cloakfiend

Lol, one day.... still waiting for my electroplating machine to arrive.....

you most likely have a blocked nozzle, do some atomic pulls. i personally wouldnt worry too much about the dust inside too much if you dont feel like taking it apart, although i would take it apart just to get used to messing with the printer in general. dont be afraid. its one of the main reasons i bought this and not the lame closed source makerbot. which would be doomed at this point. like robert said, just pop the blue thing out and push down on the white thing and yank the tube out. then i just get an air duster can to spray air inside clearing out any dust. i can see little bit of filament in mine after several grindfests but i saw it doesnt interfere with taking in new filament so it doesnt matter at all. usually a couple of jets of air from the can clears everything. id recommend a little spray down the bowden tube as well to clear anything out just incase there is a lot of fine dust in there. just make sure everything is kept clear and clean. i seriously doubt you need to take anything apart. this happened to me all the time. i only took it apart once. it made me feel better knowing the muck buildup was gone, but that as before i used the keyboard air duster can to clear it. it comes with a long straw that you can direct i to the tubes and the feeder t blow any loose bits away.

I thought it would be acetone vapour due to the slightly lumpy look. nice model though. Im taking a rest from zbrush for now, and doing some cute houses. one of many. still a few issues with intersecting geometry around the window frames and such but I'm sure i can sort that out fairly easily. will smooth it up and spray it later.

15.02.01 is what i use, just checked, tick support everywhere and you should be fine.

I only had a few tangled prints i admit and usually got uneven layer lines due to the filament roll being stiff and gently tangled, but it was enough to affect the print. I only get under-extrusion if my nozzle is getting blocked slowly hence resorting to printing off the roll. Under-extrusion is something I normally never see now and only got it when I wasn't doing any atomic pulls, or doing them wrong. Im pretty sure that the main reason for under extrusion is a slightly (even very slightly) blocked nozzle that many people assume is clean, and just carry on, combined with the 2.85 stiffness, and having to work hard to pull and rotate the roll amongst some other factors im sure. But having to rotate the roll as opposed to not having to and a slightly blocked nozzle make sense for a likely failure. Like perfect code, anything added to it like protection and security is essentially making the code less perfect and more prone to errors. Like printing off the roll, without it you are simply taking away a lot of weight the feeder has to pull. Im sure bearings would help tons, and if i buy a UM I will definitely do the bearings roll holder, which i'm sure combined with keeping an eye on the filament and not letting it wildly untangle. i've done 4 massive prints on the roll recently with new UM blue filament and the quality was different on essentially the same parts, but was fairly acceptable, but I was curious as to why, the next print i did revealed why. A slow jam, i got complacent with my atomic pulls and didn't check the shape closely enough, and i'm pretty sure that is what so many people are also doing wrong. with a perfectly clean nozzle, i'm not really getting any problems what so ever. Just doing atomic pulls and not actually making sure they are actually cleaning the nozzle is completely pointless. i did them hot, cold, twisted it one way from hot then, twisted it from cold, everything i could think of to clear the damn thing. It appeared that even after 30 pulls my burnt nozzle was so bad i didnt see any difference, but the pull after changed my mind. I have sorted the nozzle. Mind you if i had an olssen block, id just swap it out and problem solved. But if you just make sure you don't burn your nozzle by printing with too much flow or whatever may cause a jam and clean it properly, im sure you'll be ok. I've not changed my nozzle since i bought it and the quality is identical to my first print. I did not enjoy wasting hours doing 30 plus atomic pulls but i learnt that the nozzle is mostly likely responsible for the majority of jams and under extrusion, and feeder issues. the feeder is fine its the nozzle you need to take care of.

i agree about the waste, but i don,t cut off tiny pieces any more, and as this printer is not mine i want to get the best i can with the stock equipment. if you show me where to buy the parts and stuff id give it a go but i dont have the time to research this at the mo as i'm going through a bad patch at work and have enough to worry about as it is, on top of maintaining the printer and doing my daily work and the usual life problems. id love to be able to do everything but i just dont have the time, thats when i resort to paying for stuff. i do a lot as it is, lol. bearings wont stop a tangle unfortunately so if i want something almost guaranteed perfect i know im highly likely to get it off the roll. i do print on the roll, but only when the filament used is too much to cut off the roll. my early prints where all on the roll, so its not completely useless, but the angle of the roll holder would greatly benefit from being at a slight angle towards the feeder as the fact that its straight means its always pulling harder towards the printer when its further away on the roll which shifts the filament and most likely is responsible for a large proportion of tangles.

Agreed, I always start colorfabb hotter and bring it down, it works well, i start at 215-220 for the first few layers and go to 208 or whatever after. If you print too cool, it tends to crack, mind you i have not tried with orange but colorfabb black and red both cracked at too cool temps for me.

My building roof which now doubles as a wallet, lol. something went wrong here, went all wobbly due to the centre gap.

I agree completely. the only 'real' issue i have is the feeder when it pulling a heavy roll of filament. that is when you get that annoying clicking and skipping sound, and as a result of slightly less filament going into the head that needs to, i am assuming that after some time you make get a clog and a blocked nozzle and all your problems will begin. Once I started printing off the roll, and doing atomic pulls properly (as i didn't do any for the first few months) then ALL my problems (mechanical issues that is) disappeared. The PFTE thing is a strange beast though but easy to replace, so thats not an issue for me anymore. I now using PLA it will roughly last me for about 6-8 months if im lucky, but as soon as i see some deformation on it it will go. This resulted in tragic failure and a 6hour jam where the nozzle got burnt badly. This works just great.

Fair enough, but still, if they print like it cant be bad, and........it does eliminate a lot of problems and uneven filament issues in the model I can say that for sure. After using this method I get no clicks from the feeder at all what so ever as opposed to always hearing them intermittently and them driving me crazy wandering why they are doing that irritating noise. Printing like this made me not worry about leaving long prints and worrying about tangled filament at all. just make sure to lay it perfectly not overlapping any coils, don't just pull it off the roll and hang it on the holder randomly or you will get a tangle obviously, trying to make things as print friendly in ALL areas as much as you possibly can is the secret to the best quality prints (even though it should be fairly common sense!)... the only downside is you cant lay that much at the back for heavy use of filament prints. I stopped measuring off exact amounts as it got boring and a tad wasteful so now i just get as much on as i can fit now, and its kinda having a small roll, but without the friction of the filament holder which i still think is angled badly and shouldnt be poking straight out of the back but at a slight angle towards the feeder.

havent posted here in a while due to not doing much acetoning lately. im actually resorting to filler and sanding at the mo as my pieces are huge and its just easier as i need to glue them together. i dont like acetoning pieces after they've been glued as it means i need to put on more filler and yet more sanding. this next piece is a failed print that is way too thin and full of holes and i thought the acetone would melt it, but it held up quite well. i used a brush to keep reapplying the acetone. it went a bit whiter due to the brush having filler residue still in it. colorfab red pla. this is much smaller than i normally print. i rubbed some wire wool over it after jut to remove some of the residue before i sprayed it,and i like what it did, a subtle smooth.

If your model is closed, then scale away, but if its open like mine, then its paramount you get get the shell thickness right during modelling. By the way its 1.2mm as a division of the size of the stock UM2 nozzle which is 0.4, you should stick to this rule, basically 0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6......you get the drift. otherwise you are forcing the printer to spit out either too much or not enough plastic for it diameter, or do multiple passes or something, dont quote me on that though i could be wrong, but stick to divisions of 0.4 for sure unless you're using a different nozzle.

I find its usually a slow jam. The head is not 100% clean, but looks as if it is. Look real close and make sure its a 'perfect shape of the inside of the nozzle and if there is even the slightest dent or anything like that its not clean. Also print off the roll. I can almost guarantee if you do that you will be fine. Even with weird hydraulic pressure occuring with my pfte and two horrific jams that burned my nozzle for like 6 hours, i sorted it with 32 odd atomic pulls. Now its all good. I just have to make sure to do my atomic pulls gently now due to the hydraulic pressure. just like you everything was going great....then complete failure, burnt out nozzle and filament was ground to dust by the feeder. and seriously consider printing OFF the roll, i see they even do it on the ultimaker front page! lol. I have lots of old PLA lying around since 1 year, from UM and Colorfabb and have had no problems at all. But maybe i've been lucky. Printing off the roll alleviates a lot of tension.

Yep, loads of them too, mainly on posts i made myself, so i'm getting notifications of my own post.

I have just recently made a little mistake in making my walls too thin in the 3D app i was using because i intended to print the object much bigger, which meant the walls are now also smaller. I made the eyes extra thick which is why they printed ok. this model is so thin i think its about 0.2-0.3 mm thick. and ripped off the plate, and full of holes. Just a warning about scaling your objects, i'm very casual about this stuff, but its very important as if you model something with 1.2 mm walls or whatever, then never scale it down too much in cura as it makes the walls too thin to print. i make everything flat (no polygon thickness) and give its thickness in the 3d app by extruding inwards, then use 1.2 mm walls to make it solid i think its a good workflow as it means i have full control. here are the pics of my recent too thin print to highlight what im on about... and the holes.... I think i actually used more filament on the support material than the actual model, lol! 3.5m

When doing atomic pulls you may as well get an air duster (which usually comes with a straw) then pop that in the bowden tube and spray it to clear it, some people say they run the filament through pipe cleaners to rid it of dust as it enters the bowdentube, but this adds friction in my opinion so i just keep it clean after every print and print off the roll and that reduces the pull the feeder has to do hence no skipping and grinding. dust and fine particles of filament can build up over time and cause clogs too. i air dust everything, and its also great at taking large flat objects off the glass plate easily by holding it upside down and spraying it getting inbetween the glss and model. This basically releases the glue by supercooling it and the model just pops off as long as you get it inbetween the glass.

These are my settings and cura version if you were wondering, im not using the new cura, as i come from the universe of if it ain't broke don't fix it. I have zero issues with this one so i see no need what so ever for further development, especially aesthetic ones. i'm sure others would argue differently, but i'll leave that opinion for another thread. I print everything with these setting and only adjust the speed, the quickest i print is at 70mm/s and slowest 35, then 50. i print 210 at 35 218ish at 50 and 225ish at 70.

Just make sure the walls aren't too thin. i do 1.2mm all over and no infill. Even complete spheres print fine like this. You only need infill if the layer is flat or begins lower than the surrounding area, but you could always hollow out the model in a 3D program and just print with supports and it will still save a lot of time and filament in the long run. Infill is usually pointless unless you are making working parts, for art stuff don't waste your time, it easy to just drill a small hole and fill it with plaster of paris to make it heavier . here are two objects printed with no infill or support. walls 1.2mm which i think is the perfect thickness. ignore print quality, and the gold one is just some gold leaf slapped on the model as a test, but i'm just trying to show the fact you dont need infill as much as you think. From experience, if you make the walls too thin then it wobbles when you print and the surface quality isn't as good as with thicker walls. The smaller the model the less need for infill.

yeah i am getting a bunch of stuff for a big project and this olsson block sounds like it makes perfect sense. atomic pulls waste tons of time. I printed out roberts feeder a while back but was a bit confused about the Feeder V6 Yoke And Hub 35mm business and all the different lengths so never got round to installing it and am still confused about it, lol. i wish there was just one thing to download and print, im not to good at this stuff and am afraid of messing with the feeder as i tried mssing with that spring thing once to adjust the tension but it didn't seem to do anything and was too tight as it was. then the motor fell into the side, but i just dug it out wasn't too bad to put it back even though i put it on backwards by mistake so everything was in reverse! lol.

Anything with a graduated slope will generally print just fine. and the benefit of it is you usually don't need any infill with these either.

Btw, i know you said you are doing atomic pulls correctly but it took me around 32 atomic pulls recently before i cleared out my nozzle properly and even with a weird PTFE coupler it seems to be printing fine now with zero jams. you need to be really anal about the atomic pulls. they need to look perfect as even the slightest bump or scuff mark will slowly block the nozzle again. And dont play with too many settings, and if you are new to this dont play with setting on the printer during printing in my opinion as you dont really know what you are doing yet, and once you know how to get good prints, then fine tune it on the fly. The only setting i touch on the printer while its printing is temp. apparently 110 flow fixes bad top surfaces at .2 layer height but dont worry about that, one problem at a time. Nine times out of ten, the nozzle is jammed when you get gaps. And you may wan to use an older cura as well, i find this new one not as good. But thats just my opinion as it doesnt load as many of my objs as the old one did. Good luck. P.s. save yourself some filament and cancel the print immediately if you see it going wrong, as whats the point in carrying on once its started to go wrong. It only clears up if you are lucky from a gentle roll jam, but if its the nozzle then you are doomed. And nine times out of ten its the nozzle.

If you want to make a paper pressure mold then some skills in 3d will go a long way to make pretty much anything you want. In a 3D program you would make the model you want to create in paper. Then create a big object that covers your main one entirely with a really high polycount as we aren't really interested polygon edge flow or polys at all other than you need enough to create a halt decent boolean (as booleans are notoriously bad in terms of polymodelling and usually need lot of cleanup afterwards) at all. then you would make a boolean of the object and subtract it from the big 'mold'. then you would simply split the mold and boolean a ton of holes through the centre of the mold to get your pourous holes. you don't need holes in the sides, there just there to let the water out. kinda like a garlic presser. Then make a hinge and voila! done! But thats just how i would do it. Quick and dirty. If you have your object, you could probably knock the molds out in about 15-20 mins of modelling time. maybe a touch longer if you are trying to be precise, but there is no reason to be precise if you are making paper cast molds as you wont notice the difference in the end. edit..i just looked at that page, and it seems like you want the holes in the edges. still my method would work, but the holes would simply be shifted to the side.

@londerjan, you're gonna have issues regardless. Its the nature of the beast. Its unavoidable, just a matter of time. Knowing how to sort them out is part of the 'fun' . There may also be times when you want to pick up the printer and smash it on the ground out of frustration. But its all worth it when it works.

Try some curas in between. The old cura had awful supports, im using 15.02.01 or something and staying away from the new cura as its still beta in my opinion and the interface is too slow for me.

have you tried printing off the roll like in my pic?