nux

In case anyone stumbles across this thread, I thought I'd post an update as to what the problem was. The issue I was having was making any sort of adjustment of the 4 screws without re-seating the bowden tube. I "fixed" this issue by loosening the screws a lot, but the plastic pieces of the head had decent gaps. To resolve this issue I removed the bowden tube, tightened the screws so they snug and holding everything together properly, and then placed the bowden tube in like illuminarti stated above. I have learned if any adjustments/changes are made to the print head (like removing 4 screws to dig out a bowden clip that fell in), you need to re-seat the bowden tube.

Thanks for following up. This photo was taken after I put it back together. I had the set screw out and the heater just fine. I did contact support about the temp sensor as it didn't look right to me. I printed the 10mm3/s test and it printed wonderfully. I believe in the process of printing hot and fast it helped clean out the little bit that might have been stuck in there. The printer seems to be working well for the most part, but still not like it was days ago. I bumped up extrusion % on bottom layer to 120% and am printing a little warmer and prints are turning out well. I will continue to look into this further when I hopefully figure out the sensor issue so I can give the nozzle a proper cleaning. Thanks for the input!

Follow up - I found some .38mm needles at a local craft store. I run them through the nozzle and there is a bit of resistance. I heated the nozzle up to 250 and it didn't change. I have only ever printed PLA with this printer. Is this normal or could there be an issue with the nozzle as well? Thanks

Here's some images of the teflon ring: http://nux.net/p/blob4.jpg http://nux.net/p/blob5.jpg http://nux.net/p/blob6.jpg It seems that if I run the small hex key over the area there is a small ridge on one side of the discolored side. I suspect this may have gotten to warm and melted a bit. Can I straighten this will a drill bit or something? I was attempted to take the temperature sensor out and it wont move at all. The video above shows it out slightly when he started to pull his out, but mine seems to be completely in the block and bent around the top: http://nux.net/p/blob7.jpg Should I give it more force and twist to get out? I didn't pull too hard initially. I figure with it this far apart I may as well clean that as much as I can. Thanks, -nux

This happened right after that blob/mess happened. The speed and print settings worked wonderfuly until the print after that blob. I confirmed the bed is level and first layer is going down like it should. I use 0.1mm height, 20% infill, 0.8 top/bottom & shell, initial layer height is .2, initial layer speed is 20, and bed temp is 65. I will take a look at cooling fans to make sure they're working as intended, but they are at 100% on 0.5mm height. I just checked those and all the fans are working fine. My guess is the white coupler thing or the nozzle has some residue the atomic thing cant grab? I'm just guessing here.... That blob stuck to the end for a good 20 minutes so I'm thinking maybe heat started backing up the nozzle? If I slow the machine down to ~25mm/s and change material flow to 130-150% it prints quite well.

I'm printing a "lozenge" that I use to test. The issue is almost identical to the one here in term of symptoms: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/8651-gap-between-solid-infill/ I am using matterhackers pro white pla. .1 line height 50mm/s @ 210. This test little square is what I use when changing colors to make sure I get rid of the old stuff and for any testing like this. Here is an image of some of the test prints: http://nux.net/p/blob2.jpg Bottom: http://nux.net/p/blob3.jpg

Hello, A print detached from the bed and created a blob on the end of the extruder. It wasn't that bad (http://nux.net/p/blob1.png) as I stopped the print within 30-45 minutes. Since then I have been seeing under extrusion. I recently ran into an issue with extrusion (http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/8651-gap-between-solid-infill/) and was able to resolve it. I took many of the steps I learned there to try and fix the problem now but haven't had any luck. The issue I am seeing is 100% infill (solid top/bottom) is showing gaps between lines mostly on the bottom layer or two, and then the top doesn't get a nice solid infill like it should. I removed and reseated the bowden tube. Cleaned out the extruder with canned air, did the atomic method a few times, and looked into the head the best I could. I haven't had any success yet. My next thought is to remove the head and see what that looks like. In this video linked from umfoum ( ) there is mention of: Removing the nozzle stresses the heater and the temperature sensor, which are a bit fragile, and there is always a risk that you ruin them doing this.I am assuming something in the head is causing me these issues at this point. But I would appreciate someone's opinion who has more experience before I start taking this thing apart knowing there's some risk involved.

Thanks gr8! When I was cleaning the bowden tube the top clip fell down the gab. I took the 4 screws off to get it out. I'm trying not to get my hopes up yet, but so far it looks like the cause of this issue may have been those screws too tight! Approximately how tight should they be? I didn't see any mention in the assembly instructions beyond "tighten". I am crossing my fingers that this was it!

Thanks for the input. I have gone through maybe 2/3 of the spool of UM light blue filament. The first spool I noticed the big issue on was a brand new yellow matterhackers pro pla, so I suspect the tightness of the coil is not it. I had the printer off until I made the lozenge yesterday. It was as cool as it gets when I started that print. I didn't see any difference between prints with the machine being hotter/colder. The room the printer in is my work office, and sits around 65-70 degrees with about 30% humidity. I only moved the printer from my desk to about 5 feet from where it was, to a dedicated stand I got for it. I also put it up on some 35mm feet (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:563927) with small non slip circle things on the bottom. As I think back now, I recall seeing mid print that I could see a small ridge/indent in the perimeter lines few days to a week before I noticed this current issue. Looking back I suspect that was the same issue as it was starting. I would just adjust the temperature up a little. This was surprising as I was printing at settings that worked great shortly before with the same filament. As a stopgap to get this to work I have increased temperature and slowed down the print speed. I have not done a factory reset, I will try that tonight or tomorrow. Thanks!

I did the temperature test and it looked ok. I do notice that if I'm printing at 210 and set the temp down to 205, it will often go down to high 190s (197ish) before going back up to 212ish, then down to 202 up to 208 etc etc. It takes quite a while and fluctuates greatly while adjusting. The fluctuation is greater if the adjustment is larger. A 220->200 adjustment would probably reach into the high 180s. When it does get to the target temperature it holds it well. I haven't ever updated the firmware. I'm currently on 14.09.0 with the latest version of Cura. I don't see a change long or anything in the github repo on firmware, but I see 14.12 is the latest releases there. I could upgrade to the latest RC or release version - do you think that could help with my issues? I'm guessing it wouldn't based on the fact that it printed well at first. My guess is it's a hardware issue as nothing changed with the software since I got the machine. With this being week two of a year warranty, what could I expect Ultimaker to do in this situation? I submitted a ticket yesterday but don't expect to hear back until Monday or so. Thanks

I was able to get a good print going at 220C and 25mm/s =/

I clipped off a small portion on the bottom. I put a little vegetable oil on a piece of filament and ran it through the tube a couple times to make sure it was clean and I didn't notice any resistance. I put it back together, fed some filament in and there isn't much of a change. The gap in lines seems a bit more random. At first I was excited as it started laying it down well, but within the second layer it got worse. At about layer 3 I stopped it in this image. I pulled it off the bed before it cooled so it twisted a bit, that wasn't related to the print: http://nux.net/p/um-8.jpg There's even a decent sized gap between some of the perimeter lines here. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I could do next?

The cone came out without any debris. I can shine a light through the bottom and see it clearly when looking down. I did just look at the bowden tube coming up from the extruder. It looks a bit messed up. I've had issues with filament skipping while loading initially. I was able to resolve that by really straightening it before it goes in, and cutting with a pliers to get a crunched cut. Here is a photo: http://nux.net/p/um-7.jpg It is a couple MM at the bottom of the tube. Can I cut this off? I am crossing my fingers this is the issue. I need to run to the store to get some vegetable oil to lube this up before I try again.

I've had this machine for about two weeks now. I recall in the manual it says maintenance should be done every 6-12 months so I hadn't thought of that. The belts all feel the same and I can feel lubrication with a quick run of my finger over a portion of the rods. The fans have been on their default settings - nothing changed there. I think my next step is to completely remove the bowden tube and put some vegetable oil on some filament and run it through it a few times to make sure there aren't any strings or anything left in there that aren't visible. I have changed the filament a handful of times, and take the time to pull the strings out but wouldn't be suprised to find something in there still as some of the strings are long and barely visible. One note is that this lozenge has printed just fine at least a dozen times. I slowed the 20mm cube speed to 50% of 50mm/s, so 25mm/s and the results were the same.

Hello, A recently noticed an issue with a print. I could pretty much see the infill below the top solid layers. I print with 0.1 layer height, 0.8 shell thickness, 0.6 top/bottom infill, and normally at 205C at 30-40/mms. Here's a photo of the first time I noticed the issue: http://nux.net/p/um-1.jpg I then loaded up a "lozenge" that I normally use for testing new filament colors after changing. This has printed like a champ up until now: http://nux.net/p/um-2.jpg I don't recall the print speed on the lozenge as I created it weeks ago, but I left the temp at 210 when I normally print at 205. I found I was able to find a nice balance of speed/temp and have printed many objects. It seems something has changed somewhere with my machine. My first thought was under-extrusion, that I've heard so much about, so I printed another circle here: http://nux.net/p/um-3.jpg I was expecting an issue with this, but this tells the extrusion doesn't seem to be the cause. Leading up to these issues I noticed that on a large first layer, the extruder moter would skip occasionally. I believe this was caused by a string in the tube, as it went away after manually removing the filament and using the atomic method to clean the nozzle. I am testing this right now with the light blue ultimaker filament that I received with the printer. I mostly use matterhackers pro pla (which is what the white/yellow is in). I've had success with them up until these recent issues. I am printing a 20mm box from the "Essential Calibration Set" and it just started the first solid of the top layers. I am seeing not a single line was able to go over the gaps in the 20% infill. Here's a photo of the top of it when it completed: http://nux.net/p/um-4.jpg Here are some photos I quickly took as it was printing: first top solid layer: http://nux.net/p/um-5.jpg second top solid layer: http://nux.net/p/um-6.jpg This 20mm box was printed at 210 at 50mm/s Any suggestions?

Thanks for all the help and input. I have just completed the two at a time with the settings Labern recommended. Here are the results: http://nux.net/p/um2-7.jpg Definitely an improvement. With the stock cooling and this light blue filament is this as good as it gets for this small object? If so that's good to know and I'll work on getting a fan shroud and finding a local distributer (US) to try some other filament colors. Seems odd to get the light blue filament and have this as the first print. Is this the fan shroud you are referring to? https://www.youmagine.com/designs/fanduct-another-idea Thanks, -nux

Perfect, thanks!

Hello, I recently purchased an Ultimaker 2. I've been working with Printrbot Simple Metal for the past month and it was a great learning experience. I wanted a tool to build things, as opposed spending a large portion of my time tweaking and adjusting. I printed my first Ultimaker Robot and it didn't turn out as well as I hoped. I have read that this is not uncommon. Here are some images: http://nux.net/p/um2-1.jpg http://nux.net/p/um2-2.jpg http://nux.net/p/um2-3.jpg http://nux.net/p/um2-4.jpg http://nux.net/p/um2-5.jpg http://nux.net/p/um2-6.jpg Since then I've tried a few adjustments, lowering speed and temperature but haven't seen the results I'd like. Before I go much further, I was hoping it could be as simple as someone telling me the settings required to get this first Ultimate Robot as good as it gets (pretty much perfect I hope?). I have a brand new Ultimaker 2 with the latest firmware and am using the blue filament spool that was included. Thanks, -nux