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CapableQuad

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Everything posted by CapableQuad

  1. Did you check the wire connection to the print head? I have add similar problems and invariably reseating that connection solves it. You have to undo the two bolts on the top of the print head to get at it.
  2. No, I didn't, I printed at 0.2 with the default settings, there is the tiniest amount of oozing which causes specs or tiny hairs of material on the back of the shield but this comes off when I brush the surface with my finger. I am happy with the result. I am going to try at 0.25 and a stack of 3 next.
  3. Thank you for help. I started off using the CPE profile which printed fine, but then I found the PETG profiles in the marketplace. I have installed those into my UM3. I am now using the eSun profile as a starting point . I notice that it prints at 250C compared to 235C for the generic CPE profile. I am using my filament drier to keep the PETG at 50C. The face shields are printing really well. Success, thanks for the help.
  4. Thank you, I will try the profile today. I have standard UM cores so I will make the adjustment for line width.
  5. Hi, thank you for your response. I am trying to print the US model. The maximum dimension is around 197mm. I have solved the problem though. It was a simple error. In the 3 years that I have been using Cura, I did not ever understand the meaning of the slightly greyed out portions of the build plate as depicted on the screen. By default Cura seems to center the model onto the center of the build plate. I assumed that the automatic centering placed the model at the optimum location for maximum printing size based on the dimensions of the model. I found out that this is not the case, so by moving the model slightly to the left so that the edge of the model is not encroaching on the slightly greyed out area solved the issue. Perhaps I should have known this if I had read the documents carefully, we sometimes overlook very obvious solutions, but in my three years of printing small models I had never had to utilize the full area of the build plate. This post should probably get moved to the "dumb mistakes" section. Now I need to learn how to print with PETG. I have successfully printed with PLA, ABS and Nylon (with and without PVA support). The face shields call for using PETG, are there any guidelines for using PETG with the UM3? I have looked on this forum and there are a couple of hints, but nothing specific. Thank you.
  6. Anyone manage to print these on a UM3, seems they are too big, even though they are under the dimensions UM advertises as fitting on a UM3. I have been asked by some hospital staff for help printing these as the hospital cannot supply PPE to all staff. I gratefully appreciate any help.
  7. Thank You for the reply, I am a bit new to opening new threads, but I will just jump in feet first (figuratively speaking) Thanks again
  8. This happened to me yesterday on my UM3. I searched and I found this post, I am a quadriplegic so doing the repair described above is a little above my physical capabilities, I was going to get my wife to help me fix it. I was so frustrated because I was needing to print. My wife wasn't going to be able to help me for awhile. I reasoned that if this was just a poor connection issue I may be able to give the white cable feeding into the printhead a little wiggle and a light pull. That is all I can manage anyway. Well sure enough, it fixed the problem, I didn't need to bother my wife and I was happy on my way back to printing. Thank goodness for this forum it has helped me out many times. By the way, if anyone has some physical capability issues, I spend most of the time using my UM3 to create custom assistive devices to help myself or others to more successfully cope with our individual environments. 3D printing is tailor made for this role. I would love to communicate with others either in this situation or just people just trying to help. I apologize for the hijack at the end.
  9. Yes, I don't have any issues as long as I dont use the maintenance option to do head cleaning. I guess we should report it as a firmware or hardware issue if it is prevalent for others?
  10. I had this happen to me yesterday, it has never happened before. I was performing the maintenance procedure for cleaning the print head. I normally do this manually without using the menu system. For some reason I used the maintenance menu to clean the head yesterday, this is the first time I have used this feature since I have owned my UM3. I have done hot and cold pulls manually in the past many times in the past though. At the start of the procedure when the print returned to the home position the problem occurred. I thought it may have been an aberration caused by some dirt or other issue so I tried again using the menu system. The same problem occurred. I therefore performed the hot and cold pulls without using the maintenance menu. Strange thing is that the printer performed normally after this during normal printing operations. Lesson learned for me - don't use the maintenance system for print head maintenance. My guess is that the home position for the automatic procedure is not correct or the range is too specific. Anyone else had this problem (excepting the responses above).
  11. |Hi, I have the Printdry system too, and it works very well for me. My nylon filaments are normally stored in a drybox and then I move the spool to the Printdry from where I feed directly to the UM3. I normally set the Printdry at about 55⁰C. If I have ever left a spool of nylon exposed, then I dry it for a couple of days before I use it. This system seems to work quite well with no problems. I used to significant issues before I started using this process.
  12. I agree with geert_2, I print with nylon a lot, store the nylon in a dryer and feed the printer directly from there. From my experience nylon can absorb enough moisture from a humid atmosphere to affect the printing quality in just a few hours. Listen for faint popping or cracking sounds, this may be an indication that moisture in the filament is an issue. Of course it could be some other problem (or combination of issues) involving the printhead or temperature settings.
  13. I print mostly with nylon, I have not used Ultimaker nylon though, I use Matterhackers Pro nylon. I don't know how they compare with their properties but I know the Matterhackers nylon prints great on my UM3 with "generic" the nylon setting. Now in regards to your shape, I print small prosthetic devices normally between 15mm to 125mm in dimension, mostly between 1.5mm to 10mm thick. The reason I like nylon is that it is semi-flexible and somewhat indestructible. I think your shape should work fairly well, you will have to experiment with the thickness of the web to get degree of stiffness (or bendi-ness) that you want. A caveat with nylon is the degree that it uptakes moisture into the filament. I use a food dryer to keep it dry, many people underestimate how much this can affect the printing process. After it is printed moisture is not an issue. The other issue with nylon parts are that they are difficult (but not impossible) to glue to other material. I hope this helps.
  14. Great! just what I need. Now I will be able to get rid of all the 0.2mm adjustments in my designs using this info. Thank you
  15. In my experience the blob occurs at the start of the "next" print after the abort. In most cases I am trying to reprint after the initial failed print, it is at the prime of the the next print where I get an oversized blob and a long delay during prime before the printhead moves to the start of actual object. Perhaps my ssue is not what other responses are describing?
  16. I have witnessed a similar problem several times after "abort print". It normally occurs during the extrusion of the prime blob. The print head buries itself in the prime blob, stays there for an extended period (much longer than a normal prime blob operation). It then drags the extra large prime blob across to the start of the printed part. At this point I normally abort the print and stop and clean the print head which is coated with filament. I have not noticed the large retraction, it may be occurring, but my attention is normally focused on cleaning the printhead. This never seems to happen after a fresh startup, only after an "abort print". I have the latest firmware in my UM3
  17. Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate receiving information specific to using breakaway filament. I have been experimenting with breakaway and I have found that it works really well on support area locations that can easily be accessed and a larger piece can be pulled off in one chunk. But if there are any areas that are even slightly locked in due to an overhang or pocket in the subject, then the breakaway filament can be a real problem to remove. It comes off in tiny bits and can take a long time to clean up. Back to the hygroscopic question. I had left the breakaway filament exposed on the back of my UM3 for a week now. The ambient temp in my house is 24C and the RH is 60%. I live in a tropical location and both the temp and RH can routinely go much higher. After being exposed for this long I was pleased to find that the breakaway printed very well without any signs of water absorption. I was printing last night using the breakaway as a support for some MatterHackers nylon pro and the parts we're printing perfectly (at least to my criteria). I keep the nylon permanently feeding from a PrintDry set at 50C and this seems to work well. So far, I am reasonably happy with the performance of the breakaway filament, especially in humid conditions. I ended up destroying my part though, because I could not get the breakaway out from under an extreme overhang after using default Cura supports. I think custom supports will be really helpful with breakaway.
  18. Thank you for the feedback. I considered the Polybox system prior to my purchase of an airtight storage box from Target and some $3.00 digital RH/Temp gauges from Ebay. I also purchased a PrintDry system. I keep some desiccant in the Target box along with the bulk of my filaments, and I monitor the RH/Temp with a digital gauge. I print my PVA and Nylon fed directly from my PrintDry system, I monitor the humidity there also. This keeps the water content of those two types filaments under control. I don't have any problems with my nylon and PVA using this system. The quality of my nylon prints improved dramatically using this system. I keep my Breakaway filament on the back of the UM. My question related more to the technical specs of the Breakaway filament. This is an Ultimaker product so I would expect someone from Ultimaker might provide the information. I live in a humid environment with warm temperatures. Many people don't understand the relationship between relative humidity (%RH), temperature, and the mass of water in the air at a given temperature. 86 deg F air, at 50%RH, contains almost double the mass of water compared to air 68 deg F at 50%. I believe this has a greater effect on the print quality than many realize, even beyond all the YouTube videos and product warnings that are out there. I have had Nylon start printing stringy after a day being left outside of my PrintDry. It was rectified after putting it back for 24 hours. Sorry for making this comment so long, my real objective is just to get some scientific benchmarks around a new filament so that can all start understanding it more thoroughly.
  19. I am using the Ultimaker Breakaway filament and I live in a humid environment. I have humidity issues with nylon and PLA filament which I have solved by storing the filaments in a dry box, and by drying the filaments with a PrintDry heater. Due to physical issues on my part, I can't easily load and unload my UM3 with new filament. Hence I like to keep my Breakaway filament on the back of the UM3, loaded in feeder 2. The Ultimaker advertising for Breakaway states that it is less moisture sensitive than PVA, the Ultimaker technical data sheet also states that Breakaway is a mixture of Polyurethane and PLA. Both PLA and polyurethane are somewhat hygroscopic. My questions: 1. Is the Ultimaker Breakaway filament hydroscopic (absorbs water from the atmosphere)? 2. Can it be ruined by leaving it in a humid atmosphere? 3. Can it be safely dried by using a heater? 4. What is the suggested temperature to dry UM Breakaway? I welcome all specific feedback.
  20. Yep, Amazon advertises eSun at 2.85mm, eSun China specs state 2.90mm to 3.0mm - who can you trust? Good thing I don't use eSun.
  21. Yes, I believe you are correct, though I notice that many popular brands of filaments are specifically noting that their filaments are within the 2.85mm specification nowadays (2.85mm +/- 0.05mm) so that purchasers don't get confused. It does warrant a check before you press the 'buy' button. One of the filaments that I checked is eSun, which many call out as a low cost and popular filament.
  22. No problem, you need to make a decision based on your requirements. For me, I realized that I may pay more for the 2.85mm filament, but I made a choice, if I was willing to pay $3,500 for a quality printer, then I should also be willing to pay more for the filament, the quality of the output was the most important for me. Another way to look at it is if I pay $3,500 for a printer, then I am likely to spend about the same amount for filament over a period of time. Allow $42/kg for the PLA Pro. $3,500/$42 = 83kg of filament. If you pay $20/kg for cheap PLA, then that is 175kg of filament. You will probably waste a lot of the $20/kg than the $42/kg. So what is my point, its a balance of quality/cost/time, it is always the decision we make. Its all fun in the end.
  23. I live in Hawaii and purchased my UM3 from Matterhackers. I have been very happy with their filaments and support. They ship all there products anywhere in the USA for free. BTW I would not let the size of the filament spool dictate your choice on the suitability of the UM3. I say this because you mentioned your desire to use PVA support material. If you use PVA filament you will almost certainly start using a drybox to keep the humidity incheck in the PVA filament. I purchased a PrintDry system to dry the filament while I am printing. Here in Honolulu the humidity ranges from 60% to 100% and keeping the filament dry is essential for PVA to print properly. You can put a big roll of PLA on the back of the UM3 and then run the PVA from the drybox. Nylon needs the same treatment also.
  24. It happened to me recently too on my UM3. When I changed filament from generic filament, back to UM filament with a RFID. Apparently Cura and my UM3 decided there was a misconfiguration, so Cura Connect halted any further network printing until until the misconfiguration was rectified. The misconfiguration can be overridden on the Cura Connect screen. Of course it may have been an UM3 communication issue too, I have been getting a few of those lately. BTW, I don't believe Cura Connect print management is very helpful if there is just one user of an UM3, it seems to get in the way more than it helps.
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