BrunoP

Had Carl on the phone an hour ago, thoroughly nice chap! He talked me through how to disassemble and reassemble the unit without breaking anything, including how to make trigger slide more smoothly and to stretch the spring. This seems to have improved the levelling problem, at least I now get a first layer without tweaking the levelling of the UM3. For the temperature problem I'm getting a new heater/sensor PCB to try out. I'll probably surface again when I get it. PS the upper part was fully screwed down onto the block, you feel it stop positively.

Further update. Here's the reason why auto-leveling isn't working with my HardCore: the head comes down a fraction of a mm whilst printing (probably because of the force imparted by the filament), but not whilst leveling, whether you do it manually or automatically. This becomes obvious when using the UM3 BB head alongside the HardCore. The UM3 head stays absolutely fixed so if you drop the build plate that extra bit that the Hardcore needs (the 1/3 screw turn mentioned by Carl), the gap between the UM BB head and the build plate is too large. I'm now making do using a business card (!!) as the calibration card for the Hardcore during manual leveling and the actual calibration card under the BB head for the Z offset. It's not exactly an attractive solution. So, still a few bugs to fix in the Hardcore!

Just a status update before I sign off for the weekend (or at least the evening). Manual leveling was necessary. Still I had to increase the distance further to be able to print a first layer. Last test print I made was at a temperature setting of 230 deg. It looks almost as good as one done with the standard print head at 205deg (default setting), so next I'll try 240 deg. Overall decent progress. The impression I get is that the temperature sensor in the Hardcore deviates from that of the standard head so the actual temperature is lower than what the UM3 thinks it is.

I can force the printer to print by going to the web interface (click "go to print jobs'), click "show details" and select "override configuration and start print". But I can't believe this is the intended way. Also, my UM3 displays "Material Ultimaker PLA Silver Metallic is not recommended to be used in PrintCore HardCore." I presume this is linked with the problem the OP mentions?

Hi Sander - No I didn't try the abrasive material yet. First want to get the HardCore + Everlast working with ordinary PLA before I try new feedstock. The printer hasn't got many hours on it, perhaps 50, all with PLA.

Hi Gr5, thanks for the quick reply. The Hardcore came straight from Carl. I tried pushing on the plate and indeed this causes material to squirt out, but not a lot. So I let the print continue in spite of the flimsy first layer. What happened then was that the material seemed to have some sort of rubbery consistency, coming out in blobs that were pushed around a bit but didn't stick cleanly. Halfway through the test print I upped the temperature in stages, up to 230 degrees and then I got near normal performance. So it looks like a combination of two factors. What I'll try next is to put the ice nozzle back in (I was impatient and wanted to try the everlasts right away) and print again. That'll be tomorrow (CET here). Will post an update and some pics then. Thanks again.

Hi all, newbie here. I'm a bit spoilt by the UM3 because all prints I've done with the machine straight out of the box have been brilliant. In order to be able to print with carbon fibre filament I got myself a HardCore and Everlast nozzles. I'm having a raft of problems sadly, so I'm hoping some of the people involved could chime in. For now I'm testing with Ultimaker PLA, not yet even trying alternative filaments until the standard stuff works. 1. Extremely thin first layer. Auto-leveling is on by default and it finishes the procedure without complaint. I can't do a calibration print either because other than some indistinct smudges I get no actual print. 2. Underextrusion. Things improve if I crank the temperature during a print but even the highest setting of 230 deg is borderline. Maybe the first problem is that Cura doesn't allow me to select the HardCore. It shows up on top of the drop-down as "auto:HardCore" but nothing happens when I click on it. So my tests were done with the AA0.4 selected.