shawng

Hey all. I just upgraded my UM2 to an UM2+ and noticed the build volume has shrunk, specifically along the X-axis. My guess is this has to do with the differently-oriented cooling fans on the hot end. Previously, they were at about a 45-degree angle and now they point straight down, which can cause the right fan to butt up against the inner side wall (a problem I had with a similar fan shroud that I had printed myself a while back). If I were to print a shroud that returns these fans back to a 45-degree angle, can I use Cura's settings to put the X-axis width back to the value of the stock UM2? I would assume so but don't want things freaking out on me over custom settings.

I have absolutely no problem listening and learning, cloakfiend. If I came across as close-minded, that wasn't my intent, so please calm down and understand that I'm trying to find ways to work with it that others may have figured out but I haven't yet. Rather than continuing to bash my head against my personal wall that is PLA printing on my machine (as I have for a solid year now), I figured asking may be a better alternative, which is why I did in my last post. I'm not attacking you. Please calm down.

Amusing as that suggestion is, I think it'd be more helpful if you gave me some idea as to how to make this stuff work because everything I've tried has just wasted filament and time.

I picked up a pair of tempered glass panes cut to the UM2 bed size today. After a relatively-quick 4 hour ABS print, the stuff is clear and ready for more. I'm anxious to see how long these last, if they break down at all. Grand total for both panes was about $60, the same price as a single pane of that ceramic glass above.

I purchased several rolls of ColorFabb a few months ago and have been trying them off and on to get them to print. "Inconsistent" is probably the closest descriptive word, albeit without the vehement annoyance implied. I have a roll of red PLA that is barely used, yet every time I end/stop a print or even after the initial loading of it, it jams and the nozzle has to be cleaned again. It also hates every distance between the nozzle and print bed; too close and too far away is apparently the tiniest fraction of a knob turn on the print bed and I cannot, for the life of me, get any of the colors to go down well at all. Feeder clicks even if the nozzle is actually too far away and no temperature range from 200 to 230 seems to be right. All this holds true for both the heated glass bed (yes, I've varied that in all manner of ranges, too) and the PrintInZ Zebra Plate (unheated). I put my old roll of silver Ultimaker PLA in the printer and it works much better on the first layer. The difference is absolutely staggering. It's probably been too long to expect any kind of return or customer support on them, but I will probably be avoiding ColorFabb from here on out.

Something like this? https://www.onedayglass.com/types-of-tempered-glass/heat-resistant-glass/neoceram-glass/ Going through their online quote interface, it looks like a piece of 5/32 neoceram black glass (not transparent at that thickness, for some reason, but the closest thickness to what the UM2 comes with) runs about $60. Might be worth a look.

In the last two days, I've had pieces come off my UM2 glass print bed, still attached to the bottom of my prints. The first one I didn't mind too much; just flipped the glass and was fine. Then some came off that side and now I have to wait till the new plates come in to do any more printing. I'm pretty sure the whole thing was my fault. I had gotten used to taking the glass bed (with print attached) out as soon as it was done printing and putting it on top of my computer, where the computer fans would blow on it and cool it a bit quicker than just leaving it in there to cool with the rest of the printer. The wear and tear of this after dozens of prints probably caused weakness in the glass to build up. Then, when I printed something big enough to stick to enough surface area of the glass, the bond between the bits of glass and print was stronger than within the glass bed itself, as pointed out above. Today I learned not to induce sudden thermal shock to the glass print bed. Eventually, it'll break down on you.

Out of curiosity, did you mean that the nozzle temperature was 255, not build plate? The print bed at 255 is, for one, impossible as far as I know, and would also destroy the Zebra plate. What bed temperature setting are you using? I know some heat is lost between the bed and the print surface (about 30 degrees by PrintInZ's own admission, 110 in the setting vs 80 on the actual surface).