How to tune your UM 2go

[drrobrx 0]

My UM 2go is my first 3d printer! So far its been working pretty great. I have been experimenting with settings on my prints to avoid feeder skipping while maximizing speed. Seems like it will only print without skipping on very slow speeds.

Right now I am printing at .15mm thickness and 65mm/sec with clear ultimaker PLA filament @ 220 degrees, that is giving me an output of 3.9mm^3/sec and it is still skipping pretty regularly. I had my settings up to 4.9mm^3/sec at one point and the print quality was very poor.

My questions are, are the settings above considered fast/medium/slow? Is feeder skipping a normal part of operation above certain speeds? Is there a way to tune up/calibrate my printer (outside of the normal calibration procedure) so that it performs more optimally?

Thanks!

-Rob

[gr5 2,173]

4mm^3/sec at 220C is medium. You shouldn't be getting skipping at this speed but you are pushing the limit a bit. The printers are supposedly tested at 8mm^3/sec (but at 230C).

Extruder skipping is bad. It won't hurt the printer but it sucks for your print. I can usually go 30 prints without skipping. I think a lot of it has to do with the filament and whether it slips a bit in the extruder or not (if it doesn't slip then skipping is more likely). Softer (slightly) filaments seem to skip less.

I suspect your temp sensor is a bit tighter than usual so it reads high meaning the nozzle is cooler than most printers and that you can go up another 10C or 20C. I don't know for sure though. Your quality will diminish at higher temps so it's up to you.

There is definitely a tradeoff between speed and quality. I prefer to print at .2mm layer height and 35mm/sec for high quality and reasonable speed (thicker layers print faster).

I don't know if you have another printer but 65mm/sec is much faster on the UM than for a printer with the feeder mounted on the head because UM has much higher acceleration. Those Makerbots probably never get up to 100mm/sec unless you are printing straight lines across the whole bed because the acceleration is so much lower.

Feeder skipping on the bottom layer is a special case - just go into the tune menu and slow it the hell down - say maybe 25% or 50% feedrate. That is .3mm thick plus it may be squishing and working harder. But if you get skipping on higher layers immediately go into the tune menu and try to get rid of it by increasing temp up to 240C and/or by slowing down the feedrate down to 20%. Whatever it takes. Unless you don't care how the part looks.

You may have a partially clogged nozzle - typically gunk is lining the inside of the nozzle and it's hard to get that out without soaking it in acetone or burning it out. Having the Olsson block saves a lot of time as you can just unscrew the nozzle and clean it out without having to take the whole head apart.

[drrobrx 0]

How is installing the Olsson block? Tough? I guess worth it?

[gr5 2,173]

Read through this and decide:

http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/62-installing-the-olsson-block-kit

Probably much easier than the UM2+ upgrade which I hear might involve drilling holes in your printer.

A LOT of people break their temp sensor. But the guy who wrote the above article has changed about 100 and broke only one temp sensor. But still - they tend to be very tricky to get out. Don't rush that step. Don't panic. Take your time. Try heating. Try adding wd40 to loosen it. Read the suggestions. Just don't yank it out by the wire. Ever. That guarantees it will be destroyed. As long as you don't do that you should be fine.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Guest

[drrobrx 0]

Wow. Definitely seems like a good way to potentially loose your mind. Not ready for that just yet. Put my settings on .2 and 40 and almost no skips now. Slower, but definitely better.

Thanks for your help!

-Rob