African 3D printing service using Ultimaker.

[kelechi 24]

Good morning all,

Reporting from Africa, I woke this morning before sunrise and just went through all the procedures already listed. Pulleys checked, axes cleaned and lubricated, all 6 screws tightened even reduced motion amperage to 1200 and it worked!

Inreally dont know which procedure did the trick but I changed back amperage to 1300 and it still works well. I printed the most beautiful pyramid you have ever seen...lool.

I am really very happy and getting more confident by the day. It threw the heater stopped error to me some minutes ago, and I solved it by reducing fan speed.

I am loving the experience and I hope when I start getting people to buy 3D printers I will be ready to pass on the skills and even service other peoples machines

[kelechi 24]

[kelechi 24]

[kelechi 24]

I am doing multicolor prints and my friends are loving it. Please can I have suggestions on how to make the prints better.

[stu_le_brew 42]

just looking at the picture of your print head, a couple of things that I think you should take a look at:-

the fans on either side of the print head are to my eyes bent so that the airflow is down rather than down and towards the print head and point of print. Take a look take a look at any images on the UM website you will see the fans are more targeting the head - its simple to bend them back

second issue it the gap between the stainless coupler and the PTFE spacer it should be 1mm or slightly more

Multicolour prints can be such fun, I once tried 6-8 short lengths of filament (about 5cm long) in the bowden tube and printed an UM robot (this wont work with any retraction of course) really fun result

[DidierKlein 729]

Correct gap between the teflon and the steel coupler is in fact 2mm (recommended by Ultimaker)

[SandervG 1,521]

I second that, fix the fans and the gap between the PTFE and coupler.

There is also some kind of structure in your print, but that could be in the model?

Or is it suppose to be smooth?

And there also seems to be something off at the back of your Z-stage.. it looks so white..

[kelechi 24]

Thanks @stu_le_brew I hope I understand what you said, i will look out for a picture showing the fan at the proper angle. @DidierKlein, thanks

@SandervG, loool...at white background. A piece of paper that got blown and stuck there while working this morning.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Guest

[SandervG 1,521]

This blog may get you started!

[kelechi 24]

@all, I am working on separating the Teflon by 2mm from the coupler but the spring keeps pushing the teflon back. How am I supposed to do this?

Edited November 4, 2015 by Guest

[ultiarjan 1,223]

you adjust it by rotating the hot-end-isolator (the metal part with the holes in it) you may need to heat the hot end a little bit to do this.

[DidierKlein 729]

Turn the steel coupler (put a screwdriver in one of the holes and turn it) This will screw/unscrew the steel coupler in the head block. And the teflon will lift.

You might need to do this while hot because it can be stuck sometimes.

You can maybe understand better by looking at this video (don't unscrew it completely)

 

[stu_le_brew 42]

@all, I am working on separating the Teflon by 2mm from the coupler but the spring keeps pushing the teflon back. How am I supposed to do this?

 

be very careful turning the stainless steel bit as its quite fragile, and yes I have destroyed one once. if you get lots of resistance try more heat

[kelechi 24]

 

@ultiarjan @DidierKlein, thanks a lot. I have done that successfully. Currently doing another print.

[kelechi 24]

 

@stu_le_brew....it turned easily without any resistance. Just wondering, if it breaks, can't it be 3D printed?

[DidierKlein 729]

No it has to be in steel

[kelechi 24]

Oh...I thought you meant the teflon...loool. I did love a lot more people to buy ultimakers over here, then I will have a local community. You guys have been great but I also want to have meet ups where I meet other users in person. Maybe the ultimaker team should come up with a marketing plan for Africa especially Nigeria with our population of 190million + people.

[stu_le_brew 42]

just taken a photo of a recent print job for my brother, I thought it would be of interest to you @kelechi

[/media]

Printed using an Olson block with a 0.60 nozzle, glow in the dark PLA using z hop when retracting - that is to say print the blue letters first then print the rest of the box lid around the letters

[kelechi 24]

@stu_le_brew...that is lovely. You designed it? Let me share my experience today...I was doing a print with a filament and my nozzpe got blocked ( I was printing PLA at 260 degs).

I dismantled the printhead, took out the block and used an external heat source to clear out the blockage. I was a bit scared, I will not vet it right but when i assembled everything back, it started printing very well. I will upload the work once I'm done...

[stu_le_brew 42]

@stu_le_brew...that is lovely. You designed it? Let me share my experience today...I was doing a print with a filament and my nozzpe got blocked ( I was printing PLA at 260 degs).

I dismantled the printhead, took out the block and used an external heat source to clear out the blockage. I was a bit scared, I will not vet it right but when i assembled everything back, it started printing very well. I will upload the work once I'm done...

 

yes it's my design, done using 123D design

260 is very hot for PLA, it will caramelise at those temperatures, I would not print PLA over about 230 - if you are having problems printing its worth increasing the temp a little but usually there is some other problem needs fixing

sounds like you are getting more confident with fixing problems, I can still remember the fear I had initially to take things apart

[kelechi 24]

@ultiarjan @DidierKlein @stu_le_brew @SandervG

I think i have a damaged nozzle.

I dismantled it yesterday and used heat to clear a clog in it. I used a needle to remove the residue. I restarted a 6 hour print job and towards the end I started noticing underextrusion. The job finished but there was a clear differnece between the quality at the beginning and the quality at the end.

After the job, I wanted to continue another job but the filament was no more extruding. I disassembled the head again and removed the nozzle and used heat and needle to remove the residue but yet there was no extrusion. Instead, when the filament gets forwarded and reaches the nozzle, I hear a 'kink kink' sound. I have tried everything possible yet my nozzle is no more extruding.

What should I do? I have a job to finish before Wednesday. Urgent please.

[Labern 774]

Never print with pla over 240 degrees. And even 240 is high.like stu_le_brew said you shouldn't need to go over 230.

You should do the atomic pull a few times to make sure the nozzle is nice and clean on the inside. As you may have Burnt the material in the nozzle it may take a few pulls to get it all out.

[Labern 774]

That kink kink sound is from the extruder. It means there is to much pressure trying to push the filament through.

Learn to do the atomic pull found HERE to see if you can clear it.

[stu_le_brew 42]

@ultiarjan @DidierKlein @stu_le_brew @SandervG

I think i have a damaged nozzle.

I dismantled it yesterday and used heat to clear a clog in it. I used a needle to remove the residue. I restarted a 6 hour print job and towards the end I started noticing underextrusion. The job finished but there was a clear differnece between the quality at the beginning and the quality at the end.

After the job, I wanted to continue another job but the filament was no more extruding. I disassembled the head again and removed the nozzle and used heat and needle to remove the residue but yet there was no extrusion. Instead, when the filament gets forwarded and reaches the nozzle, I hear a 'kink kink' sound. I have tried everything possible yet my nozzle is no more extruding.

What should I do? I have a job to finish before Wednesday. Urgent please.

 

Kelechi

The click click sound (or kink kink if you prefer) is the stepper motor on the filament feeder, it is struggling with too much resistance in the filaments route to the print head, It reverses direction momentarily to save grinding the filament or overheating.

you have to find out where the problem is, its most likely the white PTFE coupler is damaged, at temperatures over 250 its life is shortened. I would try "atomic cleans" first as Labern suggests, but if the problem continues see how easily the filament feeds into the head, maybe even dis-assemble it, some people have used a drill (3mm) to check/correct damage to the coupler.

I would encourage you to look at and "olssen block" upgrade and an I2K washer from Solex 3D (www.3dsolex.com) you may have seen that Ultimaker are including it now with new machines, I bought mine months ago its great for big fast printing and also for small very detailed work

hope this helps, 3dsolex also sell replacement PTFE couplers and are much faster to supply than Ultimaker

[stu_le_brew 42]

one other thing to add to the possible causes of the problem is if the filament is near the end of the roll some filaments seem to remember being tightly wound on the roll. This can cause extra friction inside the bowden tube. Two solutions to this simply change the filament reel or second as I have done a couple of times you can warm the problem reel in water (at 80-90 degrees C) and wind the filament onto a larger diameter container.