Melka

Yes, you are right ! Those are called Z-seam. I'm not sure you can eliminate this artefact, but now you have the technical term to investigate

Thanks for your message. I see, but I still find it misses quite a lot of basic functions. Let's say that I'm a beginner interested in printing PETG on my Ultimaker 2+ and I'd like to see how people are setting their machine: I would type "PETG Ultimaker 2+" but I end up on a quite obscure list of results. The place allocated to the URL in each result block is huge and not useful. I'd like a bigger excerpt as I'm not even sure it answers my question. Why do we have the location of the person that posted the topic ? Is it because we shouldn't deal with questions asked by Belgians ? Could I order by date or restrict the results based on the last year only ? Basically, it demands a LOT of parsing by the brain of the user and I understand how it can be disconcerting for a new comer.

Hmmm... I really think there is some kind of cracks in your slider blocks. It's not always easy to see but I would suggest you to change them, just to be sure. On our machine, all 4 white slider blocks cracked so I'm pretty sure you should take a more careful look. Note that on the UM3 currently sold, they used the UM2/UM2+ black slider blocks. Those are less slick than the white ones, but they are sturdy! By the way @SandervG , I think it would be nice of you if you send 4 black slider blocks and a roll of filament to each UM3 customer that happens to have the white slider blocks. It would be fair as we trusted you by betting on this new printer and end up loosing many hours understanding the issue, posting, requesting parts and replacing them on a brand new machine.

Yup, the search function objectively sucks. But I'm sure they already know it and are working to improve the experience (RIGHT GUYS ? )

Super cool, let's go for Cell

I think some guys in this topic should be included as authors in your article as they significantly contributed to the project. Where do you plan to submit ?

Had not but just did...THEY ARE BOTH CRACKED! How did that happen...? It seems to be worse on the side with the lever for the 2nd nozzle. Is this stress induced? I have temporarily applied some cable ties that were the perfect size to not interfere with anything. It is indeed stress induced because of improper assembly. Yeah, I was probably the first guy reporting this problem on the forum. I'm also preparing my review of the printer. Spoil alert: won't be fun.

Poor Tinkergnome!!

Probably a long shot, but do you guys use Tinkergnome's firmware with Octoprint ? Can't make Octoprint work :(

Crazy tip, thanks Neotko

I found Ultimaker's 2/2+/3 bed glass to be pure crap. Those glass beds: are definitely NOT flat. And the bend PCB heater won't help you when you'll clip the glass; chip easily (confirmed on 2, 2+ and... 3), even with PLA. So take your time to remove some stuck prints by putting them in the freezer; are not stickier than regular glass and still vastly inferior to PEI sheets; too expensive, around 30 euros. Just pay a visit to your local hardware store and ask them to cut plates in 4mm glass. Cost me less than 3 euros and a bit of sanding on the edges. It may not be borosilicate-unicorn-jizz-coated-glass but I didn't see any difference... apart from the fact that it's now flat.

Thanks for your answer Sander, I heard that there was a firmware fix for that stopping issue when printing over network. Could you comment a bit about that please ? Is it already deployed ?

Hey Sander, thanks for taking time to reply. Yes, I did send the file over wifi (notice the *.gz on the printer screen in my photo), so you are right, that's why it doesn't pop in the logs. Do you know if there is a checksum validation performed when we print over network? Power glitch is indeed a possibility, I will look into using a battery backup & surge protector. Though I feel that think kind of issue could be resolved in the software side by simply logging the last position before a power failure. (it's done on Raise 3D products) I don't think the sliderblocks were damaged during transport as : 1. box was flawless, 2. we identified some friction when moving the print head before noticing the cracks. I think that those fractures happened to relieve some of the tension during the assembly of the machine, because now, the printhead movement is MUCH smoother. Of course, if you put very light pression on those 6mm rod now, they pops out of place. We still have the machine but will return it ASAP, we are dealing with Makershop, here in France.

Forget it, It's unrelated but we just found out that two XY blocks are cracked. The machine is a week old and printed less than 30h. We are done, we are sending it back to the seller.

I checked the logs and it seems that nothing was saved for that print Is it possible ?

Hey guys, thanks for your messages. I managed to clean the nozzle without burning my fingers :> Great idea about the log, I'm currently looking for the correct file and I'll share it with you ASAP.

Our Ultimaker 3 just stopped printing in the middle of a job. Like, just stopped and stayed in place. I tried to pause the print and then resume it, hoping it would get back on track, but it looks like pausing wasn't working either. So I had to manually turn off the printer and this is the aftermath: This was sliced with Cura 2.3.1 and printed over network. It looks like a firmware issue, and I'm not even starting about the "To be implemented..." message that you can get when trying some options in the printer (like, move materials in the tune menu, while a print has started). I feel that we are actually beta testing this printer and you had to ship it half-baked. You market it as a reliable machine for professionals but I can't even trust it on long prints. So, how likely is it to happen again ? Should I roll the dice or return it ?

Nope, you are right! It's not a borosilicate glass and I had to sand the edges with some paper for 5 minutes. Still, didn't see any differences in performances... and it's actually flat.

Well, Apple products are not open source, so I guess people wrongly assume that Ultimaker is not a common company. Ultimaker's parts are well made but selling a replacement UM2 glass bed at 30 euros where you can have the same thing in a hardware store for 3 euros is a bit strange. Of course we pay for R&D, though an UM2 replacement motherboard at 350 euros is quite harsh.

Hey guys! I said I will be back ! I made this modification a month ago: Sketch: Photos: Stuff you need: Steel bars Width: 35 mm Length: 305 mm for each of the 2 bars Thickness: 3 to 5mm Note that here, I used some steel angle of 3.5mm thick (8 euros for 1 meter...). Please do not use that, as I had to cut quite a bit of the depth of my steel angle so it wouldn't touch the bottom of the printer when the bed is homing (Thanks Robert :>. And I'm pretty sure flat steel bars are perfect. Screws Some M3 x 15mm and M4, long as well (sorry, don't remember the exact size) How to do it: If you want to do it yourself, you'll need a powerfull drill. The trickier hole is the 14mm one, start with smaller diameters and work your way up! The easy way would be to simply laser cut those bars from a shop. I know https://pro.john-steel.com can do it in Europe. It's around 30-40 euros, I think. It will save you the hassle. You'll have to be able to disassemble your printer to reach the plate and add the bars. It's pretty easy and takes around 10-15 min. Note that there are no permanent modifications of your printer, so you can put everything back as before. Results: Overall, it adds around 500g to the plate and I didn't see any negative effects of that added mass. I used the machine 100+ hours after this modification. Z-hop works fine as well. Previously, I experienced huge wobbling in Z of the complete bed when printing either at high speed, with some specific movements or when the print is at the front of the plate. Very often, I observed amplitudes of 1 or 2 mm, pretty sure it affects the output quality. Now, I'm completely sure it drastically reduced the vibration. Though, I do not performed an actual scientific test to quantify that reduction. I have some Ultimaker 2 at hand that do not have this modification, I could make some video to compare. There is still some very minimal flex, but it's due to: 1. 12mm bearings and 2. fitting of the 12mm axis in the frame of the printer. Anyways, those vibrations are not affecting my sleep anymore, I am reborn. That said, it's still a huge design flaw. Why didn't you Ultimaker Gurus add some 12mm rods in the front of the printer to support the bed ? My modification may even give a stiffer bed than the new plate on the Ultimaker 3. This new plate looks like a profilé, but it's probably still made of aluminum... and that metal is not really rigid.

Yep, I think you are right Didier. If you guys want more info, you can take a look at this thread: https://ultimaker.com/en/community/10657-a-different-multi-extrusion-approach-um-tool-printhead-changer?page=1&sort=

Could you guys please tell us a bit more about Thomas Sanladerer statement on YouTube: (at 3min 41sec)Why is that ?

You can take a look at the platform attachment to the bearings by simply removing the two screws that secure the cover (where "Ultimaker 2" is written). To locate those two screws, take a look below the plate.

Looks like using an Olsson block in each core would have worked, so people could screw different nozzles...

Actually, they could start by shipping flat glass beds & PCB heater, and straight rods ... Yeah, none of those were correct on my printer.