9thoracle

Disclaimer: If someone can help me and I am actually being an idiot, I will definitely take the help. But I am mainly going to complain like a baby below for the sake of venting. Each new version of Cura has lots of updates and fixes and yet, in my experience, it has been getting worse and worse. I have posted only a few times but a while ago I began having problems with the extrusion rates of my machines. No hardware had changed but I was getting underextrusion across every one of my UM2+. It was at least consistent, but confusing as to why it started. Not going to get into the full extent of everything I tried to fix it; but in short, I bought plenty of new replacement hardware and even a whole new set of mainboards for 3 printers. Finally I found that increasing the flow rate by about 15-25% for some of the line types seemed to fix it. This is just such a messy way to do something that shouldnt have even needed to be changed in the first place. More recently, I found that the Spiralize Outer Contour option seems to be broken entirely. No matter what options you turn on or turn off, the printer will print the outer contour but it will print it layer by layer. I know its not a priority option, but its still very frustrating. And again, I did read many posts and topics in these forums to see what others were saying, and I tried many of the possible solutions. I love my Ultimaker printers TO DEATH, but Cura really seems to be ruining my experience. These machines are used for work and I need my settings to work consistently. Its puzzling that settings seem to just magically change in each new version of Cura which ruin how my several thousand dollar machines work. Its kind of starting to feel like a planned obsolescence type deal in order to make me buy new machines. Though I don't want to indulge in that sort of conspiracy nonsense. Getting new machines at work is an option since they are several years old. But why would I do that if my machines can still work perfectly fine? Ive used Simplify3d in the past and I don't really like it very much. I used it again recently though, and I hardly had to do a thing and my machines were working perfectly. Further making me want to distance myself from Cura. I WANT to use Cura. I LOVE Cura. But my company pays me too much to spend as much time as I have on all this. Especially since a really easy solution seems to be "use S3D." People always seem to feel that Cura is supposed to be like Apple where 'it just works'. Especially for machines that are literally made by the same company. Its just frustrating to spend so much time troubleshooting on a platform that's claim to fame is to save users from doing just that.

Tried all of the suggestions here and still never had any luck. I ended up "fixing" the problem by turning the extrusion rate percentages up in Cura. Not a clean fix so I am not a very happy camper. I also bought new motherboards and lots of new parts trying to make sure it wasnt a mainboard or hardware issue. Given that I have also recently discovered that "spiralize outer contour" seems to also be broken, Im losing confidence in the people working on the Cura software as of late.

Wow time just flew by lol I actually had a chance to try that just last week. I tried some gcode from home at work and it resulted in the same thing. I havent yet tried gcode from work on the printer at home though. I am going to try lighter rolls of material on the machines at work too just to double check, since they both have fresh 3kg rolls on aftermarket roll holders. I don't expect this to change anything though since I used the same roll holder at home and havent had issues but I know there could be more friction somewhere. My last ditch effort may be to buy new motherboards for the machines at work :/

Hello everyone, I have been plagued for quite some time by an under-extrusion issue and I am at my wit's end. Below is the Problem, My general settings, Some context, and what I have tried as a result. Problem: As shown in the attached picture, 2 of my 3 Ultimaker 2+ machines have an under-extrusion issue. They both have the exact same amount of underextrusion. And it remains consistent through the entire part it prints, regardless of print size. The first layer will print perfect. Every layer after is under-extruded. Settings: Carbon Fiber HTPLA from Protopasta. Hardened Steel Nozzles 225C Print temp 0.24 mm Layers 0.55 Lines 0.6 mm Nozzle 45 mm/s Print speed (all speeds expect for travel which is 100) Flow Rate 100% First Layer is 0.4 mm thick First Layer speed is 25 mm/s More Context The two printers that are not working are at work The other printer that works 100% fine is at home The room temperature at work is about 70F The room temperature at home is about 60F (Basement) All 3 printers were originally Ultimaker 2 machines that I installed the + kit on. All settings and hardware on the 3 printers is IDENTICAL (Ive gone through it several times to make sure) I print using 3kg rolls What I have tried Gr5 has a list of things to look at that he posts when responding to people on this topic and I have gone through all of them. I have actually replaced bowden tubes, couplers, nozzles, thermometers, heater cartridges, and the feeder gear assembly to try and fix it, but the problem has stayed the exact same. This leads me to think its an issue with firmware or Cura version. I have confirmed that all 3 printers have the same firmware, cura version, etc. And it still is the same. I have changed the temperature anywhere from 215 all the way up to 240 but that hardly affects it. At this point the only thing that I have not done is completely change out the control board. But I am not sure I can even get any of those anymore. Again, the first layer goes down PERFECT, but then it just under-extrudes after that. But remember my printer at home has the exact same settings and slicer config and does just fine, so I am flabbergasted as to what the issue is here. Any ideas?

Ha! Thats great 🙂 I do also create instructional files. I think I might begin with simple how-to guides and see what comes from that.

How do you handle sending files overseas in terms of the final use? To be more clear, how do you handle making sure the end users know exactly how to use the parts? I am looking at beginning to do the same thing; I might send a part to another plant in a different country so they can print it there but the parts often need some sort of finishing steps like applying hardware or other pieces. Im not sure how I am going to handle "Instructions" but I was curious if others have had to deal with this already.

Fixed it! Since I had brought in old printer profiles from the previous version of Cura, I deleted them and started with a fresh Printer profile and Material profile. Fixed all the issues I had. And it looks like its printing even better than before.

Hi everyone! Not sure if this is a known issue currently but I figured I would post about it just in case. Currently, I imported a profile for my Carbon Fiber HTPLA from when I used Cura 3.6 When the print gets to Layer 3 or so, the Feeder motor stops, the hotend cools down, and the print bed cools down. The print head and program otherwise keep running as if nothing has changed. Im going to try and create a brand new profile in Cura and see if that fixes it. I am thinking maybe something about importing the old one is what messed it up but we will see. I will post back if I figure anything out. Otherwise input from others is totally welcome!

Hey all, I'd love to share my experience using Ultimaker printers at work as well. I am an industrial designer in a packaging engineering group at MilliporeSigma in Milwaukee WI. I actually run a small additive manufacturing group where I design and print parts for several of our production sites in North America. I have two UM2+ machines and one UM3. I create parts that serve as functional prototypes, manufacturing aids, and end use parts for our packaging teams to replace parts that are hard to find or expensive cnc parts. To date, we have achieved about a 5 to 1 ROI by using your machines!

Going to send you a PM

Just because the issue's root cause is bad adhesion, doesn't mean there aren't issues down the line. We're not talking about the obvious problem of bed adhesion and the obvious need to solve that. I am talking about the $375 UM3 head and how it can be brought to its knees with a clog; potentially ruining the head itself (see the picture attached). I have never had a clog on the UM2. And even if there were a clog like this that also occurred with the UM2, the assembly is much simpler and way cheaper to fix. This is where I derive my position that the UM3 head is poorly designed in this regard. I sense, based on the type of responses you've given so far, that you've decided I am wrong and are willing to go to great lengths to prove that. Respectfully, I will not be spending any more time responding to you here.

The fact that this thread exists. The same thing has happened to me twice. Also, the fact that you could separate a super clogged heat block on the UM2 much easier/better. I should say it's designed poorly in comparison.

The hotend on the UM3 is poorly designed. Period.

Sounds good friends, I wont be in the office until Monday but I will definitely give this a shot. THANK YOU!!!

No I mean if I level the bed manually, I am able to use the calibration card when it does its double check and everything seems fine. Then the next time I go to print, the bed moves up to start the print and it actually touches the nozzle. This makes me think something is wrong that the printer is not moving the bed up to the exact same height on the Z axis during a print as it does when its letting me level it. I didnt even try autoleveling as the last time I did it, the printer gave me the error that it couldnt reconcile the height difference between the print cores. That error started when I still have buildtak on it, but I have since taken that off so it shouldnt be affecting it anymore.

Getting real tired of this piece of trash... It started because I tried using some buildtak to see if PVDF would stick to it. But once I leveled the plate with the buildtak on, the printer began to totally lose its mind and turn into a paperweight. THE PROBLEM: I took the buildtak off to reset everything. I Manually level the bed and it seems fine. Then when I go to begin a new print, the bed hits the nozzle..... Autolevel doesnt work either because the bed hits the nozzle too..... What the actual hell am I supposed to do about this?

Any word on whether this was figured out? I put buildtak on my UM3 and it gets pissy about it too. It claims theres an unrealistic difference in height.

My printer is doing this for the first time. Im trying to print something thats going to take 20+ hours so this is terribly annoying.

Dude, what brand of PDVF are you using? I use Nile Polymers PVDF and can print at 240-260 C

Saaaaaammmme. Hahahaha.

Thanks for the reply; I am sorry my lazy butt didn't read all of your original post! Lolol.

I make LOTS of end use parts with Carbon Fiber PLA. I had to buy the Hardcore upgrades from 3D Solex. But even then you have to mess about in order to print with them. Lying to the machine and what not. This would be an amazing addition for me! I am very interested in these. The only question I have so far is if they will come in the range of nozzle sizes? .25 to .8 or so maybe?

I think I just solved my own problem. I saved my materials to the SD card to see what they are doing. With the new version of Cura, when I change the nozzle size, there are corresponding settings in the materials that are in the printer for this. I am using a .8mm nozzle and when I look in the SD card in the materials.txt file, there are settings for .8 nozzle. The temp gets pushed to 240 if Cura saves a file that tells the printer its a .8mm nozzle I guess. So at least I know why its doing it. The trouble is figuring out why the print was worse after the first one was done perfectly.

My printer is doing the same exact thing but at different times. I just upgraded my UM2 to a + and installed the firmware. I reloaded cura and am using Polypropylene. The first print I did came out perfectly, but then every time I went to print after that the machine kept using a nozzle temp of 240 instead of 220 which is did the first time. Not only that but even if I manually change the temp after the print starts, its still worse quality than the first print so I am assuming the printer is probably changing other settings too. But how am I supposed to know what its doing. Anyone else having this problem?

Im thinking that might help. The troubling part is, the settings are setup to be completely stock for both the machine and Cura so I assumed everything should be fine. I will try that tomorrow when I get back to work and see if it helps. ?