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Choclit99

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  • 3D printer
    Ultimaker S5

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  1. I have an S5. The left print core got trashed by a nylon print that detached from the glass and eventually yielded a melted nylon blob surrounding the bottom of the print core. It got most of the blob off but the print core is no "toast" (technical term...). The wires are damaged so the system doesn't think there is a print core there at all. When you normally change a print core, the system releases some type of locking mechanism. I can't do that so I need to know how to manually unlock the bad print core so I can replace it. Anyone know how to do this? Thanks, Ed
  2. About 2 1/2 years ago, a few months after purchasing an S5, I was doing a 56 hour print after a LOT of design work. About 36 hours into the print, I went to check on things and found the image shown in the picture. I was using Ionic support material, which is very stiff, and the Bowden tube popped out, ruining the print as well as the end of the Bowden tube, as I quickly discovered when I tried to re-insert and re-use it. The second time this happened a couple of months later, this time with a CF filament, I get irritated and started working on a solution. I later learned that this is a known problem with Ultimaker systems. If you just print soft filaments like PLA or PETG, you may never run into this, but anyone doing serious work with an UM system is likely to use filaments that are high friction, including TPUs, filaments with GF and CF, and stiff support materials. The constant pull and push being done by the filament driver puts a lot of stress on that clip and this is what can happen, ruining the print and often leading to having to spend almost $30 for a new Bowden tube. Two and a half years later, after eight completely different designs taught me a LOT about material properties under stress, I have completed the development of a Patent Pending product called BowdenSave(TM). Before it goes on sale, I am looking for four people (USA only at this point) to stress test the product for a few weeks, for example, seeing if it works with old BowdenTubes that would normally pop out easily, especially if you have ever had this problem in the past or are concerned about this problem for the future. BowdenSave is designed to be an insurance policy and prevent you from having to replace your Bowden tubes other than annually as UM recommends. At this point, I only have a version of the product for the new generation S systems (S3, S5, S7) and the 2+ Connect, all of which use the same filament drivers. I can quickly develop a version for the older UM systems if there is enough demand. Let me know if interested. You can email me directly at eharris@synnovation.com if you want to learn more about this. Thanks, Ed
  3. While Ultimakers are great printers, there is a very annoying problem that occurs especially if you print a lot of stiff or high friction (CF/GF) filaments - the Bowden tube will pop out of the filament driver, ruining the print. Replacing the collet can help a bit but the Bowden tube itself is then damaged and will pop out much more easily until you replace it. A replacement Bowden tube for an S5 is nearly $30! I have been developing a simple add-on (patent pending) product to completely prevent this from occurring. It is about ready for formal beta testing and I am looking for a few beta testers who deal with this problem a lot. If you have this happen a lot please contact me privately. Note: the initial version of the product is designed for the S3, S5, and S7, but I will be taking down names for interest in versions for the other systems for the future. Thanks.
  4. I am selling my just purchased UM PVA Removal Station. It has been used only three times and works absolutely perfectly, as advertised! So why am I selling it, you ask. When I first heard about this a year ago, I was excited to buy one and did so as soon as they became available. But, I failed to do my homework before purchasing it. The PVA Removal Station is designed to remove PVA support filament (duh...). It is beautifully designed to do exactly that and if I was only needing to dissolve PVA I would be very happy with the station. BUT, in reality I do a lot of printing of engineering grade filaments like nylon, PC, PA-CF, etc., and use high end (often ridiculously expensive) dissolvable support filaments, The problem is that unlike PVA, which dissolves very quickly in the unheated PVA Removal Station, these support filaments need warm to hot water to dissolve in any reasonable amount of time. I assumed the UM station would have optional heating and didn't bother to read the description closely before ordering it. Note that if they do come out with an upgraded model with heating capabilities, I will order it immediately, So, for now, back to manual dissolving in hot water, changing the water frequently for these support filaments. 😞 The Station costs $895 with free shipping in the US. I will sell my barely used unit for $750 with free shipping in the US. Message me if interested.
  5. I have this but UM missed the boat on it. It needs to have an optional heating ability, especially at that price. Many of us use water soluble support filaments with high end filaments such as PETG, ABS, PC, etc., and these support filaments dissolve much more rapidly in warm water. If I had known it wasn't heated, I wouldn't have purchased it.
  6. I would think that covering the filament with a heat proof cover would work well for this. I hadn't thought of this, but this is a very good idea. And, a related use - I am going to try to anneal a small PA6-CF part but turning the bed temperature to 80 degrees for six hours after covering the part with a heat proof cover.
  7. I am about to start printing with Taulman BluPrint Tritan filament. A similar material is ColorFABB HT. Neither has a Cura profile. Does anyone have experience printing with either of this filaments and if so, what do you suggest for a starting profile to modify? I will also be playing around with support materials after I get the main filament working. I have an S5. Thanks.
  8. I have been conducting experiments with different TPU filaments and here is what I find. All but one are supposedly TPU95A: UM: works great! Matterhackers: Won't load properly initially and quits loading during printing Polymaker: same as Matterhackers NinjaTek Cheetah: works great! NinjaTek NinjaFlex (TPU 85A): same as Matterhackers You can 100% predict whether or not the filament will work based on the initial load. The filaments that fail will stop the initial load 2-3 inches away from the print head because of friction in the Bowden tube. The UM and Cheetah don't quite make it to the print head but are within an inch. I just release the clamp and push them into the print head to save time on the initial load. There are times when I really do want to use softer filaments. I have played around with the feed tension and that makes no difference. Has anyone had any success with these softer filaments and if so what did you do to overcome the friction problem?
  9. Report on NinjaFlex. Close but not quite a cigar. It actually almost made it through my test print but gave up near the end. The key here is that it is easy to tell if a filament will work. The UM TPU 95 and the Cheetah both feed to less than an inch away from the print head and they work. The PolyMaker and Matterhackers and the Ninja Flex all stopped the initial load 2-3 inches away. This seems to perfectly correlate with failure so far.
  10. The pebbled glass bed is a bit too thin for the UM glass bed clips to hold in. I am going to design some shims to solve this problem the next time I am printing something that needs the textured surface. But, if it doesn’t shift around, it works great.
  11. I have been trying different TPU95 filaments with my S5. Not surprisingly, the UM works fine but colors are limited. The Matterhackers brand and the PolyMaker TPU 95 don’t feed properly. I’m have tried two samples of the PolyMaker brand with identical bad results, so it wasn’t just a bad batch of filament, which the company thought might be the case. I just tried Cheetah for a small print and it worked great. There seems to be an easy way to tell in advance if it will work. During the initial feed cycle, the PolyMaker filament ends up 2-3 inches away from the print head. The Cheetah was about 1/2 inch away and it worked fine. I am about to try the NinjaFlex later today with the same print. I will let you know how it works.
  12. I finally cleared out my BB 0.4 print core which was completely clogged after a problem with PVA. Hot and cold pulls would not remove the blockage at all. What finally worked was raising the temperature to 275C and forcing PLA through with a lot of pressure. Even after it started oozing, it took a while to get clean flow. This is picture of what came out! The PLA I used was purple. Everything else is burnt on PVA!
  13. I should have my custom cut pebbled tempered glass bed here in a day or two. Total cost was $40, including shipping. I will let you know how it works after I try it.
  14. I recently purchased an S5. On the back of the machine, there are four loose clips over the power cord, as shown here. Can someone tell me where/how these are supposed to be used? I assume they connect to the filament tubes, but I am not sure how. A picture would be helpful. Maybe I just missed this in the setup guide... Thanks!
  15. I recently upgraded from the 1.75 mm filament world to the 2.85 mm filament world when I upgraded to my new S5. I am looking for a brand of low price but high quality standard PLA for prototyping. I will generally be using Ultimaker brand filaments for production work but can't think of any reason to use these for initial design prototyping. I was using Hatchbox brand pLA with my previous Creality system with great results. Does anyone have experience with Hatchbox PLA with an S5? If that is not a good choice, what would people recommend? I will just use white and black for prototypes.
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