fbrc8-erin
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Posts posted by fbrc8-erin
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Are there special characters in your file name? I think anything other than letters, numbers, and underscores will cause the printer confusion if you try to print with it. I remember seeing an instance a few months back where someone's printer was rebooting to the Ultimaker screen due to a special character, and then hanging there until the printer was restarted manually.
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Hi, Mr. Bool,
Polycarbonate isn't currently one of the supported materials for the UM3 (no profile created for it in Cura at present), but people have been printing with it if you want to give it a try with the settings as they are now.
Valcrow posted here about some of the settings he's using to print in polycarbonate on the UM3.
And gr5 wrote here about how he gets around loading polycarbonate in the UM3 without a profile for it on the printer.
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Belts, motors, electronics, etc. should all still be in excellent shape.
Regarding the specific runtime stats, do you know if the PTFE coupler was ever replaced?
Depending on the materials you're working with, PTFE coupler replacement was usually recommended around 500-700 hours or so. The new TFM couplers last longer and are a more durable material, so if you see extrusion issues, that would be the first place I'd look at. Here's a photo of 1 good coupler and 2 bad ones; you can identify couplers that are wearing out by the presence of a lip, having a visibly widened out end near the heat, and discoloration (severe discoloration is most common if higher temp filament have been run).
I'm a fan of the Ultimaker 2, and still have one I run at home that I haven't put the upgrade kit on. I think as long as you're not asking too much of the feeder, it works well. If you're going to push it to higher speeds/more volumetric extrusion, you need to increase the temperature to compensate. I often run mine at 225-230, which is hotter than I usually run a UM2+ or a UM3 with the geared feeder. The UM2 feeder is designed to skip back if it can't meet what you're asking for in terms of extrusion, to try to avoid grinding down, so if you ask more than it can handle volumetrically, then you'll see under extrusion.
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How long have you had your UM2? Have you taken anything apart on it recently? Have you put sewing machine oil on the Z-shafts recently, or magnalube on the Z-screw?
Check the underside of your heated bed and see if the 4 screws holding the gold colored trap nut in place are tight.
It may also be worth removing your table cover and checking to make sure none of the 2.5mm head screws that hold your bearings in place have worked their way loose. You can remove the table cover by unscrewing the two heads on the left and right at the rear on the underside of the bed, and then pulling up on the table cover from the top with the bed raised.
It also looks like your lower bearing in the printhead isn't seated correctly--loosen the 4 thumbscrews and push the bearing back in place until it's seated in the printhead block and then retighten them.
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Does it look like your printed part came off the bed? Or is the plastic on the end of the nozzle tip coming out of the nozzle? If there was nowhere for the filament to go (for example, it got burnt into the tip of the Core), then it could fail to extrude and result in grinding.
What material are you using? What settings?
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Hi,
For the gray and black style heated bed cable, the thick gray wires are going to be your heater wires, and those are interchangeable with each other as long as the gray ones are both in the Heated Bed slots. The same goes for the two thin black wires; they're interchangeable as long as they're both in the temp sensor pins.
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I'm having a very similar issue but the creaking sound appears to be coming from the stepper on the left side which controls movement on the Y axis. Over all my U2 is printing well but considerably much louder than it has ever been and It sounds like a creaking floorboard in an old house. I'm concerned this will lead to serious problem later.
someone recently posted a topic about what kind of general maintenance is needed on these machines. The response given was that oil on the rods and grease on the z screw was all that is really ever needed but for those of us with older machines can anyone recommend a deeper dive into maintenance and refurbishing? I don't mind replacing any parts if needed.
How many print hours are on the machine? I think general belt replacement recommendation is around 3000-4000 hours.
Is the printhead hard to move by hand on that axis?
Are all the fan shroud screws still tight, and the side part of the fan bracket not touching the central part of the printhead at the bottom? If it's crunched in a little, it can rattle.
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Is there an official part replacement for this issue? The upgrade kit wasn't cheap and it seems inevitable it will happen to everyone. Super glue and hope doesn't sit well with me.
It looks like you're in the US. It shouldn't be an problem to get a replacement gear out to you. Contact support@fbrc8.com as your local support.
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Have you tried increasing the temperature? If you're trying to extrude more filament with the old style feeder, increasing the temperature can help reduce the amount of resistance you're seeing. Any photos?
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Nice visual explanation @fbrc8-erin
Just wondering. Isn't there a slight risk of loosing x/y square?
Shouldn't lose the XY squaring I don't think as long as you're not moving the printhead while the screw is loose; all the other pulleys are tight and stationary.
The belt should be snapping back to it's original position on the pulley, but it may be worth moving the printhead to the side after it's tight again and checking that the distance between front and rear sliding block and the respective pulleys is equidistant before beginning printing.
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It is hanging a little loose, it's an easy fix.
If something snags your belt (like possibly the printhead shaft if you're reseating the printhead), it will pull the belt over by a tooth or two on the pulley, creating slackness in one half and tightness in the other (though the tightness isn't really visible.
Loosen one of the pulley set screws on the pulley that belt is attached to it, and it should spring back into place, then go ahead and tighten it back up. There's a short video here:
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It would have been in there when the printer arrived, but there's a good chance it never made it back in after the flood you mentioned earlier. Failed prints can cause the piece to tear, or to come out. It would have been really easy to miss.
It looks like you're located in the US, so if you want to contact Support@fbrc8.com, we can get a replacement silicone piece sent out to you on Monday. We'll need your name, address, and serial number number. It would also help to reference this post in your email since the troubleshooting has already been done.
It does NOT look like that OMG!?!?!?! I don't ever remember that being in our printer.
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Hi, JClay,
Ultimaker does not advise attempting to disassemble the Cores, because the double heat break is very fragile.
It's designed to help keep the interior of the tube significantly cooler than the brass and prolong the life of the Core; it does this really well, but by necessity, that makes the thin neck fragile. Attempting to remove the nozzle tip can result in breaking the thin neck on the Core and making it unusable altogether.
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Hi, mmacinnis,
Can you reach out to Support@fbrc8.com? Since you're located in Canada we should be able to get you the hardware to repair the printer or send you a label to take it in for repair. It sounds like there may be an issue with your wifi board.
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Glad to hear you had a good experience! And welcome to the world of printing with Ultimaker.
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Have you tried putting a wash of glue on the bed? I usually use a few swipes of Uhu glue on the bed, and then a wet paper towel to thin it out until there is only a thin film on the bed (no lumps). Any excess water should dry as the bed heats.
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Is the glass clean when you start? What about the tip of the nozzle? If you've got filament hanging off the end it can throw off the active leveling.
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Does it make a difference whether you try to view it in Cura or through web browser?
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If you're putting heavy wear and tear on your printer, in addition to the coupler the other soft parts to keep an eye on are your belts and bowden tube.
The belts shouldn't just come loose on the UM2/UM2+/UM3. They're held into place pretty tightly the way the pulley system is set up. If you find your belt to be a little slack, the odds are, it's been pulled over by a tooth or to on the pulley (happens most often if you catch the belt with the printhead shaft when removing the printhead for any reason). Loosen 1 pulley where the belt looks slack, and it'll correct itself.
If you've put a lot of wear and tear on the machine (say 3k or 4k print hours) and start to see deteriorating quality on the XY axis and a lot of belt debris on the motors, then you may want to go ahead and replace the belts. Belts probably won't be visibly slack.
With the bowden tube, if you print with abrasive materials, you might see damage to the interior of the tube; you can test for it by pushing a fresh piece of filament through the tube by hand and feeling for any spots of resistance. If there's resistance/damage inside the tube, I'd go ahead and replace it. You can also check for wear and tear at the feeder end of the tube; if you remove it from the feeder end and it looks chewed up, I'd recommend trimming a couple millimeters off of the end and widening it out. The tube on the end looks good; the one on the right needs replacing or fixing.
In addition to lubricating the axes and Z-screw, they may need cleaning, just to make sure all the dust and debris it out. Particularly with the Z-screw after a while it can start to look pretty rough. I'd use a cloth for wiping out the Z-screw instead of a paper towel to clean the threads; paper towel kind of shreds.
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You can receive an error message if you take the Core out when the printer isn't expecting you to. Where are you at on the printer menu when you remove the Core?
It looks like your filament is stopping extruding. What settings are you using? Is there any chance your filament is getting tangled?
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Thought I would update, so opened a brand new spool of PLA printing fine.
measured the old spool and turned out the sizes where all over the place 2.85 to 3.15mm, it also had kinks close to the end of the roll making it jam in the feeder.
Yikes! 3.15 definitely isn't going to make it through the bowden tube. I'm glad opening a new roll has solved the issue.
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What type of PLA? Ultimaker, or another brand? Have you tried other filaments?
Do your PLA/PVA prints stick to each other okay?
upgraded parts to print n polycarbonate
in UltiMaker 3D printers
Posted
Anytime. :-) The forum is a great source of information--the odds are, on any given question, someone else already has that question too. But contacting your reseller is also a great way to get assistance.