So the €350 difference is with all the shipping costs ?
that's a little below the edge where I would still buy the kit, and be sure to have good working parts
It's shows that buying China parts can still be a hit or miss.
So the €350 difference is with all the shipping costs ?
that's a little below the edge where I would still buy the kit, and be sure to have good working parts
It's shows that buying China parts can still be a hit or miss.
Indeed. It takes a lot of time. Soldering. And it can be a miss. Good think it's that all the thinks I bough from aliexpress shops where free shipping. But not really worth unless you want parts to mod it. And ultimaker warranty it's just to good to not have it. At least I have 2 full ultimaker and 1 half-ultimaker.
So definitely just buy the the UM kit then if you want an Ultimaker .... and you get warranty ... I think it's wonderful to do an own build or experiment with some chines stuff (I got a copy UM2 board to play with...) but for a full and unchanged machine I would go for the original ...
This is interesting...as I'm currently doing exactly the same thing! I've ordered everything from taobao though as I'm already in china.
I have an oem spare wooden parts kit due to some QC issues with my first one, and as always with superb customer service, ultimaker sent me a replacement. I managed to salvage my original frame in the end, so using the spare to build a Chinese version.
The parts I have so far seem to be ok. I went with a HBK style bed, they sell the aluminium (or in this case steel), bed section on taobao. Ordered a um2 z stage stepper too, so in theory should be like the HBK. For the heated bed, I already had a spare on (non UMO, bang bang style), so I have printed some adapters to fit that to the 3 point levelling system.
As for the axis, i'll see how decent they are this week!
Hi!
I also bought lots of different things from China, and had some manufacture there too.
Always some problem! I decided to not "teach them" anything, but I am not sure its the right thing to do.
It is so easy to criticize UM and finding all the faults etc, but try another printer and see it will not be easier!
I think UM have done a great job, getting a lot of things right the first time!
Look; we are trying to run Ubuntu in Window on a Mac, printing all sorts of crazy material, modifying and hacking our printer in various ways, printing at all possible and impossible resolutions and speeds and complain when not everything works!
So good of @neotko to point out "both sides of the medal".
I personally ruined my (i guess mosfets) PCB on UM2 trying to install other fans i bought from alibaba and the 40 robbers.. the impedance was totally wrong and it just killed the switching circuit.
Some things are really much cheaper, but then next time I did not get the same things so I have more than less stopped buying this kind of stuff..
I had a lot of .40 nozzles drilled with 1 dollar Chinese drill bits.. Turned out (too late) that the drill bits where 0.37mm.. not veeery funny. So now I only use German drill bits by company Gühring.
"
Guhring is a world class manufacturer of round shank cutting tools for the metalworking industry;"
Having issues with parts from wherever is one thing, how a company deals with them is another. Companies of the size of Ultimaker should know what the letters FMEA mean.
I bought a Heat bed from Aliexpress and it's heater resistance is 7.3 ohms which only provides 73watts ish of heating, which is way too low.
Can someone confirm the OEM heat bed is around 3-4 ohms please.
UM2 heated bed = 3.8 ohm for the one I have laying around ...
UM2 heated bed = 3.8 ohm for the one I have laying around ...
Thanks for that "ultiarjan".
Well I guess we can add the Chinese heated beds to the list of bad purchases. I contacted 2 other Aliexpress sellers and one eBay seller and they all reported heater resistance of 7 ohms so I'm trying to find a genuine heated bed now.
Just a quick update.
Many Aliexpress shops now sell the Isolator couplers for Ultimaker Original with the bottom area size of 4.5mm, the original made by Ultimaker it's 5.1mm. So I did bough 10 couplers (for 2.5€ each) and non of them works, the filament leaks between the barrel and the coupler and it's a MESS. So, ask to your shop before buying... Or get ready to buy a Lathe to fix the ptfe couplers... I tryed to fix one with a drill and I was able to fix it, but since I never done this it fails to get a grip inside the peek, so crap...
Thanks @swordriff thanks to you (and @anders-olsson) there's a source for reliable modded products.
Tryed using again other with a drill as a lathe and changed it but even so the aliexpress ptfe inner hole is wrong. So I'll have to send them to the box of mistakes :S
Edited by GuestHi there, I was looking for spare pulleys and belts for UM2.
I found some good looking belts from NINGBO, but they are 6mm width (UM2 has 6.5mm belts).
I guess I need to use their 6mm pulleys or I'll be having problems with sliding belts.
Any one of You tried sintered copper+graphite bushings?
I saw some people use them.
About the bushings, you could ask this user that uploaded side blocks for different bushings on um2:
https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultimaker-2-xy-bushing-slider-block#information
I'm running those bushes on my Chinese parts built printer. No problem with them so far. They run smooth. One thing to note is that if you oil the shafts, the graphite in the bushes makes them turn black. No idea if you're not supposed to oil them, but I have, and they work fine. They are larger OD than ultimaker bearings though, 12mm. I modified the twister blocks on youmagine to take them.
They are self lubricating and not meant to be oiled.
Oiling them increases the friction so i would run them dry.
have to be honest, they didn't get tighter with oil. They were tight without though. Might just be that they needed wearing in....damn should have given them more time!
Edited by GuestSince I have plenty of quality sewing machine oil, I'll stay with plain copper bearings.
I've just realised how out of true my rods are on my Chinese parts printer. I can see the twister blocks wobbling up and down on all axis when I move the print head. The prints all look good, but I'm assuming this affects the dimensional accuracy. So, don't buy rods from China!
@neotko, how are the misumi rods? Do you have a link? Thanks
Edited by GuestThis are the ones I ordered.
PSFJ6-267 (head 6mm shafts)
PSFJ12-339 (z 12mm shafts)
PSFJ8-348 (y? 8mm shafts)
PSFJ8-337 (x? 8mm shafts)
The linear rods from www.robotdigg.com are good. I used their 6mm and 8mm rods and bought the 16mm from a Australian eBay seller.
I had to use the cheap-way to get some couplers and I must say that the ptfe couplers from aliexpress Sealand seller are perfect. They are 5.1mm tall and are really well crafted. They sent me two damaged but they have sent replacements (the best think it's that they speak english correctly and they actually answer). They shafts where really bad but the couplers are perfect.
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neotko 1,417
With all the lost shafts and new ones of misumi that part was much more expensive. The umo 2.1.1 board I bough it's still an unknow since it came without the power button soldered. Price for ptfe, hotbarrels and belts pulleys it's much better on china and the quality was nice. Nozzles are a bit of a risk and pt100 was a bit cheap but it takes time to finish solder etc. The really technical stuff it's worth going to the source or thrusted places. Money wise I think I saved maybe 200-100€ on the third machine. And also got a lot of replacement parts. Way too many...
Edit: Bad at maths here. Checked the notes and it's around 350€ specially if the um2 board does work. But I need to solder the button first...
Edited by GuestLink to post
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