casper2341

Hi All, Just a quick update, bought off new filament, some Esun and things seem to be back to normal. To many retractions will still cause a prob which is expected, otherwise i am back to having successful prints. Thanks for all the help.

GR5 - Yeah that is exactly what happens with my filament too. Will ultimaker replace it?

Ok latest update after a weekend of multiple failed prints and multiple different variation of settings. In a effort to narrow down the issue i tried a print at HQ with No retractions to see if retractions was the issue, also with a slight higher nozzle temp 215C and also the spool on the floor to minimize tension. Everything seemed to be going fine nearing 8 hours into the print. I was actually confident that I had finally been able to narrow down the issue. Then i heard a snap. The filament had snapped off at the entrance to the feeder. After a lot of wrestling with the filament to get it out of the printer i proceeded to examine why it snapped. It has never happened before. on closer examinations bending the PLA at different points it turns outs that my PLA was extremely brittle in certain sections. Some areas more than other while perfectly normal in places. As i unspooled even more, the problem go progressively worse. to a point where any pressure on the PLA with snap it easily. So i and thinking that all my previous problems are a result of this (fingers crossed). I have already ordered new OEM PLA. I may also try a local supplier. i'll report back if this proves to really be the case. I'm extremely appreciative of all the advice and tips that everyone one has given. On the bright side this was a great crash course on the intricate details of the printer and 3d printing. I easily have much more knowledge that i would have otherwise, had the printer printed flawlessly. I have learn a lot. Thanks again for all the help and hopefully my next post will be with good news.

Sorry, just did a check of the stats and I was drastically overestimating the printing time. As of now it has only printed 120 hours. I usually leave it over night so i did a rough estimation at the time. The printer has been on around 390 hours. Its bit craze but once left it on for a weekend in the workshop by accident since i turned the LED down i didn't notice it. Anyways, i did another Atomic pull and attached photos. I also attached photos the most recent print at high quality mentioned before. it seemed to print fine until near the end which had one layer that has what looks to be some under extrusion. The conditions of the majority of the print took place at night. The final part happened between 9-11am where ambient temp may have risen to above 25C Also after the atomic pull i reloaded the printer to filament. This time with the insert filament commanded and slowly inched the filament to the bowden tube to see if anywhere was causing the the feeder to click. All when fine until the filament got to the nozzle and filament started coming out. advancing the filament with the dial quickly cause the clicking of the feeder. not constant just a click every few spins of the front dial. As for the retractions, the failed print had 2196 retractions with some of them grouped only four lines of instructions apart. As for the successful print there were 1771 retractions. With them spaced out far apart. The successful print with the pic attached had 2031 retractions. At the moment it is set at 210C, should i try to increase temp? I'm about to give in and buy another spool of filament to see if i have better luck.

Hi GR- Ambient is around 23-5C. As for #2 it seem to be fine, doesn't break up or crack easily. Will need to check the diameter of the filament, it is an OEM spool of Ultimaker Metallic Silver. Will need to check about the retractions for the problem file and see. Would printing at a lower default quality setting reduce retractions? Why i ask is I printed the same model but at High vs Ultra and it print out fine. Same support type and all. But will count the retractions in both to confirm later. Neotko - The PTFE is the original. There is at most only 400-500 hours on it, maybe less. Maybe it's because i don't work it hard enough that it acting up Will do another atomic pull tonight to share. With that said, i decided to test a model that i knew printed fine before but at High Quality vs Normal. I used Cura 15.04 and just used the basic settings so i believe print speed was at 50mms. It printed out fine under pretty much the same conditions as the failed prints. so far my bad luck seems to be when i try to mess with the print speed settings. Must be setting something wrong. I will try to print one more test with the same model at Ultra setting which is .04mm layer height I believe. If my luck holds out, then will try to mess with the settings in advanced again to narrow down the prob. Thanks again for all the help and feedback, much much appreciated.

Update, it managed to print the previously failed print successfully with not much issues. So i proceeded to try another file, one that was a much simpler print, only 1 hour or so but at ultra quality. To my disappointment this morning and again it had failed after about 2-4mm into the print. As a test i picked another file immediately to print to see if the filament would advance. Again the feeder was stuck. No so much a grinding but more clicking like the it was trying to push the filament and the clutch would slip thus the filament to drop back. Looking at the filament in the bowden tube also confirmed that the filament was trying to advance but would click back. So i did a "material change" to get the filament out, it too a bit of a tug to get it moving out and i had to run it a second time to get the remaining bit out also. I didn't want to forcefully pull it out stressing the feeder motor. Examining the filament showed that there was a bit of flattening at where the feeder knurled knob grabs the filament but nothing that I would consider extreme flattening as a result of a hot feeder. I will take some photos and post later. This time the grinding was less than before but that may just be cause i pull it harder and faster to get it moving. I proceeded to reload the feeder with filament ( i removed the section that had been through the feeder) I sliced another file of the same model with High Quality settings ( default parameters for Cura 15.01 and UM2GO) and started another print I waited till it completed beyond the previous fail spot and left it to finish printing unattended. I will check back on it later. So the investigation continues. I am wondering if it is a filament issue? too much humidity? thanks for all the help so far.

GUDO - Thanks for the suggestion. I had another look at the PTFE but i think the crookedness is a result of camera distortion. In a effort to fix this i cleaned out, i unloaded the filament and did a thorough clean and check of everything. I did the Atomic pull was clean, ran filament through the bowden and no roughness, I use a blower to clean out the feeder of all debris and just for good measure I loosened the filament spool. It was only half used. And the final thing was i resliced in Cura 15.04. So far things seem to be working and it has printed beyond the point of last failure. What i did notice was the the support is different from when done through Cura 2. Will report back on how it turns out and will run the previous file once more to see if 3 times a charm.

Hi, Hopefully someone will be able to clue me into what the issue or cause is. Background - Running Cura 2.1.3 and 2.1 firmware on the UM2GO Layer height: .06 Speed: 40mm/s Support type: touching build plate Fill density: 20% I did an initial slice and began printing the model, everything seemed to be progressing fine, I was monitoring and realized that I forgot to enable supports so i aborted the print. After redoing the slice with supports enabled, I proceeded to print again. The time to completion was 5 hours. So i left it to print over night. Woke up this morning and discovered that the print had not completed. The display showed that print was complete and everything had stopped. I proceeded removed the filament and heard some grinding trying to get the filament out. In the past the nozzle end of the filament would be melted since it backs out of a heated nozzle. But this time is came our with a clean flat cut. So thinking that there was a clog I did an atomic pull. Manually adjusted the temp to 19OC and pushed in PLA by hand. Dialed down the temp to 90C and waited for nozzle to reach it, then I pulled. There was bit of brown residue. So i repeated the whole process two more times until i had a clean residue free pull and nice cone shape. Thinking that things were fine I put everything back together. And started the same file again. Things looked on track so i left it once again but it again printed to rough the similar layer and no more PLA came out. It continued to go through the motions of printing but no PLA. I wasn't the one monitoring it at the time so can say if there was any odd sounds of grinding but rather then let it continue to print air I ask the person monitoring i to abort the print. I have attached a pic. Any ideas on what is the cause. Could it be something with the slice from Cura? I will try a file of another model that printed successfully tonight to see if it is unique to that file. Any help on this will be much appreciated. Up to now I have had no major issues. I would like to add that recently I have been hearing the occasionally clicking sound when loading in filament. Like the sound of the feeder slipping. Thanks

Cool, Thanks. Will look into the upgrades. Do you know if at least TPU would work in the standard UM2GO?

Seems Cura doesn't have a "materials type" selection when using a UM2GO. does this mean that UM2GO does not work with the new filaments?

Thanks Been busy the last month with work but have been able to setup my work area for a lot of 3d experimentation. Wish me luck

Just wondering is the 35W heater a must for the Olsson block upgrade, sorry just trying to get a bettering understanding. Am I right to assume that the higher powered heater will benefit certain nozzle sizes more?

Is the 35w heater cartridge part of the Olson Block package?

Sorry if this question has been asked already, but is the Olson block an ideal upgrade for UM2GO if only using PLA? Seeing that the UM2+ has this as standard, there seems to be some merit to it but since they haven't released anything for UM2GO i'm cautious to know if there are reasons i don't see. Further, will upgrading the Olson block alone be enough or will feeder also need to be upgraded? Any other concerns? Power? Thanks for any help. E

Hi, Just wanted to see if there are any recommended vendors or filament producers in Asia specifically HK? Trying to keep shipping costs reasonable. thx