mghtbgiant

I have had an Ultimaker 2 for many years now. I decided to upgrade my printer with the 2+ kit mostly in an attempt to better push flexible filaments as those were always troublesome. Ever since the upgrade, my printer hasn't quite been as turn-key as it was before. Check out the photo. In the front-left corner of this print, you'll notice a nice amount of material put down on this first layer but move just a bit to the right and it gets VERY thin (sometimes no material hits the platform at all). Look a little more to the right and then it's almost too much material. Not pictured, but if you keep going right and there is another thin spot and on the far right it's very thick. I have re-leveled the platform countless times. I am printing with ColorFabb XT and have used this material pretty much since it came out. While it took a little bit to get dialed in and printing perfectly when I first switched to it from standard PLA, I haven't had any issues since very early on with it. I was VERY heavy into printing when I first got my Ultimaker so I'm not a complete noob; however, I made this upgrade a year or two ago and haven't printed much since because this has been so frustrating and I haven't had a ton of time to troubleshoot. My question is, did I mangle something with the print-head installation? Could this be a gantry/rod/alignment issue? Is there something wrong with this newer feeder that isn't pushing material consistently? I doubt it's an issue with the print-head itself. Again, I haven't been using my printer much since I did this upgrade because of this issue and I'm trying to get back into it. Sometimes the issue doesn't really matter and subsequent layers go over it just fine and the print succeeds... however, especially with thinner prints, this can be quite an issue.

I wanted to post a follow-up to my experiences earlier in this thread.. I just installed the UM2 extrusion upgrade kit yesterday. The updated firmware had a filament setting that was close enough for the NinjaFlex Cheetah recommended settings so I used it. Nozzle temp is 235ºC, 70ºC on bed, and 0% on fan. I am using one of the STL files I configured back in January so I'd have to open that up in Cura to see exactly what settings I landed on (or if they deviated from what I posted earlier). Long story short is, out of the gate... this NinjaFlex Cheetah filament (through the new extruder) is printing perfectly!!! I will move on from the Cheetah to the regular NinjaFlex looking through tips/suggestions in here to see if I can get that filament to finally print!

My main point wasn't that fireware upgrade said it failed (when it hadn't). I HAVE experienced that in the past. This firmware upgrade went swimmingly. However, on the printer itself, if I go into the Version area of the Advanced Settings, it still says 2.6.2 on my printer itself, post upgrade; I believe it should say 3.0.3. My question is, is my printer on the upgraded firmware or did the UI do some weirdness where it looked like it was doing something only to then not actually upgrade the firmware. I feel like I'm in flux. I'm fairly certain the upgrade worked but maybe there is a bug in updating the menus on the printer itself? Dunno.

Hello, I just downloaded Cura 3 this morning and ran the firmware update on my Ultimaker 2. Hooray, it didn't tell me the firmware update failed halfway through (even though it always appeared to succeed with the previous versions). Anyway, when I check the version on my Ultimater, it still says 2.6.2 on the Version tab. Does anyone else experience this?

My settings are for the newer filament from NinjaTek (Cheetah) which isn't quite so flexible but supports a much faster print speed. I have seen people talking about 15-20mm/s print speeds for the NinjaFlex which I will try. One thing I learned with finally getting the Cheetah filament to print was the combination of nozzle temp and cooling fans. It seems there is a sweet spot where the material flows well but can then be too liquid/sticky on the next layer which then just pulls it up.

Well, I thought I replied to this yesterday but I don't see it. So, I will repost. I found this thread looking for some settings for the NinjaTek Cheetah filament. I bought a roll of the NinjaFlex a long time ago and never got it to bring worth a darn so I gave up and let it sit. Anyway, as of yesterday, I finally got a successful print with the Cheetah filament and I thought I would post my settings in case it might help someone else. Now that I have managed to get the Cheetah to print, I will use these settings as a starting point for the NinjaFlex and maybe I can finally get that to filament to print as well. CURA: Layer Height - 0.1mm Print Speed - 45mm/s Travel Speed - 120mm/s Combing - All Print Cooling - 50%, layer 1 Retraction - Disabled UM2: Nozzle Temp - 222ºC Buildplate Temp - 0ºC Material Diameter - 2.9mm Material Flow - 103% I did have to babysit it, seemingly mostly on the solid bottom layers. It would seem that the material clogs itself ever so slightly in the nozzle. I kept my eye on it and my hand on the feeder. If that was happening, I would pull back on the filament and push it back up. You might say it could be related to the increased material flow.. and maybe that's the case. I will keep playing with it. I was never able to get this material to print without increasing the flow a smidge. Hope this helps someone!

Excellent! Thanks for the info! Do you anything know of the positioning changes? EDIT: I just installed the plugin. I see the author mentions it may break in a future release but for now it's exactly what I was after!! Thanks so much for the suggestion!

Hello, I have had my Ultimaker 2 for about 2.5 years and was very active with it to begin with. Circumstances changed and it sat for a while but now I'm back into it pretty heavy. The whole point of that mini back-story was that "old" Cura (old here would be versions 14.09-15.04) was fantastic with auto-positioning objects on the build plate. I am finding that the newer versions of Cura are pretty terrible; it's always putting things off the build plate to one side or the other when there's plenty of room forcing me to then manually reposition things. Am I missing something? Did the positioning algorithm change between "old" and "new" versions? Secondly, because of this, I'm constantly repositioning things on the build plate and every single time I let up on a mouse button, Cura starts reslicing. Can that be delayed? Can I put it into a "do not slice until I push this button" mode? Let me get things where I want on the build plate, then hit "SLICE AWAY" or some such. Seems like a much better use of CPU to me. My machine is starting to show its age and having Cura continually slicing slows things down substantially. In other news though, I'm so glad to be back to printing! I will be upgrading to the new extruder (2+ kit) shortly! Love my Ultimaker!

Thank you kindly! Everyone's help is much appreciated!

The print came off just fine. I see some gaps between passes so the nozzle needs adjusted down just a smidge. I just tweaked the screws a skosh so we will see how the next print goes! Thanks for the help.

It does. I ASSumed that I'd need to (or be better off) logging in before submitting a ticket. I didn't even attempt to just submit the ticket. And, my test print just finished. I'm going to let it cool a spell and see how it comes off.

Absolutely. I understand the difference. I am a software developer by trade. And, I tried logging into the support system and it tells me "invalid email or password." Then I thought maybe it was a separate login system so I tried to register and it told me my email address was already in use. Then, I reset my password. Still no dice. But yeah, the glass breaking. That's bananas. I actually ordered myself an extra plate when I first bought the machine so I am good to go but this one should not have broken. So, I still need to talk to them about it.

This initial layer went down a lot more "normally". It seems entirely probable that the build-platform was too high. As I have owned this machine, and tinkered with all manners of settings, I had a period where I had the nozzle VERY near the platform and thought I had gotten away from doing that. On the last batch of levels, I must've gone back to being too close. And, now that I think about it, I have used the same piece of paper for the fine-tuning, for a VERY long time. There's a good chance it's been squished done in places and no longer usable for this means. I will see how this part comes off the print bed and let you know.

The first layer certainly isn't as opaque as it's simply not very thick. However, I'm trying to point out that this isn't my first batch of prints. I am experiencing something different between 14.09 to 14.12.1. I just switched to a PLA filament and re-re-re-re-re-leveled; this time I only went for the absolute minimum of resistance from the sheet of paper (which would be a higher nozzle distance). I am printing a plain round disc about 40mm in circumference and about 3mm high. As an aside, it's a model I made for these discs one of my kid's toys shoots. In any case, I also noticed in 14.12.1. When you go through the bed-leveling wizard, when you're done on the second time around, the print head remains at the front-right corner of the platform; it does not home.

Gotcha. I am not using any translucents. All I have used, to date, are all solid colors.

Yes. The only materials I have on-hand are the single roll of green Ultimaker filament that came with the printer and all the rest are ColorFabb products: XT Black, XT Purple, and a bunch of PLA/PHA filaments. I've printed lots of things in both materials.. many hours worth. I've had great prints and bad prints (mostly the bad ones are when I'm fumbling with settings seeing what does what).

This wasn't specifically isolated to the XT, that just happened to be what I was using when the glass just broke. I do use all ColorFabb products, though. Maybe I take this opportunity to try to print something that's never worked because it always breaks free from the platform! In any case, I'll try to set up a camera and film what's happening. I've had the printer for about 3 months and have printed.. a LOT on it. I've leveled/re-leveled/re-re-leveled. I did see one print going where it was getting too squished on one side and had to adjust it on the fly and it flattened out nicely. I'm getting more and more of the feeling that something is going on with my machine and no one else has seen this.

Appreciated. The main point of this thread is about the ultra-fine first layer I have been experiencing since moving from 14.09 to 14.12.1. The ruined prints is a side-effect. I'm curious if anyone else is seeing this.

I left this print on the bed for many hours after it was finished. I have never, ever, removed the build plate and put it in a fridge. I do not use any sort of additional adhesive for my prints as I've always had great luck with pressing the PLA straight onto the glass.

Are you saying you've experienced similar gluing?? I see there were some versions of Cura I skipped between 14.09 and 14.12.1 but I didn't use those. So, it's possible what I am experiencing isn't directly related to 14.12.1. I still can't fathom the issue unless the firmware is doing something behind the scenes like pushing out a "pre-initial-layer" at the highest resolution possible before laying down the actual first layer. I haven't seen anything about it in the forums so there is a high likelihood it's only happening to me. But, if you're saying you've been having problems removing your prints maybe I'm not the only one!!

And, I can't log into support.ultimaker.com. Wonderful. I was planning on just flipping over the plate but I don't think what happened is "normal" or should've happened. And, I'm still curious as to what's causing the initial layer funkiness. Maybe it thinks it's printing a very thin raft? I don't ever print with a raft but that's something I thought late last night to check.

In a crazy turn of events... removing the print I was doing yesterday actually pitted out part of the glass from the build-plate!!! How does that even happen?!? And, more importantly, who do I talk to to get it fixed? I was printing with ColorFabb XT material. This is bananas. I let this thing completely cool for hours after the print was finished.

I lowered the bed from how I would level it in the past. I've been releveling a lot lately trying to play with how the first layer is put down. In the past, I've had the bed very close results in superfluous squish which creates a ridge around the base of the print. I don't mean to sound all "no, that's not it". I very much appreciate your help.

I did apply the firmware update. I also did a factory reset on the unit and went through releveling everything. The initial layer setting was set to (I believe the default of 0.0). EDIT: I believe the default is 0.0. It was definitely set to 0.0. My statement was ambiguous possibly suggesting I didn't know what it was set to. This print was set to .2mm layer height. And, I realize this isn't very high. However, on 14.09, I was very used to a much thicker looking initial layer. I thought maybe there was a bug in the initial layer 0.0 rolling over to the main layer height value, but I manually changed the initial layer to .2 and it didn't change anything. So, my guess is that it's now actually printing a .2mm initial layer where 14.09 was printing something far thicker. And, by "detrimental to the finished product" I mean, the prints are SOO stuck to the print bed, they are very stubborn to remove which has ruined the bottoms of some of the parts I'm printing. I am waiting for it to cool but only to where the machine says the print is finished. I am going to let this part that I'm printing right now cool down even more to see if that helps. Basically, it's almost as if the initial layer is coming out like a thin layer of glue rather than a layer of the print. It's translucent and has to be razored off after the print is removed. Before, I would remove the print and the glass would be (mostly) spotless.

I have recently made the jump up to Cura 14.12.1 from 14.09. I am noticing now, my first layer is printing ridiculously thin. It is possible that this could have been an issue with 14.09 where it was putting down too much material on the first layer and I was just used to it whereas now it's doing it more "correctly"? I will say one thing.. with this "new" initial layer... my prints are sticking more than ever to the printbed. And, sometimes this is detrimental to the finished product! Any ideas?