jeremy-gillick

I've been using the UM2 for a couple months now and am loving it. It's still almost always printing something. However, I still have a couple questions nagging at me. How often to people adjust their build platform? And how tight to the nozzle? When I get to the step of using the paper, I adjust the screws until the nozzle is rubbing the paper. Somewhere in between no friction and stuck. There's still a tiny gap when I'm done and on the next print the nozzle squishes the first layer into flat paths, which makes a nice smooth first layer. Unfortunately this doesn't last long. A few prints later the nozzle is somehow further from the build plate and now laying rounded paths on the first layer. As long as it sticks (which is sometimes a problem when it's not being squished) it doesn't harm the print, just makes the first layer a bit rougher. Am I adjusting it the space to be too tight? Is it normal for the space to increase after a few prints?

I cleaned the nozzle, reset the print bed height, set the temperature to 215, brought the heated bed temp down to 60, slowed the print to 50mm/s, changed the layer height from 0.08mm to 0.1mm and added a brim to the print. Not sure which one of things things helped, but I have a perfect print going right now!

Tried both with the brown and the stock blue that came with the printer. I was printing at 210 degrees at 60mm/s. I'll try to clean the tip the way you're suggesting and see if that helps. Thanks.

All of a sudden the base layer of my prints have been printing unevenly and starting to get gummy. I thought it might be my model, so I tried a previous one on the SD card with the same results. I also notice that some of the extrusion is rolling up onto the nozzle. At the second layer it starts pushing around a lump of extrusion at point. I've tried resetting the bed height and cleaning the nozzle by sticking a very fine wire in it. Then changed back to the original blue filament. It's still doing it. Any ideas?

Posted: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:310472

I was wondering what those options were. I'll try those with my model to see. The model currently consists of 3 components, so that I can edit the sides and the base apart from the structure. To solve it yesterday, I exploded all components and removed a bunch of the lines in between them.

Good news. After a combination of the x-ray tool and netfabb, I have a perfect print!

I exclusively use my laptop for development and -- it being a mac -- has a clickable trackpad with no real right button. So I'm lost on how to rotate the viewport around the model. When I do a two-finger click, which usually emulates a right mouse click, it still only pans. Is there any way to rotate without a right mouse button?

Great advice, I think I found the problem:

A couple nights ago I set the machine to print a custom model, watched the first 30 minutes of printing and went to bed. In the morning it seems that the printer had printed the first 12mm correctly and then at some point the layers stopped sticking (?) and built a rats nest of filament. Then I changed the settings to print slower and the same thing occurred. Unfortunately this seems to happen after an hour or so of printing, so I haven't been able to stay and watch it to that point. The first print the temperature was 210 degrees and the second print was at 215. Both times was with a custom profile printing at 0.085 mm/layer. Next I'm going to try using the stock "Normal quality print" option, as a baseline. Any ideas on why this is happening? From what I've read it sounds like it could be underextrusion, but I would think slower and hotter would have helped that. This is also a temperature that I've printed everything else at. What I was trying to print The rats nest What printed, with the rats nest removed The printing profile [profile] layer_height = 0.085 wall_thickness = 0.4 retraction_enable = True solid_layer_thickness = 0.5 fill_density = 15 nozzle_size = 0.4 print_speed = 50 print_temperature = 220 print_temperature2 = 0 print_temperature3 = 0 print_temperature4 = 0 print_bed_temperature = 70 support = None platform_adhesion = None support_dual_extrusion = Both wipe_tower = False wipe_tower_volume = 15 ooze_shield = False filament_diameter = 2.85 filament_diameter2 = 0 filament_diameter3 = 0 filament_diameter4 = 0 filament_flow = 100.0 retraction_speed = 40.0 retraction_amount = 4.5 retraction_dual_amount = 16.5 retraction_min_travel = 1.5 retraction_combing = True retraction_minimal_extrusion = 0.02 retraction_hop = 0.0 bottom_thickness = 0.3 object_sink = 0.0 overlap_dual = 0.15 travel_speed = 150.0 bottom_layer_speed = 20 infill_speed = 60 inset0_speed = 0.0 insetx_speed = 0.0 cool_min_layer_time = 5 fan_enabled = True skirt_line_count = 2 skirt_gap = 3.0 skirt_minimal_length = 150.0 fan_full_height = 0.5 fan_speed = 100 fan_speed_max = 100 cool_min_feedrate = 10 cool_head_lift = False solid_top = True solid_bottom = True fill_overlap = 15 support_type = Grid support_angle = 60 support_fill_rate = 15 support_xy_distance = 0.7 support_z_distance = 0.15 spiralize = False brim_line_count = 20 raft_margin = 5 raft_line_spacing = 1.0 raft_base_thickness = 0.3 raft_base_linewidth = 0.7 raft_interface_thickness = 0.2 raft_interface_linewidth = 0.2 fix_horrible_union_all_type_a = True fix_horrible_union_all_type_b = False fix_horrible_use_open_bits = False fix_horrible_extensive_stitching = False plugin_config = object_center_x = -1 object_center_y = -1 [alterations] start.gcode = ;Sliced at: {day} {date} {time} ;Basic settings: Layer height: {layer_height} Walls: {wall_thickness} Fill: {fill_density} ;Print time: {print_time} ;Filament used: {filament_amount}m {filament_weight}g ;Filament cost: {filament_cost} ;M190 S{print_bed_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own bed temperature line ;M109 S{print_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line G21 ;metric values G90 ;absolute positioning M82 ;set extruder to absolute mode M107 ;start with the fan off G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops G28 Z0 ;move Z to min endstops G1 Z15.0 F{travel_speed} ;move the platform down 15mm G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length G1 F200 E3 ;extrude 3mm of feed stock G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again G1 F{travel_speed} ;Put printing message on LCD screen M117 Printing... end.gcode = ;End GCode M104 S0 ;extruder heater off M140 S0 ;heated bed heater off (if you have it) G91 ;relative positioning G1 E-1 F300 ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure G1 Z+0.5 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F{travel_speed} ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the way M84 ;steppers off G90 ;absolute positioning start2.gcode = ;Sliced at: {day} {date} {time} ;Basic settings: Layer height: {layer_height} Walls: {wall_thickness} Fill: {fill_density} ;Print time: {print_time} ;Filament used: {filament_amount}m {filament_weight}g ;Filament cost: {filament_cost} ;M190 S{print_bed_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own bed temperature line ;M104 S{print_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line ;M109 T1 S{print_temperature2} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line ;M109 T0 S{print_temperature} ;Uncomment to add your own temperature line G21 ;metric values G90 ;absolute positioning M107 ;start with the fan off G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops G28 Z0 ;move Z to min endstops G1 Z15.0 F{travel_speed} ;move the platform down 15mm T1 ;Switch to the 2nd extruder G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length G1 F200 E10 ;extrude 10mm of feed stock G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again G1 F200 E-{retraction_dual_amount} T0 ;Switch to the first extruder G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length G1 F200 E10 ;extrude 10mm of feed stock G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again G1 F{travel_speed} ;Put printing message on LCD screen M117 Printing... end2.gcode = ;End GCode M104 T0 S0 ;extruder heater off M104 T1 S0 ;extruder heater off M140 S0 ;heated bed heater off (if you have it) G91 ;relative positioning G1 E-1 F300 ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure G1 Z+0.5 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F{travel_speed} ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the way M84 ;steppers off G90 ;absolute positioning support_start.gcode = support_end.gcode = cool_start.gcode = cool_end.gcode = replace.csv = switchextruder.gcode = ;Switch between the current extruder and the next extruder, when printing with multiple extruders. G92 E0 G1 E-36 F5000 G92 E0 T{extruder} G1 X{new_x} Y{new_y} Z{new_z} F{travel_speed} G1 E36 F5000 G92 E0

I'm going through that, and other posts in The Art of Printing section now. Great stuff! Incidentally I printed the pins again, a little slower, and they came out much better. No strings and much more uniformed.

That did it. I also removed the two corner metal brackets, that hide the stepper motors, so I could get at the bent panel more easily. The other square nut was still taped in there, just out of place like you mentioned. All back together and printing again!

I'm pretty sure I had retraction on. I'll try adjusting the speed and nozzle temp. I'll also try doing it on a cold bed with a layer of glue. Thanks for all the advice and input!

Thanks for all the input! Having it print all the pins at once definitely helped. There was still a bit of deformity and strings between the parts, but nothing preventing them from being used. That being the case, I'm going to print them a few more times trying the other suggestions (brim and fans) to see how much better I can get them. Thanks!

Never mind, I found the option under the Tools menu (I should have looked more before responding). I'll try it in the morning to see if that fixes it. Thanks!