Bowden tube pop unplugged the temperature regulator

[billdempsey 0]

It doesn't show up in the shop because they are support items, usually the support people will give you the links to the items so you can order them trough the normal channels.

Thanks man! They should give you a raise. You're more helpful than emailing support. LOL

Snowygrouch and MSURunner are more helpful, too.

[billdempsey 0]

Ordered and paid for the parts yesterday, but still no shipment notice, and they already left for the day again. This means they went through a full work day after I ordered and they didn't ship it out. So, I won't see the parts until next week at this rate. That's one more week of useless printer. Ugh! Frustrating! :(

Update: Ordered Monday. Parts shipped on Thursday after I reminded them about my order on Wednesday. Had to remind them the first time I ordered parts, too. *sigh*

[billdempsey 0]

Happy Holidays to all of you who've tried to help me this past month!

The heater finally arrived. Fed the wire through the machine and plugged it in. I had already taken everything apart and replaced all of the printer head pieces. It's brand new bowden, bowden clips, new peek, new aluminum block, new brass, new sensor. It was all assembled correctly and checked half a dozen times, because I've had lots of time waiting on parts. I had even disassembled the feed mechanism and double checked that it was all assembled correctly while waiting. Clips are all in place. Blue horseshoes are attached. After installing the heater, I ran through the calibration routine on the wiki to make sure it was aligned and the bed leveled.

So, I try to print a belt tensioner, because it's small. My Ultimaker lays down one layer, then part of another before it craps out and stops feeding filament. It had ground itself a half-moon shape into the side of the filament, but both ends of the bowden held firm, so the problem I had originally is fixed.

Still, from clean, brand new everything, it appears I got an instant plug. At that point, there was much foul language. I took the print head apart. There was only a tiny bit of plastic in the brass and nozzle, which I cleaned out. In fact, everything was relatively clean up to the white nylon piece that connects to the bowden. It was completely solid. Couldn't even tell where the holes were without a magnifying glass. (I was using Ultimaker brand white filament, which seems to be the same color as the nylon.) Tried getting the plastic out, but no luck. Finally, I put it into a vise and used a 3mm bit and my drill press. As usual, my bad luck held and the piece popped loose from the vise and got chewed. So, I assembled everything without the nylon piece. It actually worked better without it. It got a little further on the print before it stopped feeding. It still eventually plugged, though.

The sad part is, I can't even complete one print to make any parts that might help me get this damn thing working. I'm pretty fed up. At this point, It's been a month and I still don't have a single completed print. I'm not spending another $50 to ship another $8 piece and that wouldn't fix the plugging issue anyway. After spending over $3000 for nothing, I think I'm pretty much done with Ultimaker. Lesson painfully learned. If somebody with infinite patience wants to take this thing off my hands and fiddle with it until they get it to stop plugging over and over, I'm open to offers. I have the latest everything on it, some extra parts, and the extra Ulticontroller, too. I also regretfully bought the $200 NetFABB license, which I'm sure I'm stuck with.

Everybody I've talked to who has their Ultimaker working reliably has replaced the stock Ultimaker feed path with something different. Those who haven't replaced any part of the feed, are still getting plugs constantly. I just don't have the patience to clean out plugs 5 or 6 times a day while never completing an entire print. Doing it twice today with no improvement in plugging was enough.

Can anyone recommend a dependable printer with a large print volume and a stock feed mechanism which doesn't plug constantly?

[snowygrouch 1]

Questions:

1) Do you have v1 or v2 hotend ?

2) Do you have an extruder drive with the plastic rub plate, or with the spring loaded ball bearing ?

The machine WILL work very well once its all together properly and has some adjustment, but

its not very tolerant unfortunately. So its very sensitive to assembly fitup.

It would be helpful if you would take a few pictures (can you reduce the size please ? Its very hard

to make much out of your previous ones as they are 3x larger than the view window...).

If its failing to extrude and stripping filament, is because there is too much force required to extrude. This

is because of a plug, a plug is caused by incorrect assembly, gap between bowden and PEEK and also

because of poor design (if you the the v1 hotend). However with correct assembly and some nursing, you

should be able to print some parts even with the v1 hotend.

If you are having plug problems I recommend disabling any retraction at all, until its basically working.

Retraction really exasperates plugging.

C.

[joergen 2]

A couple of things for you to check:

Heat up the hotend, and remove the nozzle

Remove the 4 screws holding the alu plate

Lower the alu plate, and remove any PLA in the upper part of the PEEK

Take a paper qtip, remove most of the cotton, and shove it through the still hot brass tube, to remove any PLA

Inspect the upper part of the PEEK for any PLA leftovers

Sanity check: the long end of the thread of the small brass tube with the flange goes into the PEEK, the short end into the alu heater block. You can the the end of the brass in the upper part of the PEEK, extending into the well about 0.5mm.

Clean the small teflon part

Clean the nozzle as best as you can (heat gun, oven set to 200c/400f, but dont let the nozzle go over 250c) with tweezers and qtips, try not to damage the nozzle

Tighten the nozzle against he alu again

Carefully tighten the PEEK brass tube against the alu block, until you feel the 2 brass tubes mate in the center of the heater bock. Dont over tighten. If the 2 brass tubes have a gap, it will cause a plug of sorts.

Remove the nozzle again, try not to change the depth of the upper brass tube into the alu.

Turn off the heater and let it cool (and hopefully you dont have burns on your finger tips from the previous steps)

Push the grey bowden retainer ring down a bit, and pull the bowden back up. This should be relatively easy, without damaging the teeth in the retainer or the bowden. If not, wiggle it untl it is easy. Dont force it.

Put the alu plate back ito place, and pay attention to the small teflon part going into he top of the PEEK

Tighten all 4 screws

The teflon part needs to mate with the brass nozzle, and make a tight seal (see sanity check earlier), in the upper part of the PEEK. Any gap between the teflon and the brass tube will make a plug

Push the bowden back down into the teflon part. Dont force it too much, you dont have to make a perfect seal. Put the blue horse shoe retainer clip back in

Unhinge.open your extruder feeder berthos thingi

Insert some filament into the bowden

Push it all the way through, and feel with your fingers if there are any obstructions.

If the filament comes out through the alu heater block without any issue, you are good. If not, figure out what the obstruction is ( make sure you clip off any thick end off the filemant)

Pull the filament back 10 cm out of the hotzone

Reheat the hotend

Put the nozzle back in, be carefull tightening it (remember the gap earlier)

Push the filament back into the hotend

You should be able too see plastic coming out of the nozzle, with reasonable force, about 10-15 newton... If not, bring up the heat by 5-10C (see davids comment earlier)

Close the hinge of the feeder mechanism (the spring should have a couple of mm left to compress)

Turn the extruder wheel with your fingers. You should see plastic coming out the nozzle while turning the wheel easily. If you feel a springy resistance, a clog has developed, and go back in this list to pinpoint the error

Check your z level, and check if the zero point is properly set. I assume this is explained in the wiki

Make sure you dont burn more holes into the acrylic.

Start up cura, and print something simple... Adjust the printing temp in 5C steps on te ulticontroller, until youi get a nice extrusion and print... Too cold and you get a matte print, too hot and it gets really runny and blobby. Make sure you cool the PLA print, and not your hotend. 210 is a good middle ground

Make sure you have a firm understanding how to wire the hotend, both electrically and mechanically, to avoid ay future hot end distructions

Start cura, and do some printing

Do some more reading about 3D printing, and follow this forum, and the google group more closely.

Happy holiday

[billdempsey 0]

Questions:

1) Do you have v1 or v2 hotend ?

2) Do you have an extruder drive with the plastic rub plate, or with the spring loaded ball bearing ?

The machine WILL work very well once its all together properly and has some adjustment, but

its not very tolerant unfortunately. So its very sensitive to assembly fitup.

It would be helpful if you would take a few pictures (can you reduce the size please ? Its very hard

to make much out of your previous ones as they are 3x larger than the view window...).

If its failing to extrude and stripping filament, is because there is too much force required to extrude. This

is because of a plug, a plug is caused by incorrect assembly, gap between bowden and PEEK and also

because of poor design (if you the the v1 hotend). However with correct assembly and some nursing, you

should be able to print some parts even with the v1 hotend.

If you are having plug problems I recommend disabling any retraction at all, until its basically working.

Retraction really exasperates plugging.

C.

Hi Snow, Thanks for the reply and Merry Christmas to you.

Answers:

1. Version 2

2. Spring loaded bearing.

Yes, as I said in my post, I knew it was a plug because everything was still in place yet the filament got stripped. I figured the only thing that would cause that is a plug. That's why I disassembled everything and cleaned it out. When I reassembled everything, it plugged again.

I was really wanting this thing to work first try, so here are the things I checked prior to the first print:

1. I made certain the bowden was pushed all the way into the nylon piece and the horseshoe was snapped in place.

2. I made sure the brass was oriented exactly as shown in the hot head assembly. As shown here:

http://wiki.ultimaker.com/Ultimaker_rev ... usion_head

3. I made sure the brass was tightened fully into the Peek.

4. I made sure the nozzle was tightened fully into the block.

5. I made sure the brass was tightened fully into the block.

6. I tightened the aluminum plate fully to wedge the top of the Peek between it and the wood.

7. I made sure the nylon piece was mated with the Peek.

8. During print bed leveling, I even used the card that came in the box as a gauge, as instructed in the WiKi.

Everything was tight and unlike a couple weeks ago, the bowden didn't pop out at all. I was actually pretty encouraged when it started printing. Then it stopped feeding and my heart dropped into my stomach.

I took the previous photos with my iPhone. That's why they were so big. I'll take a few more later and throw them on my desktop to scale them before I upload.

[phanc60844 0]

Hi,

one of the first photos you posted of the top of the printhead showed you trying to hold the bowden tube on the top of the printhead with a screw that you had moded yourself. what happened to the tube retainer that fits in the hole that the bowden passes through, it appears to be missing? you mention the horseshoe in the previous post so you must have fitted it, or did you give up and throw it away? If it didnt hold, then either the tube retainer is faulty of the OD of the bowden is too small to enable it to be gripped. I really feel for you but all I can say is that the system works, I've not had a single plug, leak or any other issue for that matter other than getting a feel for the parameter setting in Cura

Paul

[billdempsey 0]

A couple of things for you to check:

Heat up the hotend, and remove the nozzle

Remove the 4 screws holding the alu plate

Lower the alu plate, and remove any PLA in the upper part of the PEEK

Take a paper qtip, remove most of the cotton, and shove it through the still hot brass tube, to remove any PLA

Inspect the upper part of the PEEK for any PLA leftovers

Sanity check: the long end of the thread of the small brass tube with the flange goes into the PEEK, the short end into the alu heater block. You can the the end of the brass in the upper part of the PEEK, extending into the well about 0.5mm.

Clean the small teflon part

Clean the nozzle as best as you can (heat gun, oven set to 200c/400f, but dont let the nozzle go over 250c) with tweezers and qtips, try not to damage the nozzle

Tighten the nozzle against he alu again

Carefully tighten the PEEK brass tube against the alu block, until you feel the 2 brass tubes mate in the center of the heater bock. Dont over tighten. If the 2 brass tubes have a gap, it will cause a plug of sorts.

Remove the nozzle again, try not to change the depth of the upper brass tube into the alu.

Turn off the heater and let it cool (and hopefully you dont have burns on your finger tips from the previous steps)

Push the grey bowden retainer ring down a bit, and pull the bowden back up. This should be relatively easy, without damaging the teeth in the retainer or the bowden. If not, wiggle it untl it is easy. Dont force it.

Put the alu plate back ito place, and pay attention to the small teflon part going into he top of the PEEK

Tighten all 4 screws

The teflon part needs to mate with the brass nozzle, and make a tight seal (see sanity check earlier), in the upper part of the PEEK. Any gap between the teflon and the brass tube will make a plug

Push the bowden back down into the teflon part. Dont force it too much, you dont have to make a perfect seal. Put the blue horse shoe retainer clip back in

Unhinge.open your extruder feeder berthos thingi

Insert some filament into the bowden

Push it all the way through, and feel with your fingers if there are any obstructions.

If the filament comes out through the alu heater block without any issue, you are good. If not, figure out what the obstruction is ( make sure you clip off any thick end off the filemant)

Pull the filament back 10 cm out of the hotzone

Reheat the hotend

Put the nozzle back in, be carefull tightening it (remember the gap earlier)

Push the filament back into the hotend

You should be able too see plastic coming out of the nozzle, with reasonable force, about 10-15 newton... If not, bring up the heat by 5-10C (see davids comment earlier)

Close the hinge of the feeder mechanism (the spring should have a couple of mm left to compress)

Turn the extruder wheel with your fingers. You should see plastic coming out the nozzle while turning the wheel easily. If you feel a springy resistance, a clog has developed, and go back in this list to pinpoint the error

Check your z level, and check if the zero point is properly set. I assume this is explained in the wiki

Make sure you dont burn more holes into the acrylic.

Start up cura, and print something simple... Adjust the printing temp in 5C steps on te ulticontroller, until youi get a nice extrusion and print... Too cold and you get a matte print, too hot and it gets really runny and blobby. Make sure you cool the PLA print, and not your hotend. 210 is a good middle ground

Make sure you have a firm understanding how to wire the hotend, both electrically and mechanically, to avoid ay future hot end distructions

Start cura, and do some printing

Do some more reading about 3D printing, and follow this forum, and the google group more closely.

Happy holiday

Thanks Joergen. Merry Christmas to you.

I actually followed all of these steps when I was cleaning the parts. I had seen them listed on a few of the other threads about plugging issues. The one exception is that I couldn't use a heat gun to clean the teflon/nylon piece, as I don't own one.

I was very careful about making sure everything was seated properly during assembly and reassembly. I'm also wondering if this Ultimaker brand white filament might be bad. It doesn't seem to want to melt until it's 225c or higher. It is definitely PLA, but that seems high. I know it's not ABS, because there is no nasty smell. I'm going to clean everything one more time and swap to a different filament today, just to make sure.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

[billdempsey 0]

Hi,

one of the first photos you posted of the top of the printhead showed you trying to hold the bowden tube on the top of the printhead with a screw that you had moded yourself. what happened to the tube retainer that fits in the hole that the bowden passes through, it appears to be missing? you mention the horseshoe in the previous post so you must have fitted it, or did you give up and throw it away? If it didnt hold, then either the tube retainer is faulty of the OD of the bowden is too small to enable it to be gripped. I really feel for you but all I can say is that the system works, I've not had a single plug, leak or any other issue for that matter other than getting a feel for the parameter setting in Cura

Paul

Hi Paul, thanks for replying.

That screw was a last ditch effort to stop the bowden popping. Since then, I've ordered and replaced all of those pieces. The top piece, the bowden, the retainer, the blue horseshoe, and everything else is brand new now. It's all assembled according to the instructions. The bowden stays in place now without moving. Now, my problem is plugging on every print attempt.

Happy Holidays!

[phanc60844 0]

Sorry, i've just read your post propperly, al I can say is dont abrade the surface of the bowden

' I've tried roughing up the surface and wrapping coil winding wire around it below the clamp & blue horseshoe.'

The plastic retainer bites into the tube but it has to be of a close tollerance and perfectly smooth to get a good grip, i think that roughing up the surface will reduce the diameter a little and provide less plastic to retain the tube. I've used these fittings on pneumatics for years and a clean, smooth surface is vital, it is also benificial to try to pull the tube back a little when you have pushed it all the way home, that forces the fitting to dig in more than it normally would and if it gives way with minimal force, is an indication that something is amiss.

paul

[joergen 2]

4. I made sure the nozzle was tightened fully into the block.

5. I made sure the brass was tightened fully into the block.

If I read correctly into your #5, you might have the brass tube installed the wrong way. the long end goes into the PEEK, the short end into the alu block. The assembly should look like this:

The nozzle is snug against the alu, and the brass tube flange is snug against the PEEK, the two brass stube snug against each other inside the alu block.

What I am trying to say is that proper assembly will prevent plugs from happening.

In regards to the temperature, and easy way to find the right temp for PLA&ABS is to heat up with the Ulticontroller to target temp-10C, and turn the wheel by hand... if it feels too springy/resistive and looks matte, increase the temp by 5C, and repeat. when you reach a good temp, you can turn the wheel for 4-10 revolutions, and see a nice extrusion coming out of the nozzle (have the table 100mm under the nozzle, so you can extrude into mid air), without feeling that it gets difficult or it starts stripping (the spring mechanism at the extruder still has 2-3mm for the spring to go?).

There is a chance that your thermocouple assembly&amplifier chip under/over reports the actual temp, by 5-20C, especially if you have strong electromagnetic fields nearby (large transformers, power lines, elevators, large motors). those will affect the Thermocouple cables, and you can check if your printer is affected by this, by turning the printer 90 deg... if the temp reading stays exactly the same, you are not affected. if you see a drop or raise by 5-20C on the UC display just my physically moving the UM, you are affected, and should move the printer to a different location.

 

The one exception is that I couldn't use a heat gun to clean the teflon/nylon piece, as I don't own one.

I never said you need to heat the teflon piece... and PLA will come off with your fingers, even when cold. nothing will stick to teflon. you may only need an extra heat source for the nozzle, but as I said, you can get away with a gas stove or your oven (no microwave, for obvious reasons) to heat up and clean your nozzle. even boiling water is sufficient to make the PLA soft enough to clean the nozzle.

[joergen 2]

Sorry, i've just read your post propperly, al I can say is dont abrade the surface of the bowden

 

I've tried roughing up the surface and wrapping coil winding wire around it below the clamp & blue horseshoe.

 

I agree with Paul, there might be more small mistakes you've made in the assembly than what might be coming through from your descriptions. To make troubleshooting easier for all of us, please continue making pictures of the assembly you think is affected. more (small) pictures are better than less :-)

(the bowden massacre still makes me shudder)

[joergen 2]

I'm also wondering if this Ultimaker brand white filament might be bad. It doesn't seem to want to melt until it's 225c or higher. It is definitely PLA, but that seems high. I know it's not ABS, because there is no nasty smell

Was this white filament on a regular 1000gr spool, or was this 1-3 meters loose filament that was in the box?

if it was not on a spool, it is part of the "ABS hot end sealing kit", and as the name implies, it is ABS, and you are able to "extrude" it around 225C, as you have noted, but it's not easy to extrude ABS as such low temps, 240-260C are normal for ABS.

See

and

for some hands-on comparisons

[billdempsey 0]

There seems to be a lot of confusion. Hopefully these pics will clear up whether I assembled correctly. I've never put the brass upside down, btw. It's pretty obvious which end goes into the Peek. Here are the pics:

Hope this helps.

Btw, the PLA was on a spool, clearly labeled Ultimaker PLA.

[joergen 2]

Thanks for posting the images, almost everything looks fine to me. My questions earlier were to rule out any misunderstandings I might have.

The only thing I can see is PLA leaking out of the top of the alu block.

heat up the head, pull the filament out completely (and cut off the blob at the end), undo the 4 screws, lower the alu plate, check if any PLA is on the PEEK and clean it off if necessary, hold the alu block with pliers, and turn the peek with pliers counter-clock-wise (to unscrew) 1/8 of a turn, and then tighten it again until you feel the 2 brass tubes mate. don't over tighten, since the brass can't take too much torque. this should hopefully seal the leak you have, which was most likely the source of your plug/difficult extrusion. I had a similar case in the store, and that procedure fixed it for good.

If you can, insert the heater cartridge a bit more into the alu block, it looks like it's not deep enough in there. this is not mission critical, just something that may help.

[billdempsey 0]

I cleaned everything AGAIN. I ignored the instructions and set my print bed at double the thickness of the card which came in the box. (folded in half) I also switched out the white filament with grey.

Guess what?

I just completed my first print ever.

The item I printed, was:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32044

I used normal quick print settings. My results:

As you can see, it printed, but at an angle. The vertical walls are very smooth. They're just not vertical. At first I thought "belt slippage" but it's so precise it seems unlikely. It's also only offset in the Y direction. I'm guessing something in my settings is wrong. Before I printed anything, I had restored everything to factory defaults using the Ulticontroller. Then, I ran through the Cura first run wizard to update the firmware. Then, I loaded, prepared, and printed it using Cura.

(EDIT: I just tried another object to print and it's doing the same thing.)

Any suggestions?

[joergen 2]

I cleaned everything AGAIN. I ignored the instructions and set my print bed at double the thickness of the card which came in the box. (folded in half) I also switched out the white filament with grey. Guess what?

I just completed my first print ever.

 

Great to hear... It would have had been helpful to let us know that you were deeply embedding the first layer into the blue tape, and hence creating a crazy over pressure in the head that leads to stripping. But i guess you figured it out yourself. I assume you never saw the tutorials about first layer sticking and adjustments, and the fact that you can turn the z coupling to lower/raise the table for the first layer... I hope that is not part of your "ignored the instructions"

[attachment=0]photo.JPG[/attachment]

 

As you can see, it printed, but at an angle. The vertical walls are very smooth. They're just not vertical. At first I thought "belt slippage" but it's so precise it seems unlikely. It's also only offset in the Y direction. I'm guessing something in my settings is wrong. Before I printed anything, I had restored everything to factory defaults using the Ulticontroller. Then, I ran through the Cura first run wizard to update the firmware. Then, I loaded, prepared, and printed it using Cura.

(EDIT: I just tried another object to print and it's doing the same thing.)

Any suggestions?

Since any instructions will be ignored, i'll let other, hopefully less disillusioned supporters help you.

[Daid 306]

Actually, one of the things here is "Ultimaker white", our white PLA needs a higher temperature to print properly. But I do not know if it's labeled like that.

As for the slanted printing, it's always something mechanical. Anything from a lose pulley to bad motor current settings.

[billdempsey 0]

I cleaned everything AGAIN. I ignored the instructions and set my print bed at double the thickness of the card which came in the box. (folded in half) I also switched out the white filament with grey. Guess what?

I just completed my first print ever.

 

Great to hear... It would have had been helpful to let us know that you were deeply embedding the first layer into the blue tape, and hence creating a crazy over pressure in the head that leads to stripping. But i guess you figured it out yourself. I assume you never saw the tutorials about first layer sticking and adjustments, and the fact that you can turn the z coupling to lower/raise the table for the first layer... I hope that is not part of your "ignored the instructions"

I repeat - I followed the instructions FIRST.[/b] They were wrong. So, I subsequently ignored those instructions and set bigger spacing by folding the card to double the space between the nozzle and the bed.

In a nutshell, I fixed the plugging issue by switching filament and doubling the space between the bed and the nozzle. It was never digging into the bed, and it definitely laid down filament, but the first layer looked thin to me. I increased the space because I HAVE seen the tutorial videos and it seemed that the first layer just wasn't as thick as it should be from the videos.

The output looks good now. It's just not vertically straight. I said earlier it was slanted in the Y direction only, I actually meant the X direction. The Y direction is perfectly straight. So, I probably have a loose belt on the X direction. I'm going to try to print out a simple belt tensioner for it.

Also, as an FYI, the difference between the gray and white filaments is HUGE. The gray is coming out very smooth and liquid at 220C. The white was always closer to the consistency of putty, even at 230C. I'd say the white filament was more than half the problem. I'm pretty happy with how this gray stuff is flowing.

[billdempsey 0]

Actually, one of the things here is "Ultimaker white", our white PLA needs a higher temperature to print properly. But I do not know if it's labeled like that.

As for the slanted printing, it's always something mechanical. Anything from a lose pulley to bad motor current settings.

Thanks Daid. I didn't see any special temperature label on the spool, but that might be a good idea. The gray filament is coming out smooth at 220C while the white was coming out like putty even at 230C. Switching to the gray made a big difference.

I'm looking for a very small belt tensioner on thingiverse atm. A small object seems to print straight enough to be usable.

[billdempsey 0]

Found small belt tensioner on Thingiverse.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:10082

Printed it four times and put them on the belts. It had no effect on the angled printing. Next, I tried loosening the screws on the motors and moving them to stretch the drive belts harder. That didn't help either.

Hey Daid, you mentioned current to the motors. Where would I be able to find out how to boost that slightly?

EDIT: I just went through calibration again. Loosened all the pulleys, measured spacing of blocks, got them perfectly even and re-tightened the pulleys. I'll test a print in the morning. I don't trust it running without me sitting here anymore.

Merry Christmas to all, even the grouchy ones.

[will_57 0]

Check that all of the pulleys are screwed on tight, including the ones on the small belts and the ones on the stepper motors. I once had exactly the same problems (funnily enough, while printing out the same belt tensioner) because of a loose pulley, but I didn't notice it until it got so loose that movement in the Y direction stopped completely.

[billdempsey 0]

Check that all of the pulleys are screwed on tight, including the ones on the small belts and the ones on the stepper motors. I once had exactly the same problems (funnily enough, while printing out the same belt tensioner) because of a loose pulley, but I didn't notice it until it got so loose that movement in the Y direction stopped completely.

Thanks! I'll take a look at those, too.

[billdempsey 0]

Fixed the vertical alignment issue. It just finished a 2.5 hr print without a problem. The object curled up a bit at the ends, but otherwise looked decent. Now, I just need to get used to adjusting for plastic shrinkage, and I'll be rocking!

Thanks everyone for all of your help!

I'll let you know how my next few prints go.

[IRobertI 520]

And how did you fix it? Can't count how many times I've searched for solutions to problems I've had with things from programming, microcontrollers or what have you, found a thread, got to the end and see "nevermind, I fixed it!". Drives me nuts hehe.