model_dude

Hi We currently have 2 printers - an Ulti 2 (upgraded to 2+) and a Ulti 2+ Extended. We have budget approved to get another machine but I am not sold that the Ulti 3 Extended is better value for money over a 2+Extended. The Pros v Cons for an Ulti 3 over an Ulti 2+ as I see it are: Pros ability to print dissolvable supports ability to print in 2 colours Cons more expensive slower print speed due to extra weight of the dual print head slower print speed due to printing dual filament slightly reduced print area size due to larger print head dissolvable support filament is twice as expensive as normal filament Pretty much our most critical factor is time. From what I have read, the Ulti 3 is slower than an Ulti 2+ on a like for like print, due to the extra weight of the print head (slower movements to compensate for the extra weight). We also print almost exclusively in white PLA filament, so apart from dissolvable support material I don't see much use for 2 colour prints. But easily over 90% of what we do print does not require the use of support material, so the majority of the time dissolvable supports would not be of benefit. It also seems to me that the Ulti 3 is also a bit more fussy than the Ulti 2+? It is obviously a more complicated machine than the Ulti 2+. Just wondering if I am missing anything? Just wondering if those who have or have had both an Ulti 2+/3 could perhaps relay there experiences of using them. I am prepared to be swayed but at the moment can't see that the Ulti 3 would be a clear improvement for us over the 2+ ?

Well the PVA slurry seems to be working pretty well so far, so for the moment we have stopped having the issue with lifting/warping of prints ? Thank you to @gr5 and @kmanstudios for your tips/advice/suggestions! Thank you to to @SteveCox3D for the Cif/Jif tip - I will be giving that a go to see if that works too ?

All good ? Hopefully we may be getting a UM3 to go with our UM2+ printers in the not too distant future. So far so good - the second longer print has worked well too. Mind you, this is just with a single piece on the bed - the real test will be to try and printing multiple items together to see if the extra time between layers makes any difference, as well as doing them overnight. But first, baby steps dear grasshopper... ? I must admit I am kind of tempted to try a new glass bed to see if that makes any difference to printing, and as @kmanstudios suggests that one side is better than the other. It isn't too expensive so might be worth a shot depending on how I keep going with the PVA...

We have 2+ and 2+ Extended printers - so only manual levelling ? The bed itself (glass and metal plate) seems to be pretty level - when doing large prints, skirt lines and bottom layers are all consistent. First test print with PLA applied to plate has turned out well - no lifting. But the PVA came away with the print and I needed to apply more to the bed to fill in the 'hole'. Now doing a second print which is larger and extends closer to the edge of the bed, so will see how that one goes. @gr5 - does your PVA slurry come away with the print when it is removed? Or does it stick to the plate?

Ok well... I came in this morning to find one of the prints had dislodged from the bed and left filament spaghetti everywhere, including through the remaining 3 prints on the bed - and even they showed significant warping/lifting anyway ? So just cleaning the bed didn't seem to solve anything. Tick that one off the list ✔️ So am now trying a PVA slurry on the bed and will see how that goes ? While we have had trouble removing prints before the glass plate shows no signs of any damage. @SandervG is there actually a 'better' side to the glass plate? I have read people say that the side of the plate with the sticker on it supposedly has a layer on that allows for better adhesion, but I have tried it before and found no difference. I am also wondering if it could be related to the ambient temperature, as we are in winter down here and the problem does seem to be a bit more severe at night. We are in an air conditioned office but I don't believe it runs all through the night, so the air temp is likely lower than through the day. Having said that though, we didn't have these same issues last winter and this year isn't really any colder. Does anyone use an enclosure? I assume that you would need to tweak settings (bed temp etc) a bit to make an allowance for the extra heat that would be retained?

Thanks for the suggestions guys - I forgot to mention that our printers are UM2+, not that it should really makes a difference I suppose. I have given the build plates a really good clean as @gr5 has suggested - great video by the way! - so will see how the next set of prints goes. I am kind of reluctant to use glue on the surface if possible, but I realised that although I am fairly religious in cleaning the bed with the alcohol I hadn't given it a good clean in soapy water etc for a while. I have also relevelled the bed as per @gr5's video. I also understand that using brim would improve adhesion, but as we hadn't had this problem before we haven't really had a need to use it. I guess if nothing else works then we may need to go down this route, although time is usually critical so if we can away with not having any extra post-processing it makes things easier ? . Usually we use minimal infill (20%, 2 graduated steps @ 5mm intervals so I wouldn't have thought that would be putting too much extra force on the print - but again, it wasn't an issue before. We'll see how we go...

It kind of looks like it could be, but if it is it's a pretty severe case of it! I haven't seen anything that severe - it usually looks more like this: Out of interest, what was the temperature of the bed set at @chuckmcgee?

Hi Until recently we have had no issues with lifting/warping of our PLA prints - often struggling to remove prints from the build plate - but it seems like all of a sudden we have started having the issue of prints lifting/warping at the edges. We haven't changed anything to what we were doing before (settings, bed levelling, filament used, cleaning of build plate etc) - so I am wondering if it may be due to the glass build plate itself. Does it kind of wear out? We have actually been doing a LOT of prints over the last few months, and I was unsure as to whether over time/use the ability of the glass bed to 'stick' to the PLA may reduce? We clean the plate using isopropyl alcohol, never found the need for glue/hairspray etc and have normally found 54C to be plenty for the PLA to stick quite well - plus it reduces the chance of lower wall cave-in. Have tried running the bed a bit hotter (60C) which has helped a bit although not completely eliminated the issue, but we then get the issue of lower wall cave-in happening ? Any ideas appreciated!

We currently have 2 Ultimaker printers (UM2+ Extended and a UM2 that we upgraded to UM2+). Both have been running well and I have been running Cura 2.3.1 with no problems, but today I was helping out a colleague and he just installed Cura 2.5 on his pc. To help get him started I had provided him with a few custom profiles that I have used with good success and we imported them into Cura 2.5 no problem. However, using the same printer (UM2+), same profile settings and the same .stl file we could not get the estimated print times to match or get anywhere near close than on 2.3.1 - on 2.5 it was estimating to take over 2 hours longer (13.5hrs vs. 11hrs). I have usually found the estimated time on Cura to be pretty accurate and as we were time poor and couldn't afford the extra 2.5hrs Cura 2.5 was telling us it was going to take, we ended up using Cura 2.3.1 on my pc instead. Anyone have any idea why one a like-for-like print 2.5 works out so much slower than 2.3.1? Have people found this to be born out in the reality of printing ie. prints taking longer? As we are often time-limited, if 'upgrading' to 2.5 means it's going to be a lot slower than what I currently run then I think I'll stick with 2.3.1 Cheers

I have also just noticed this on our UM2, but on the side axis rails (y-axis?) - especially the rail on the left as you look at the front of the printer (see pic below). There is some wear on the opposite side rail but not as bad. It does not rub off and looks to me like the markings you might get if metal has been rubbing on metal? Looks dark in this pic but at another angle it might look more silvery. There is no sign of this wear on the front and rear rails, nor on the rods for the print head. I have also routinely lubricated the rails/rods with sewing machine oil. I am wondering if this might be due to a bad linear bearing? There is also a slight screeching sound that seems to correlate to the markings on the rail but I can't pinpoint the sound 100% to that particular spot, or whether it is coming from the pulley area near the back left corner (but which still correlates to the markings on the rail if you understand what I mean).

Ok I found where the "infill prints after perimeters" box is - it's not on 15.02 but is on 15.04.02, where gr5 described it...

I am assuming that this suggestion is for 15.06, although I thought the picture showed the infill showing through on the part that had been printed using 15.02? I am currently using 15.02 (as I found 15.06 to be a bit buggy) and when I click the ... box next to fill density, the only boxes I can check are for 'Solid Infill top' and 'Solid infill bottom'. I have set 'Infill overlap %' to 0 but we are still getting the infill showing through and it would be good to stop that happening...

Just to follow up, I have been in contact with Imaginables who we bought our printer off and supplied the Ultimaker filament that we have been having issues with. They have heard of this issue with the filament and will be sending us out replacement spools, so hopefully the next ones will be better. Have to say that so far my experience with Imaginables has all been good FWIW the batch numbers on the spools for the white filament we were having issues with are: UM-7003b075 150409b02-113 UM-7003b075 150409b02-114 And the silver filament was: 0021b075 150429a01-013

This is the same issue we have been having with filament on our new UM2. Mainly with Ultimaker white PLA filament (although did happen a couple of times with silver Ultimaker filament) the issue is exactly as you describe - off the roll/freshly reloaded it prints ok but leave it for a day or so and it fractures around the extruder (usually below) but is very brittle for an inch or two either side of it. I wondered if it was to do somehow with the aircon in the office but then we have never had a similar issue with the PLA filament on our other machine (Makerbot Replicator 2) although that is the thinner 1.75mm filament. So UM support have confirmed it is 'bad' filament? The filament we have did come shrink-wrapped with desiccant pack inside, so sounds like the same stuff. I assume that no-one is having the same issues with ColorFABB filament? If not I might have to start ordering CF filament rather than the UM stuff until this issue is resolved...