Summer time!

[SandervG 1,521]

I don't know about you guys, but here in the Netherlands we are experiencing the hottest summer since 1944.

I saw a dog chasing a cat the other day and they were both walking! While we are on our siesta, we prefer our Ultimaker's to continue working reliable. But with temperatures reaching almost 40ºC the normal settings don't always work.

So we wanted to share some tweaks with you guys:

With this summer weather there is a possibility the driver chips on your mainboard get hot.

This can cause your motor to skip steps and ruin your print. To prevent this from happening it helps to reduce the current

on your motors to approximately 1100-1150.

On the Ultimaker 2 family this can be done by going to Maintenance > Advanced > Motion Settings > Current x/y & Current Z.

If you are printing with a lot of retractions during hot weather there is a higher chance of deforming your filament in the feeder. This will increase the friction in your bowden tube and can ruin your print.

To prevent this from happening you can change "minimal extrusion before retracting" in Cura.

This setting can be found under: Expert > Expert settings'.

Note: Don't be too enthusiastic because it can also lead to stringing. Important to find the sweet spot.

Last but not least, make sure to have a nice cool drink every once and a while, when checking on your Ultimaker

Enjoy!

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

Almost the same here (35-38°C). But my UMs are fortunately in a cool room in the basement (20°C)...

[IRobertI 520]

Yeah, summer finally arrived here as well after a record breaking bad May and June. I had 27C in my bedroom last night, falling asleep took a while :/ Outside it's "only" 30C though, I think I would spontaneously combust at 40. But I shouldn't complain, it'll be "cold" again in a couple of months (the summers in Sweden are short, way too short).

[joelmongeon 39]

Great suggestions!

It's been humid and mid 30's here for a few weeks and my prints have been failing no matter what I do.

I'll try adjusting stepper current and retractions. I'm also going to put my filament into a watertight box so it's not absorbing moisture during 20hr prints.

I also tried a roll of white colorfabb xt but kept getting massive warping off of the bed. I might try some pet+ or petg as well.

If nothing else works, I'll stick to printing in the fall and winter and spend the hot summers designing new models.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Guest