somewhereinla

It's very difficult to tell anything from your picture because we don't know what we are looking at. Maybe you could add a few info: 1/ What material were you using? At what temperature? What brand? 2/ Did you level the bed? 3/ Can you give us your print set-up. 4/ Since you bought this machine used, did you make sure you have the latest firmware update? 5/ Inspect the printer and make sure that all the screws are tight, especially the one holding the stepper motors. Lubricate the machine with oil, sewing machine oil works very well. 6/ You need to make a test. print circles, maybe 2 mm high and 50mm diameter?, print one in the middle and 1 on each corners. take a picture and post it.

I have not consider Canada. Maybe I should : ) My thread isn't about who has what in North America, but why is it that Ultimaker does not require re-sellers to carry spare parts, especially since my understanding is that they now have an Official North America rep, "fbrc8" , it seems to me that Ultimaker should make sure that they always have ample supplies, rather than ordering as needed and using "snail mail"(3 weeks)...

Sûre, this could be a solution, I can find one on eBay or allbaba as well, but as a business we need a reliable source we know always stock parts.

I am not running a 3D printer business. We are a small industrial design / consultancy firm working with big clients. We use ultimaker for quick prototyping. We also have CNC mills and lathe, but ultimaker makes it very cheap to prototype. We have used other Fdm printers before - makerbot - but ultimaker has been very reliable. Formlab printer is the other printer we are looking at right now. Not as fast, a little messy but they have spare parts when needed.

Just to clarify, this isn't really a rant (well maybe a little bit)... It is just happening at a time when we are looking into getting UM3's and now I am having second thoughts that's all.

Thanks for the reply. I did looked at those links, and they are not the problem we are having. We checked the screw and the soldering very carefully.

A bit offtopic. Do the new beds have solderless connections like the um3 cores? Thank you for posting a picture. Very helpful.

Thank you all.

I am not sure how it would help as far as the part supply in the US? The UM2 is giving me the "Error Heat Bed " message. I followed the "excellent I have to admit" trouble shoot page for this problem. Switch " temp 1" with" temp 3" and concluded the heat bed was the problem. a few days ago, I finally located a heat bed, but it is not working, so either the board is the problem or the heat bed I got is defective...

Machine will break, I don't mind it and in the case of the Ultimakers they are pretty easy to trouble-shoot and fix. What I do mind is how difficult it is to find spare parts in the United States. I have a UM2 that has been out of commission for 3 weeks with no hope for spare parts... I think it is completely unacceptable especially since Ultimaker's ambitions seems to try to attract the education and "pro" market. I did contact both Ultimaker and its rep. in the U.S (fbrc8) . I got one answer from fbrc8 , the usual " we are sorry...blah, blah, blah...), none from Ultimaker in Europe. In the 3 years or so I have had the UM2(since it came out) every time I need a part or a specific material, it is always "out of stock", and I don't know that statistically my timing can always be that bad, possible but unlikely. Now I don't know if the problem is with fbrc8 or Ultimaker Europe, but this should become #1 priority. What is the point in buying the "best printer" if you can't fix it when it breaks? because the best printer in my mind is the one that's printing! Cheers.

Curiously I have started getting this error since I upgraded to the latest software Cura/UM2... After testing the machine and switching the bed from temp3 to temp1 on the board to figure out if the problem was the board or the bed, I concluded the bed was most likely the culprit. However when I got the new plate and cable, I immediately noticed that unlike the original set of cables which have colors (Blue, Brown- and Brown and white (which attach to temp3 connector ), the new one are Grey/Grey and Black/Black (which attach to temp3 connector) How do you know which connectors attach where on the temp bed? or does it matter? Is there a video that describe the process? I swear I saw one sometime ago and can't find it again...? Thank you.

I have had a UM2 for 2+/ 3 years (just got around to order the 2+ kit...). The UM2 is my first printer from Ultimaker but not my first printer. I think all 3d printers are frustrating and all need tinkering sooner or later... I work with 3d printers costing upward of US$ 1/4 million, and they still don't always work and have tones of problems ( I am an Industrial Designer). I think what I appreciate with the Ultimakers is that they are easy to fix and they are mostly reliable, more so that the one I have had in that price range in the past. Plus there are super cheap to operate. Sure they can be frustrating, but it can usually be fixed fairly quickly.

Okay. Check a company call "flashcut cnc" they sell desktop cnc and lathe machine made by a company called Sherline. Sherline are great little mills that are extremely precise and easy to fix if something goes wrong. Sherline sell a CNC system as well, but it doesn't support USB and only work on older machine..., flashcut cnc has a much better CNC controller and a usb generator, you can use it with any computer/laptop... They also sell a lath, but if you have a 4d cnc mill, you don't really need a lath... Also support with flashcut is really good. Check it out...

I should also add that Rhino 3d has an amazing, super friendly and patient customer support.

I would strongly argue that Solidworks is definitely not the best for design (I use it extensively). It is the best for manufacturing (if you do mass quantities), definitly more of an engineering tool that a designer tool. Most industrial designers use Rhino 3d for design (product design) and then will do a final check in SW, although Rhino is strong enough to bypass SW altogether... Alias is very popular with automotive/transportation designers, pretty much and industry standard and Modo right now is the go to app for entertainment design. The great advantage of SW is how history works and how you can link parts together. It's the only app, that's truly parametric, but is its drawback is the fact that it's isn't super intuitive for design. The advantage of Rhino 3d, is that it's really easy to export geometry back and forth with SW. Not other App I know of work as well together. That said I use Rhino 3d more and more, and SW less and less...