cloakfiend

Lol, i just looked at my coupler as i kicked of a print just now, and from the looks of it its pretty badly melted and not even touching the base. I have been forcing prints for the last month or 2 due to the change material doing nothing but grinding due to getting stuck at the head, but i wondered that this was unsusual as i never had to do this before, but i just got used to it as both preheating the nozzle and base and moving a bit of material right before i kick of a print is the only way i can do it now. so i think i need this coupler also. I think i needed it 2 months ago. Lol. Can i get one sent also? Ive had the printer since november, so my guess is that if you print all the time, at 210 you'll need one every 6 months or so. I did briefly experiment with abs at higher temps for a month at the start, so i admit its hard to tell. Ill post pics of it once its finished tomorrow.

Thanks, fair enough, I guess like everyone, when something goes wrong, i'll just come here for help! All good so far.

Could someone possibly tell me whats the longest that this coupler will last or is expected to last, just out of curiosity?

Ahh mine does the same thing, i thought it was just the feeder causing all the problems. I have been printing almost non stop since last November, just curious but when do you think i will start to need replacement parts, say fans or this coupler? shall i just wait for things to fail, or would it be wise to get a few things in advance so it doenst disrupt my workflow? How long can i run it with the above problem, or is is minimal as i really dont mind pulling out the bowden as i do it everytime to load filament anyways. P.S. that bit of filament you posted doesnt look like you've done it right or its the couplers fault, as the sides of the filament should be melted? these are an example of what my pulls look like and what i aim to get the tip out looking like. Note the plastic is not shiny at the end, and there are no grip marks at all. When i atomic pull i always push it in slightly while it is cooling down to make sure its touching the sides and cleaning the best i can get it too.

Lol, you couldn't be further from the truth mate.... maybe thats what you think because i have literally posted my entire experience and attempts/successes/fails/everything and observations. I thought that's what this place was for, i dont do things like the very first video post i made on this subject, and after i do a new tutorial i will delete this entire thread, as people still mail be about safety nonsense that doesnt apply like wearing gloves and doing it outside and blah blah. The way i do it now has zero danger levels and i still consider it to be the ONLY method of clearing those nasty lines the best i can. Id still reccomend a bit of sanding depending on your models wobble factors during printing though as if your model is thin then it maybe jiggle if there is fine detail in it and the head moves a lot. As I have said so many times in the past. These next pictures illustrate the WORST surface quality you will achieve via my 'safe' acetone method, followed by a spray undercoat (very thin) and one spray coat of gold. The model is printed at 60microns 35mm/s UM blue PLA went a bit thin on the shell (forgot to change my settings back) and a 9 hr print. If you can beat that with no sanding or filler in 25 seconds then show me and ill ditch the acetone. These are in reflective gold taken next to my lit fireplace! oooooooooh danger acetone. Gold is used as reflective materials bring out the lines most, so if it looks good shiny then you know its good. To get it perfect you need to do a touch of sanding after the inital undercoat as you wont see the lines until you spray the model, no matter how perfect you think it looks. Its not.

Didnt see anything regarding PLA on this printer, so it will be useless to me, looks pretty good otherwise. The cartridges seem like a good idea to ensure smooth print lines and no jamming, but limits you to those specifically frm the manufacturer. I like how the UM is open source and i decide how to run it and prep it and load the filament. FDM printing is not consumer ready yet (i.e. idiot proof) . so to buy anything that is not open source is limiting your options drastically. you may have bad experiences with anything and its bad luck that your fan was not working, but after inspection(a few months down the line, i noticed my heat bed was bent upon arrival and fan holders as well, but the bent bed only affects heat using ABS one one side, but i dont care as i dont use abs, and i can overcome any issues anyways but using the abs juice. that is the beauty of these printers, the accessibility. i feel sorry for anyone who has a jam and cant access inside the head to clean it manually. or a jammed roll that is constantly ruining prints by snagging lightly on the filament before it unwinds causing uneven print lines. When i bought my printer i didnt really care where from, i got it from robosavy as that way i had it next day or so. would have been a 2-4 week lead time from UM otherwise and with the support so good on the forum what more would you need. it looks as if the zortax doenst really use PLA much and considering UM (and colorfabb to a lesser extent) produce PLA that dissolves in acetone perfectly to remove print lines at 60microns, I see no reason at all to even be tempted to even look at this printer until i know i can smooth the print lines on its PLA filament .

I think it only does the skipping and bouncing around as it is loading, after everything is loaded, its fine. I am just impatience and like to scroll down immediately which is why i think i always tend to see it (even with a very fast internet connection). I don't like waiting for pages to load.....lol i guess that is my punishment

If i go to the side menu and click on community, and try to scroll down, it always jumps back to the top or vice versa, basically jumping during you moving the page leaving you fighting the direction that the page moves once you start moving it. Im using chrome on a mac, Version 43.0.2357.81 (64-bit) and on OSX Yosemite. Happens on pages with quotes to my recollection, definitely the community page. I seem to recal this happening on my PC as well, win7 pro and chrome again.

Hmm interesting, so then acetone combined with tumbling should then in theory produce a piece with no print lines and a metallic finish? I see the finish is very fragile, but im sure a clear coat could help that somewhat.

Just curious, but i just found myself getting annoyed at the fact that the pages do not move up and down normally when using the side bar on the page especially on the home page with all the quotes from threads not sure if this has been mentioned? It kind of skips to the bottom erratically, and you have to keep scrolling it up every time it jumps to the bottom of the page. very frustrating. again i feel this may be a result of some weird clash with the top bar but not too sure.

Can someone please explain the advantage of a tumbler? im curious what it does exactly to 3d prints? edit, never mind, i see its just for metal printed parts really.

Nice seeing some more painted stuff! Looks great, I was doing an alien as well! lol. But mine was more like the jilted generation front cover, need more zbrush practice as I do most touching up in maya but its very limited and more clubersome with its sculpt tools.

Not sure about all those mods, but I pull when it hits 85, this way I only really ever need one or two pulls. works for me with bog standard PLA filaments. sometimes I get distracted though and forget to look at the temp going down and it goes below 85 which either means it snaps or feels too tight to pull out so I have to start over.

My museum is about to double its size doing peoples faces is turning out to be very popular. Just to let anyone else who likes making faces know. Dont waste your time using catch123 its crap quality compated to autodesks memento. Rezolution is three times better but is only available on pc im afraid.

First time posting from mobile! Delay meant double post cos of slow internet. Sorry. M

My various paint tests.

For pla, acetone all the way. But you need to find the right brand that mixes it with reactable stuff.

Yeah I got those notifications that pointed to nothing new too as well, thought all that was over with????

I've been messing around with copper paint a lot here is a test job! probably the most detailed thing i have floating around at the mo. need to do a kit job soon, getting back into painting models!

Nice paint job!

Just curious i've not used youmagine to up anything, but just put up a model, and when i search for it nothing shows? that doesnt seem right? does it need time to update or something? If i cant even find my model, how is anyone else supposed to?

I found that applying the ABS paste was effective almost all of the time when i applied it to the glass cold, if i applied it even when the glass was still warm from being used earlier or from previous cleaning the ABS would rise up from time to time. If you do use abs juice, make sure you use enough keeping it as thin as you can at the same time so you can get it off easy. cleaning is also easy, as you only need washing up liquid to melt ABS off the glass afterwards. Its very easy to clean.

More acetone photos of Dark green PLA. Did not remove the lines and stay green. Went totally white and not particularly smooth either, but maybe as i didnt want to get th base warped i may have held it under for too ling. but eitherway its getting painted now, as it still did enough smoothing to paint. and some painted sutff too....

I print everything at 35mm/s no infill and at 0.06 layer height. Shell 1.2 and support everywhere and use colorfabb PLA. But feel free to do the best for what works for you. All prints need a bit of love (a bit of a sand)under the overhangs but then a quick acetone dip and they are ready to paint. I dont think people realize how important it is to acetone dip your stuff. If you dont, then forget about painting it in my opinion, unless the paint you are using is mega thick. Get the model looking as good as you possibly can before you paint it, escpecially if you are going to give it a glossy or reflective coat.