aaronalai

@Martin Bienz, Awesome Print! I love the function stuff, I love the butterfly redesign; I also try to strive for 100% printed parts. @mariem, congratulations on your print, it looks quite nice. Even some of the features on your previous prints looked really good, like the ear. Second on the Loctite glue, that stuff works really well for me also.

Another winner braddock! I'm starting to think you have zoo full of alien creatures you use as inspiration.

Cool idea Nateokane; I can totally see using this to hold things in place. I really like the design/print/assemble video; I think a lot of people who are just starting to look at 3D printing are confused about how an idea goes from thought to actual object and this is a pretty good explanation.

Thanks Didier; lol I like your latest print! Sounds like your GF needs to get sent to the mental asylum, those glasses add at least 10 sexy points to those who wear them.

Hey guys, I designed a couple of useful items and printed them out this past weekend; It fits my phone while it's in a case and I can flip it up to see the display screen behind if needed. I was surprised to find it fit so perfectly in the center dash. It's made of ABS plastic to prevent melting in the car, now I definitely need to get green ABS Also, I used the line support material in Cura and got almost perfect removal of the support material needed to print the lips in the bezel of the phone holder. I've heard ABS layers are more difficult to stick together, so perhaps the tangential contact the support material has works even better in ABS. The tool rack has holes for another couple of modules I haven't designed yet; I primarily use the xacto knives but the other tools come in handy sometimes.

Braddock, I had a hard time telling whether or not that was a real or rendered image; love your work in all of its forms. Seriously great stuff. Also, LeoDDC; that's what Zbrush looks like!? Geez people kept telling me SolidWorks was complicated, that looks way more difficult to grasp. One more also, the musculature on your rendering looks great, as does the face! I would be able to identify him as the Hulk without the green skin.

An event where one must bring their Ultimaker? What wonders the people of The Netherlands have :mrgreen:.

Lol, I would definitely go to an Ultimaker Convention to see that!

Too bad you missed Roberts Bday, you would have looked rather good in that pole dancing outfit :mrgreen:.

I came across a real-time UM2 print: https://www.dropcam.com/p/cXI25M There is just something about watching those things print, it's mesmerizing.

Yeah, my response is a little vague; I meant once the print started, within the tune menu. Also, a couple of other things; within the last two official Cura releases I've set the fans to kick on from 0.2 - 0.5 mm without any issue; and if you physically watch the fans you will see them kick on much higher than 20% to overcome the blade inertia and then they will quickly settle back to the 20% speed value.

Did you go to the fan speed menu at the beginning of your print and leave it there? It won't change while you are watching it.

I've PMed you a link. I don't think they are perfectly the same and that it might contribute to having re-leveling after I remove the glass. The two sides are printable surfaces though.

Ahhlolol, I can't believe I've listened to this song so many times already didn't know it was pretty much a biazzaro Ultimaker commercial.

There are a couple of ways I remove pieces (all after cooling, which is definitely what you are doing) Grab and twist: just grab or pinch the object and twist it without pulling up or down on the print; I would try this one first. I've printed the same file and removed it this way. Feel like you are twisting too hard? see below: Razor blade: I've used the exact same razor blade from day one with my printer and it's been several months. If you grab the blade with your hand (not responsible for anything :mrgreen:) and slide it across the the surface of the build plate you can get a little momentum as to jam the razor under the print, after that you can circle the print with the razor underneath. Safer Razor Method: Remove the build plate and do all the steps above. Sometimes things are even too stuck to leave the build plate inside the machine, and I have to take the plate off as to apply more leverage to the glass plate without pushing too hard onto the build plate.

If you re-level your bed while the nozzle and build plate are hot the bed seems to say level a good deal of time; a tip from gr5 I believe. If I remove the build plate I have to re-level about two times, then it's good until I take the build plate off again. I removed the sticker and sometimes I think I put the other side up, and things so stuck I'm afraid I'm pushing down on the build plate too much; yes even when it cools down. I reapply glue frequently and have prints with large flat bottoms. I have a bed leveler file I print, it's just a frame that goes around the bed with 6 skirt lines; it should give you plenty of time to level the bed while hot. I'll PM you a link to the file if you like. I also notice that it helps get the last bit of gunk out of the nozzle after ABS print changes I think it has something to do with extra pressure in the nozzle?

Ian! that feeder looks really interesting any more news on it? I would really like to see a video as well.

Blarp, I wrote this whole thing before I realized you had other pictures in that link; so I'm starting over again. It's a bit difficult to tell from the image, but are the back of the spoon and the handle of spoon on the same plane, and is the back of the spoon flat? If so, you may be able to print the spoon rotated so it's flat with zero support. I would think that you could print that spoon upright; and that vertical may be the best orientation. Increase the density of the support material, and if that doesn't work also change the overhang angle to a lower value this will make the support material both bigger and denser allowing it to stack better. It's difficult to see in the Cura support example why the print failed, so I'm not too sure these suggestions are accurate.

I met some of the Ultimaker crew at the Maker Faire and changed my vote, I would totally fly out there!

Hey MCeep, sucks to hear about the melted fan, but I'm glad you got most of the plastic out. If you open a support ticket or just PM Sander I'm sure they will send you a replacement fan. Sander is really responsive and can make all types of magic happen; he is on travel for the Maker Faire so it might take a little extra time to respond.

Hey guys thanks for the support!! The next day I woke up and felt much better, and found myself not dwelling on the previous days events. I spent the day walking around in beautiful weather and eating delicious food and ended with drinks at a comedy club. All in all it was a pretty great day! I feel that my next presentation will go much more smoothly. @Ian, yeah if there is any way you could record your presentation I would love to see it! Even if it's in German and I can't quite understand everything .

Oh no, I've had this very thing happen to me with red filament! It double sucks because the print fails and the head gets filled with plastic. When it happened to me it was because the bed wasn't leveled right and the piece lifted from the bed. I didn't take any photos when it happened, I was too much in panic mode and my paternal instincts kicked in and couldn't be bothered taking any photos :mrgreen:. I don't know if you are still dealing with the issue but I'm going to describe the steps I took to fix it the best I can recall. I did it a bit differently than @stuartwood did. The first thing I did was remove the filament from the head; I knew I was going to have to engage the heater block a lot and wanted to reduce my chances of cooking filament inside the hot end. I performed the change material option and didn't put any filament back into the machine. I removed the fans and taped them up out of the way to the printer head, then tried to remove the shroud via the 2 bolts on both sides of the printer head, but this piece didn't come off right away. With the bolts removed I manually turned on the heater block higher than I normally do for PLA to heat up as much of the surrounding plastic as I could. My red was printed at 210 and I recall cranking it up to 240. Let the head sit at 240 for a while and the shroud should be easy to pull off, you'll notice you'll also be able to wiggle the blob of plastic. This is where you are going to need some small pliers, forceps, or strong tweezers; I used a surgical https://www.google.com/search?q=forceps&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS503US503&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=qPhzU-7rKcfgoATklIKgBg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1746&bih=900#q=kelly+clamp&tbm=isch from my electronics toolbox. Once most of the plastic was good and melted I used the clamps to grab a hold the main blob and SLOWLY pulled it away from the heater block, keep in mind that the shroud is the only thing removed at this point. Originally when I did this I took too much of the head apart and ended up putting it back together before I had finished cleaning the shroud compartment. With the majority of the plastic removed you will still have a layer of plastic goo on the heater block and likely still have solid plastic on the cables going to the heater block and thermal probe. After I removed the main blob with my kelly clamps I brought the temp of the heater block back down to 210. I used a https://www.google.com/search?q=forceps&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS503US503&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=qPhzU-7rKcfgoATklIKgBg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1746&bih=900#q=hot+air+reflow+station&tbm=ischto direct hot air onto the plastic stuck on the wires until that too was removable with my kelly clamps. If you don't have a hot air reflow station, you may want to try and carefully use the smallest flame you can make on a lighter and intermittently hold it under the blobs encasing the wires while checking the softness of those blobs until they can be pulled away, again do the pulling very slowly so you don't accidentally pull something loose. The wire insulation didn't stick to the plastic and once I pulled off those blobs the wires were pretty much clean, well the insulation part of the wires that is. Everything up to this point shouldn't take very long, perhaps 15 minutes. What takes a long time is wiping every surface you can while the block is hot (at 210C). I used https://www.google.com/search?q=forceps&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS503US503&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=qPhzU-7rKcfgoATklIKgBg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1746&bih=900#q=kimwipes&tbm=ischbut small bits of paper towel should work just as effectively; with your tool of choice grab the paper towel and start wiping down every surface you can, getting into every nook and cranny. I used a pair of small tweezers to pull little bits of plastic here and there, and especially at the interface of the wires to the heater block. There is no need to rush this part, I just took my time and slowly but surely I got everything clean as a whistle. Before putting everything back together I scrapped off any plastic that was on the shroud. I hope this helps and am interested to see how your problem is resolved.

@Chrisp I love seeing posts where the printer saves the day, nice design and application. I agree I get a total rush when I print something I designed and then can hold and use, it's a much different feeling then printing something out that I downloaded off the net. @LeoDDC, that Buddha looks great! Did you design it? I like the design, a much more realistic looking Buddha then the ones you commonly see as decoration. Did you use any support material, especially around the necklace beads? @IRobertI, WOW, I love the presentation of the feeder! It's a well crafted gift and I really want one as well!!!

Hey guys, I gave my presentation at the conference this evening. Well, the material was great but the delivery.....apparently I get very nervous when public speaking and totally bombed the delivery part. Blarp, trying not to dwell on it by distracting myself. I need to find a solution to this predicament, I find that as time progresses I actually become a worse public speaker. Anyway, I actually might be going to Germany later this year for another conference with an even longer talk :-|. It's a 50/50 shot, the content my material is over is a bit tangential to the theme of the conference, but my boss wanted me to submit anyway. I'll know in a couple of months whether or not my paper was accepted. I'll definitely keep you guys posted! Even if I don't end up going to the conference I would still like to visit Germany if not this year then next year.

Thanks guys !! @Didier Klein, thanks for mentioning retraction. I forgot to mention that when I switched the filament I also changed retraction to 0mm. It was about 3 AM and I was really groggy and almost didn't turn off retraction, except that when I was holding the filament ready to be inserted the machine performed a retraction and my neurons started firing. I woke up about an hour after the switch and turned retraction back on. @Skint, I totally understand. When I'm printing proper stuff for work or someone else I can't wait to start printing my designs again. I'm traveling this week and this is the first time I've been away from my printer for more than a work day; I find myself thinking about all the stuff I wish I was printing. Saturday was literally the first full 24 hour time period I did not print something out... I miss my printer :sad:. I'm going to the Maker Faire in San Francisco later this week so that should help fill the void :grin:. @cor3ys, two very awesome looking prints! I really like the skin and eyes on your paint job, I'll tell you that if it were my first try you probably wouldn't be able to recognize the print :mrgreen:. Also, man I wish home 3D printers were around when I was a kid, I think I would have freaked out if I was surprised with a T-Rex skull replica; that's one lucky kid! @Dreamworker, thanks for the compliment, I like your idea of being able to adjust the intensity of the light; perhaps my next iteration will be a bedside nightlight/ picture frame. You could press a button on the top of the frame to turn it into night mode or something.