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smorgana

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Everything posted by smorgana

  1. I have an Ultimaker 2, and I have a habit of leaving it on for days or weeks at a time... Well after many years of that the display has text badly burned into it. Is there a source for the part? Is there any information on how to go about replacing it? Is there an alternate display that I can substitute that wont be subject to burn in. Stephen
  2. I spent days on this. it appears the printer firmware is not compatible with the current cura. for one thing in the version of cura they made they configured in a 40mm offset in the printers config file. the current version of cura doesnt support that. thus the head crashes to the left because cura is unaware it needs to offset x by 40mm another thing. the current cura behaves differently as far as which tool to use initially
  3. The Kodak Portrait comes with a custom version of an old version of Cura. I'm on a Mac, and that app stopped working on my first OS update. The makers of the printer have no plan that I see to update their version, so I'm basically orphaned now. I'm hoping someone here has had some experience getting current versions of Cura working for it. Their support tried to have me set Cura up with their parameters. It did not work.
  4. Thank you both for the good advice... I keep my unused spools in a tupperware bin with a re-chargable desiccant . From now on I'll be taking the spool off the printer when I'm done printing.
  5. I have an Ultimaker 2+ that I've kept in my basement for years... Though it's not as dry down there as it should be, I never had an issue with leaving spools on the printer for weeks or months at a time.. Since last summer I moved the printer to a room upstairs... and since then, lets say I put a new spool on, print for a few days, and leave the spool on the printer for a couple weeks, What happens is next time I print the print fails because the filament became brittle inside bowden tube, and up to the first wind on the spool. So what causes that? It's not any more humid in that room as it was in the basement... The room is a sun room. so it's all windows whereas the basement had no sunlight. Is it possible that lots of sunlight is causing the filament to go brittle?
  6. I took the printhead apart enough to get a look at the fan without taking it out.. I could not see anything impeding the fan.. no filament hanging in the heat sink, etc, yet the fan while spinning made a kind of ticking sound just like a filament was contacting the blades...like a playing card in a bike's spokes. anyways its a 12 dollar part so I ordered one figuring I'd swap in a new one and on disassembly I'd have a better look. Well the part is backordered, so I figured I could keep printing by giving the fan a push when I turn the machine on.. it stays running after the first push... So I printed a few days on it and then it stopped needing a push... then after another few days it stopped making the noise.. So it must have been a piece of filament I could not see and it eventually worked it's way out... I'm going to let the backorder go through just to have the part on hand. also in this adventure.. I came to the conclusion that it was not all the fan that caused the filament to get stuck... The filament spool itself could have been the problem. I used to keep the printer in my basement.. with humidity around 65% -- which is bad.. but it worked for me. This spring it was very rainy... and my dehumidifier stopped working for a few days so the humidity went up to 80 ish... I got the dehumidifier working again, but it was so far behind, that it only got the humidity down to 75%.. The spool that was on when it got stuck was sitting in that humidity level. I later read that humid filament could case the feeder to grind more easily into the filament. I moved the printer to our living level, and the humidity is about 45%... and once I made sure the hot end fan was running I put in a spool of filament that I've been keeping upstairs... it got stuck immediately... not the fault of the fan but of being too soft from humidity and the feeder chewing into it. So I threw out that spool... put in a brand new spool and it has been working fine. I also bought a dryer... so I can swap spools out every few days and dry them.. I am also now keeping all spools in a rubbermaid bin.. with a desiccant and a humidity meter.... it's keeping the bin at about 35%...
  7. Wow! That was it. I put on a new bowden tube because I could not figure out how to get the jammed filament out of the old one. Also bought a new nozzle just in case. I went to do the atomic method to clear the old nozzle before taking it out, and realized the printer was silent. The top fan on the printhead was not spinning.. I gave it a push and it started spinning. So right now it will spin if I turn the printer of and on.. but it's not sounding like a good spinning fan. ah... something is impeding the fan...
  8. I had more time to dig in to it. I loosened the 4 long screws to drop the head down to see what was going on. the filament is in fact stuck in the head end of the boden tube. the filament had developed a ring around it just outside the top end of the print head tube. Probably due to a clogged nozzle. as the filament was softened and te extruder pushed agains the clogged nozzle it created a ring. that ring is just a bit to big to pull through the bowden tube.. when I originally tried to extract, I pulled as the extruder was reversing... that logged the filament in the bowden tube.. That's also why I could not pull the bowden tube out the printhead end.. it was expanded by the ring on the stuck filament. Its real stuck in there with nothing showing at the printhead end to grab to pull it out... so I'll probably just get a new bowden tube. Also I'll put the printhead back together and get the nozzle off to see if it needs cleaning.. or a new nozzle
  9. I have an Ultimaker 2 that I upgraded to a 2+ years ago... it has been working beautifully... Today I had a print that failed because the filament stopped feeding... There is any of a number of reasons why the filament stopped, but, as it does, the extruder chewed a notch in to the filament... I managed to get it out running the filament change program, and pulling to get past the notch.. The spool looked fine, not tangled, rotating freely so I thought Ok, just try again.. The second time the filament got stuck again... Now there is no budging it... I took the extruder apart thinking there was a jam in there.. no.. I have it free of the extruder now.. It appears the problem is at the printhead end. Even though I have it heat the nozzle up to 210 (it's pla filament) As much as I pull I can not get the filament out at the printhead end. I know it is not bound up in the bowden tube because I can see the filament flex in it as I push and pull. The nozzle is darn hot... so I know that much is working... but it is just stuck.. What should I try next? Am I going to have to take the printhead apart? Another symptom... I can't get the bowden tube out at either end. As you all know there is a blue clip... I removed those. Then you push down on the white collar and pull the tube out... Well that doesnt work at either end... the whole collar and tube is free at the extruder end... the bowden tube at that end has like a slice around the tube.. the collar wont move past that slice to get free of the tube. I assume the same thing is going on at the printhead end.. push down on the collar, pull up on the tube.. it comes up about an inch and gets stuck.. even with stuck filament I should be able to free the bowden tube at the printhead end considering it is already free at the extruder end.
  10. Wow. I found this topic trying to figure out how to adhere PLA to the build plate. Up till now... It would not stick at all to the glass if there was nothing on the glass.. and all I had was glue stick.. Glue stick works well .. but too well.. even when it all cools to room temp.. you can't get the part off.. I've read people put it in the fridge, etc.. I end up prying it off. people suggest hair spray.. but I'd like to stay away from it. But I tried the salt method and it's amazing. The part adheres, comes off easy.. the bottom of the part is nice and smooth.. plus salt cost practically nothing.
  11. I have a 3 and a half year old Ultimaker 2... in the last few months I was having more and more trouble with under extrusion, layer adhesion (on ABS), and nozzle clogging.. It was the nozzle clogging that finished it. Usually I could clear things with the atomic method.. but I finally got to a clog that would not clear. So I disassembled the print head and found that it was so burnt inside the nozzle that it explained why I could not clear it. Unfortunately I broke the temperature sensor while taking things apart.. and since I figured it would take about as much effort to replace that than to do the extrusion upgrade, I went with doing the upgrade. Figuring I'd get extra benefits from having a 2+ Wow. The upgrade was easy -- took about 2 hours... and the first print off of it was perfect... It's like a brand new printer now. I also like the firmware on the 2+ -- especially that it asks for the material type before you insert the material in a material change.. And I can't wait to try out the different nozzle sizes. I'm also thinking I should never again get into a situation with an un-clearable nozzle because I could always just remove the nozzle and clean it chemically.
  12. Yes. Success. well partly... Just heating to 260 and letting it sit there for 30 seconds, when doing the atomic method got material flowing freely again... I say partly because I still have not gotten a cone shape pulled out... Anyways I'm back doing a print now and it's looking good.
  13. I guess I should have titled this post "Badly clogged nozzle" anyways... I've done reading on the forum and it's clear from photos that people have posted that I'm not fully implementing the atomic method... People get actual cone shaped pointed material pulled out... One post though had what might help.. using ABS (I am), they heated up to 260... I've only heated up to 240... I've also read around and see that the UM2 is not ideal for replacing the nozzle... so I'm thinking about doing an upgrade kit to a UM2 + if I get to the point where I want to replace the nozzle.
  14. Well I've been printing on my UM2 for over 3 years... getting very good prints out of it. One time in those 3 years the nozzle got clogged.. and I used the atomic method and started working nicely again. But now I had a lot of trouble with a print.. and it was because it was not extruding enough material.. I got like hairs width material out of it.. So I did the atomic method again and yes... it pulled out some burnt crud.. then it started flowing normally again. So thinking the cause might be dusty filament... The first print I did after cleaning was to make a dust cleaner... That print came out great... The machine sat till the next night... and in my next attempt I was back where I started... Hardly any material comes out on a material change.. or if I use Move Material... So I tried the atomic method again.. but in this case I couldn't get any material to flow out the nozzle when I pushed the filament in.. after a few tries I got a fine thread ,but very littl. When I do the atomic method I never get what I'd call a complete cone shape on the scrap filament. And it seems as if there is a clog closer to the output end of the nozzle... So my question is... am I just at the end of life for this nozzle? Or is there some way I can clear this one.. Am I just doing the atomic method wrong?
  15. Thanks. Though Dimafix looks interesting... it can't be shipped to the USA, which is where I am located. So the parts release themselves with glue stick too, but the platform has to be room temperature. My question really is... can I speed the cooling process or do I risk cracking... I suppose i could just try it when I'm not in a rush to get parts done.
  16. I print with ABS on an Ultimaker 2... The machine works great, but I have had occasional problems with layer adhesion on tall objects. If I run .1 layers... no problem.., go up to .2 layers and I get cracks and the part is weak. But this week I have a part to make that takes 11 hours at .1 layers, 20% infill.. and I need to make a bunch of them by Thursday... so I read this forum for advice on how to improve my print settings. Printing at .2 layers gets me a part every six hours.... I'd get about 4 parts a day. So basically this is a repeat of what can already be found here... The ABS I'm working with specs say to have the nozzle heat at 230 - 240c depending on printer model... I have been running at 230, and found out here that increasing the temp would help fix the problem... So I ran a part at .2 layers, 20% infill and at 240c... and it still had a few cracks... Reading more here I found that the idea is that the plastic is cooling too fast (My basement is pretty cool)... so the advice was to also set the fan speed down to 25%, and try to enclose the printer... So I set the fan speed, and taped a piece of heavy paper across the front opening and ran the part. And wow... It worked... The part came out beautifully.. The next thing I'd like to learn is what's the fastest way to get the part out of the printer... I'd like to print as many parts per day as possible... If I start a print before bed that finishes during the night, by morning the printer is cool and the part has separated itself from the build platform... I use glue stick... so if the platform hasn't cooled enough you either can't get the part off, or you end up breaking the part trying to get it off. is it safe to blow a fan at the build platform to speed cooling, or will that lead to cracking too?
  17. I had the same situation. Except in my case I ran out of filament during a print, so a piece of filament got stuck all the way from the feeder to the nozzle. You can't have the feeder reverse the filament out because it is just past the feed gear. Also on an UM2 you can't just push in a new filament while powered up because the stepper is energized. What I did was cut the new filament end flat so it would have the most surface pushing against the broken piece. and manually fed it into the feeder while turning the dial to advance the filament in the "move material" menu option. I did that just enough to get extrusion out of the nozzle, then I printed something unimportant to use up the broken piece. As others have noted, until you get past the break, retraction doesn't work so the quality of the part suffers.
  18. Yep, sounds similar to this thread... Thanks! I'll give that solution from the other thread a try.
  19. When you change material, during the initial feed you can (and I do) let it feed material until the new color comes out. I do this whether its between prints or during a pause print. But yes of course depending on the colors, you may find some of the original color still mixed in for a while... So If I am between prints, I use move material to extrude enough until I get a pure extrusion of the new color. Unfortunately... The move material option is not available during a pause. You can only 1. resume, 2 change material, or 3 tune. The tune menu doesn't allow you to move material. If you change material and go right into "move material", and wait for the head to come up to temp.. It takes quite a bit of knob turning before any material extrudes out. My impression is that after a color change during a pause , no material is extruded at all for a while. I know this because I was printing a vertical thin object. It printed several layers before material started extruding, and eventually started printing "in the air" once material started coming out. This is odd because, as I said, during the material change, you can allow a lot of material to flow out before hitting "ready" to go on to the next step in the change material process. It is as if it is retracting material after the color change, and it is not accounted for in the printing process. Note this is not a noticeable problem if you only change colors between prints because at the start of every print, the printer extrudes quite a bit of material at the edge of the build platform before starting with the print. Ever notice you can hear the material feed motor running well before material starts to come out?
  20. using an Ultimaker 2 and Cura. If I manually pause a print and change colors, and then restart the print... It seems to work fine. If I use the Cura Pause plugin to pause at a layer and then change the color, and then resume the print, it takes about 2 square inches of printing before any color gets put down. I've tried letting it extrude lots of plastic during the material change, but that seems to have no effect on this. I've tried using the default of 5mm of retraction for the pause, and also tried zero retraction for the pause. Any ideas?
  21. It's an interesting discussion... razor blades vs wood chisels. But I'll be looking for the part to just pop off once cooled. It really should.
  22. could it be that the extruder seriously dug into the already printed plastic and had enough force to push the plate out of position, popping the clips open? could be a problem with your z-axis? or plate height?
  23. I have a wood chisel -- will try next time -- was wondering about using it on glass though....
  24. Now I have an answer... Use a razor blade to get some non-contact, then use running water while prying up and down... It finally popped off! If the build plate was not removable... that part'd still be in there...
  25. niet, ne, lo, nein,nahi, nei, -- Google is fun! I worked the full width of a single edge razor blade under each corner of the model, pried the blade up and down, and pulled on the model... Probably won't be able to play piano for a few hours... the model has a large flat base -- approximately 2.5 inches by about 4 inches. thats a bunch of square inches of solid contact. My wife worked it during the day with a knife... during the day it has developed a few streaks of non-contact area. Now there are 4 non-contact ares in the corners... but it's not budging... back into the freezer!
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