zumfab
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Posts posted by zumfab
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Hi,
I'm very sorry but there are there are not enough inquiries for are reasonable production lot (which has to be some 100 pulleys).
I felt that was a good reason to kick this thread again, to see where the interest stands today
I can imagine there being more people interested, since the last batch shipped quite a while ago. -
What is the status of the pulleys fohnsturm was supplying? I am rebuilding an Ultimaker and I think this would be the ideal solution for the situation.
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Looking at your frame I worry a bit that rigidity mighty be a problem. It seems to me that it's all unbraced squares, except for the back. Do you have plans to counter that or do you think that is not an issue?
I think that is one of the things the Ultimaker frame does very well. It is amazingly rigid without much bracing or heavy parts.
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I think the 5 biggest things you can do to improve print quality are (in most -> least effect order):
- Replace the pulleys and belts with quality ones preferably with GT2 versions
- Do something about the plywood Z stage. Jonny is building his own and I'm sure it will be able to hold a army tank but the UM Z stage upgrade is very good if somewhat expensive. I rarely run into leveling issues now and rarely need to level.
- Switch out the linear system (thick/thin rods, bushings and bearings for the thin rods) with higher quality components such as those from misumi
- Switch to direct drive using high quality couplers.
- Switch to printed XY blocks such as Twisterblocks.
These kinds of lists are very helpful! I am glad I found pretty much all of them myself, though I am not sure which upgrades I will end up with. The printer really should not become another project - it's meant to be a tool to do projects!
- I am on the fence when it comes to pulleys. If I do it, I go all the way and spending close to $100 on some pulleys right away is a bit steep.
- The UM printbed upgrade looks good. I feel no printer is complete without a heated bed and easier leveling is more than welcome.
- Direct drive is something I want to look at later. I have a feeling the couplers can be eliminated completely, but how I am not very sure of yet. I would prefer the stepper motor and axle being a single unit and I think that can be done.
- New blocks are an easy and nice upgrade.
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I am keeping my eye out for experiences, I am very curious to know about the improvements and drawbacks this development brings!
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Grounding doesn't seem like it would help a great deal, if the device itself isn't grounded. I guess I would avoid covering myself in wool and rolling around on synthetic carpet while I was working.
Wearing cotton, sitting on wood and using a wrist strap are all sensible precautions when working with electronics, but I think that in the case of the Ultimaker most harm is going to come from things like moving the printer around. You pick the thing up, put your hand underneath and zap the electronics with that charge you accumulated over the past hour with your toasty warm fleece sweater. A plastic chair might do the trick too.
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Note that there is no ESD protection on the UM electronics whatsoever.
As always, grounding yourself before touching any electronics is sensible. Though it does get me thinking about whether other solutions are possible. A Faraday cage might obviously be a solution, but the question is how you can implement that in an elegant fashion.
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That is looking good. If it's worth doing, its worth overdoing! I know I am probably approaching the project too practically when I ask this, but what do you hope this printer will be able to do that a normal UM cannot?
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How is this printer going? Do you have anything to show yet?
Oh, and I was wondering what the difference between the Reptar blocks and the TwisterBlocks is, and why you have both listed. -
Advantage of plastic is lower sensitivity to humidity. I know the plywood has the potential to warp (one of my panels warped before it even got to me. It was a pretty big pain to get it replaced.) In normal practice, I think this is mainly an issue of having to re-level the bed more regularly.
One idea to consider might be remaking the frame with a different but functionally identical design. Maybe using extruded aluminum and some smaller printed parts to hold the bearings and stuff.
Fair point on the moisture remark. I am a bit worried to replace one weakness with another, as new materials might very well introduce new and different problems. Suggestions are welcome though, despite my slightly sceptic attitude.
Building a different frame sounds like a great project, but right now I am looking for something fairly plug and play. Enough projects as it is
I want to build this thing properly and get it up and running. I am planning to build a couple of other CNC machines later on and I am sure I am going to get my fill of custom frame building by that time -
Looking at my machine, the sides top and bottom are all nominally 6 mm (my right side panel is 5.8 mm. I am not sure if that is a defect or intentional. Either way, it doesn't seem to be a problem.)
I have measured several larger frame panels on an UMO in multiple places and found a rather consistent thickness of roughly 5,8-5,9mm. I don't think I measured the full 6mm a single time. Admittedly, that was just a single Ultimaker.
You could also use acrylic... It should be fairly easy to get a hold of in good quality, and even a number of colors... Should also be very competitive to, or even a lot cheaper than, the alternatives... Ive seen a few UMs made this way and it seems to work fine...
Only thing you have to be careful about is over tightening the bolts that lock into the nut-traps, as you can crack the acrylic.
Acrylic is rather fragile. I prototyped something in acrylic a while ago and was not really impressed by the mechanical properties, though the ability to chemically weld the stuff to itself is nice. It can be made to work, but has in my view no advantage over using fairly resilient plywood. The machine needs to be able to take at least a little abuse.
Maybe some other material might be a decent replacement, like POM, but I am not sure what I would have to gain. Other than having an unusual Ultimaker of course. I would be a bit worried to run into some unknown issue after spending a fair amount of money on it, as it looks it would be at least 200 to 300 dollar.
Thanks for the suggestion though
Oh, and they even sell frosted acrylic if you ever need more! -
Any indication if the circuit board color indicates revision or anything?
I have only found that the white ones typically have the extra light options, I am not sure of any other differences. There seem to be different PCB shapes too (rectangular and square).
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Contact with Ultimaker made clear they cannot provide a spare frame. This has something to do with supply lines and not having them in stock, so cutting seems to be the only option.
hi,
i am working on scratch building a UM2 ... been looking at Routing the files as per the Git ...
the specs say 5mm and 6mm ... i was planning on using Polycarbonate sheets of 5 mm and 6mm and for the second machine machine i was planning on using Aluminum sheets to for the frame
is it 4mm and 6mm or there are other thicknesses ?
chX
The 4 and 6 mm numbers are from the Ultimaker Original. I am not too sure about what they are supposed to be for the UM2.
Best would be to grab the illustrator files. As those are already put into panels, and specify the thickness per panel.
It's probable I am overlooking the obvious, but where do I find those? GitHub appears to only have .pdf and .step-files.
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Does the rear wooden guard perform a function or is it just decorative?
I have been told it is purely decorative, except that it pushes the z-axis endstop. You can print a ring to replace that functionality though, so living without the wooden part is very possible.
I asked the same thing, because I will probably not install it.
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I found out there is an alternative version of the graphic controller that allows you to toggle the backlight. I am trying to find one that has that and a blue backlight right now and if I do I think I will go with that one.
The worst case scenerio is that it might disappoint, but getting a second unit at these prices is not the end of the world.
But the point is: unless you want to dedicate a computer for printing (OtoPrint?) a controller is a must, not a nice-to-have.
Most of my current work consist of producing relatively fast iterations before I finalize an object, which means frequent contact with a computer anyway. The easier route is hooking it up to a computer, rather than swapping SD cards back and forth a couple of times a day.
It is just that I would sometimes during a longer print like to free up my computer, allowing reboots and intensive applications without those interfering with the printing process. In that case a controller is a nice thing to have
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These look great. I definitely need to try this sometimes.
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That said, the communication for these LCD can be pretty standard, so you may very well be able to find an electricaly compatible replacement. I just wouldn't hope for anything substantially better, unless the one you wind up with is total crud.
Amadee's experience sounds fine. I might desolder the emergency button to prevent mishaps, but otherwise this will probably do nicely and is dirt cheap to boot. Since I consider the controller to be a toy and a luxury rather than a necessity that nicely adds up.
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Wow, you really need to put some effort into damaging something that good. I would not take no for an answer - they will try, but that's not good enough in a case like this.
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Most panels are 6mm ply. And there are pieces of 4mm ply (mostly small pieces) so you need 2 different thicknesses of wood.
Is there some place I can see which parts are which thickness?
If you want something simpler then cutting it yourself, get the kit :wink:
I hoped buying one would be enough
A little or maybe actually pretty big mishap happened to the frame, so I need to replace it. Most of the rest seems fine, luckily.Though I must admit I never asked Ultimaker whether they can and will replace it and what that would cost. I would not need the wooden platform parts since I was hoping to install the new heated bed too, so that is making things a little bit easier.
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This one...
Do you see any reason not to get this one, or should I keep looking? What exactly did you not like about the build quality?
I am assuming build quality is a result of the price and that it will not differ much from cheap unit to unit. If needs be I can resolder connections or most other small to moderately complex operations. My priority is that the unit is reliable and if it's possible I would like a decent looking screen, without too much backlight bleeding and such.
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The radii just depends on the cutter size you use. Not sure what's on the drawings though. The um2 must have used a router and I have cut 6mm polycarbonate with 1.5mm radii
The major cuts will probably be fine, but I am worried about things like the nut and bolt traps (link). Those m3 nuts are tiny compared to a 3 mm cutter or even one half that size. The same goes for the slotting frame parts around the edges that need to be somewhat snug, but will never be without probably quite a bit of sanding, filing or other post processing. Looking at the drawings there are probably also going to be nesting issues due to the increased cutter sized compared to laser cutting.
None of these issues is a huge problem on its own, but it is all adding up. If I can make HPL work with some ease it seems an interesting option as it is a very solid material, but right now I feel I am solving one problem by causing another if I go that route.
I will ponder over it a bit, maybe I will have a revelation on how to make it work easily. For now, tried and true birch ply seems the more obvious solution. If I manage to find a decent quality ply, the rest should be doable.
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I don't think that quality is necessarily is an issue with cheap filament, but consistency is. Unless your hours and frustration are free, it typically is worth spending a little more to know what you get every time.
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You could get them CNC Routered.
Access to a router is not a problem, but I feel that the radii that is going to create will probably cause more problems than I am prepared to deal with. I am not eliminating it as a possibility completely, but I would rather go with a straightforward and tried and true method rather than fixing something that does not entirely work with something else that does not entirely work. I am a bit scared that doing something relatively simple will end up becoming another complex project again. I have enough of those already
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I went for a cheap one on the Bay (15€, free shipping!); I am not too impressed by the build quality, but it works very well.
Any chance you could dig up the name of the seller?
I can imagine there being more people interested, since the last batch shipped quite a while ago.
I want to build this thing properly and get it up and running. I am planning to build a couple of other CNC machines later on and I am sure I am going to get my fill of custom frame building by that time 
A little or maybe actually pretty big mishap happened to the frame, so I need to replace it. Most of the rest seems fine, luckily.
Fixing Pulley Innacuracy
in Third party products & modifications
Posted
Both the fact that it is hard to judge what you will get and that new belts are needed I do not really like. Though maybe I just need to look into GT2 hardware properly sometimes, rather than look for something that might never happen.