has done it hasn't done for 3D printing and it is not used to this printer. Maybe, try to printing something different from usual has triggered behaviours of the printer that I didn't experiment because I print "easier" stuff. You said friction and you gave me a clue and probably you are going to blame me :oops: for have not mentioned before that it usually occurs a failure to the z axis: when I bring long down the bed and then it needs to go up, sometimes It is audible that the motor is working but the rod doesn't move. Further, I have done a stupid thing because I didn't have oil sewing machine, I put the green lube on the x and y axis. There is a lot of friction in moving those two by hand, but the motors doesn't have any problems to do it. About the pulleys I signed and check all 10 (the 8 on long belts and the 2 on short belts for the motors). I can tell you that at 99% they are strongly tight, i leave the 1% because I am not an engineer. Instead is it possible that now there is too much tensions on the little belts? Thanks!

Thanks again for your wisdom! Yes, looking at layer view mode in Cura at that layer seems two blue lines almost cross each other. The file is water tight but I think there are irregular meshes. Btw Repetier Host doesn't recognize the printer or it's me that I am looking at the wrong settings. The head probably caught a curled bit of print, if I am looking at the three wrong attempts in the picture there are some of them. What makes me wondering what happened in particular is in the part at the bottom of the picture:there are four paths in wrong positions and they seems to go further wrong in progressive way. I am printing again with different settings and, indeed, didn't mess up at that point but it has done after.

Illuminarti thanks again for your quick answer! I have done those checks and operations other times and I have done it yesterday after Daid suggested. I did it again but no one pulley is moving and everything is tight. I am almost sure everything is good, but i need to say that before it starting to go wrong it makes a tough sound like a "knock on wood". Check this picture: is it a coincidence that the printing went wrong three times exactly at the same layer? it can be anything about firmware, gcode or software related? I was printing very good stuff, now even the ultimaker robot has gone these shifted layers....

Hi everyone and thanks for your help! I don't know if this problem is connected to the one above, but it is the first time that I have. I was printing a file for a client and at one point went completely wrong, it seems the extruder start to print on different coordinates moved far from the supposed to be and keep progressing away. I don't know it it's something wrong in the gcode or in the STL sent me by the client.

Hey Guys, thanks a lot for your answers, this was fast and sorry I didn't check till this morning. Apologies that my youmagine page was private, now it is visible same link https://www.youmagine.com/designs/letters-test James thanks a lot for all the instructions. You was right the top/bottom layer and the infill at 20 % was messing up the printing. The Height of the object is just 1 mm, so yes it was ridiculous printing at 20% infill. I decrease the temperature to 210 and yes it has helped. Also I notice on the samples that I printed before under extrusion. I wasn't sure it it was coming from the settings or a problem with a feeder. At the end, I change the diameter of the filament to 2.8 and I sort it out that problem (the filament is the one that came with the printer, an Ultimate Blue PLA 2.85 mm, they told me is not the best but I didn't think the diameter wasn't correct). Also is better to print at 20 mm/s than 10 mm/s: I didn't expect that, my idea was less faster more precision, instead if it goes slower there is again under extrusion. I changed the Print speed and the Bottom Layer speed to 20 mm/s. James you said to change all the speed settings to this value, do I need to change also Retraction Speed and Travel Speed? It seems that the Retraction speed is the one that is causing problems. The zone around the "H" is still the worst one;the infill does't attach to the left perimeter and in the middle od the letter there is gap and over extrusion inside the perimeter. I found that is very important having the bed calibration perfect and also checking the machine when is starting(if the filament is coming out smoothly or not). gr5 thanks for taking the time for sharing your method, I am not sure is going to work for this tiny object (it is a test) I think it's better to try in one material. My fault that I didn't upload right the STL file. Here the settings that I used this time: Quality Layer Height (mm): 0.10 Shell Thickness(mm): 0.4 Enable Retraction: V ticked Fill Bottom / Top Thickness: 1 Fill Density: 100% Speed and Temperature Print Speed (mm/s): 20 Printing Temperature: 210 Filament Dimaeter: 2.8 Flow %: 100 Machine Nozzle Size (mm):0.4 Retraction Speed (mm/s): 40 Distance (mm): 4.5 Quality Initial Layer Thickness (mm): 0.3 Cut Off Objects Bottom (mm): 0.0 Speed Travel Speed (mm/s): 150.0 Bottom layer speed (mm/s): 20 Infill Speed (mm/s): 0.0 Outer Shell Speed (mm/s): 0.0 Inner Shell Speed (mm/s): 0.0 Cool Minimal Layer Time (sec): 5 Enable Cooling Fan : V Ticked Retraction Minimum Travel (mm): 1.5 Enable combing: V Ticked Minimal Extrusion Before Retracting (mm): 0.02 Skirt Line Count: 2 Start Distance (mm): 3.0 Minimal Length (mm): 150.0 Infill Solid infill top: V Ticked Solid infill bottom: V Ticked Infill overlap (%): 15 Fix Horrible Combine Everything (Type-A): Not Ticked Combine Everything (Type- B ): Not Ticked Keep Open Faces: Not Ticked Extensive Stitching: Not Ticked Thanks a lot!!!

Hello everyone, I am trying to print small objects with letters inside. I looked through the forum and also on the google group for Ultimaker. I found some threads about thin walls and shell thickness but I didn't come up with a solution. I have an Ultimaker Original without any upgrade and I am using Cura. I am not an engineer, I am trying to learn code and hardware but I hope you understand that is not so easy. I upload a test to Youmagine. This is the link: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/letters-test In a thread I found that with Cura printing objects of this dimension it can be really difficult because the software doesn't give the instruction to fulfill the gaps between the shells and the shells and the infill results to be not connected. Someone suggested to use Slic3r, I arranged the gcode with this but then it is not possible to upload the file in Cura. (I also installed Repetier-Host but I don't want to change firmware or whatever it is needed as far as I have always used Cura with other objects and I have obtained great results). I printed some samples and the "best" result that I have had until now is the the one on the right in picture. These are the setting that I used: Quality Layer Height (mm): 0.10 Shell Thickness(mm): 0.4 Enable Retraction: V ticked Fill Bottom / Top Thickness: 0.4 Fill Density: 20% Speed and Temperature Print Speed (mm/s): 10 Printing Temperature: 220 Filament Dimaeter: 2.85 Flow %: 100 Machine Nozzle Size (mm):0.4 Retraction Speed (mm/s): 40 Distance (mm): 4.5 Quality Initial Layer Thickness (mm): 0.2 Cut Off Objects Bottom (mm): 0.0 Speed Travel Speed (mm/s): 100.0 Bottom layer speed (mm/s): 5 Infill Speed (mm/s): 5.0 Outer Shell Speed (mm/s): 0.0 Inner Shell Speed (mm/s): 5.0 Cool Minimal Layer Time (sec): 5 Enable Cooling Fan : V Ticked Retraction Minimum Travel (mm): 1.0 Enable combing: V Ticked Minimal Extrusion Before Retracting (mm): 0.02 Skirt Line Count: 2 Start Distance (mm): 3.0 Minimal Length (mm): 150.0 Infill Solid infill top: V Ticked Solid infill bottom: V Ticked Infill overlap (%): 15 Fix Horrible Combine Everything (Type-A): Not Ticked Combine Everything (Type- B): Not Ticked Keep Open Faces: Not Ticked Extensive Stitching: Not Ticked Maybe with better settings is possible to achieve something better. If anyone can help I'll really appreciate it. Thanks! gr5 edit: Moved the image link up higher in the post and made it link direct to photo