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Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?


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Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

Hi Community

I own an Ultimaker+(as construction kit) since 6 month.

The buildup and start was trouble-free and it works very well with PLA.

It has an impressive resolution and speed and the prints are very good.

The only thing ,what does not work, is printing with ABS.

I tried to print with ABS 2 times and it was not successfull.

There was no continious printing possible. No continious flow of filament possible!

I tried to raise up the Nozzle Temp. but more than 260°C is not allowed by the Settings.

At the 2nd try i had to dismout the Hotend to clean it from ABS-remains,

because off bad PLA-Prints after return to PLA.

Therefore I never used ABS after that desaster and PLA works fine.

But I have some 3D Models which woud prefer ABS because of better Temp-resistances.

So my question:

Should it really possible to print ABS also on my Ultimaker+.

I suspect that the max.Temp of 260°C is not enough for ABS.

Or is it easy possible to change the max.Temp-Setting without damaging the Hotend

because off over-heating.

Is the limitation based on the construction of the hotend to protect from destruction?

Best wishes to all.

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    You can print ABS at temps lower than 260, but I suspect the UMO hotend does not like higher temps, but I've no personal experience with it...

    If you would want to primarily use ABS you could mount an E3Dv6 hotend. But why bother. I would advice to use pla-tec if you need better temp resistance.

    https://www.3djake.com/extrudr/green-tec-white

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    Right -- The UMO hot-end does not like high temperatures. Keep it under 240°C and all will be fine.

    Beyond 240°C the Teflon coupler will not last long, and 250°C is the absolute maximum, as the PEEK insulator will start deforming.

    As said: if you really need high temps, consider mounting an E3D hot end for that purpose (I did that on one of my UMOs); but there are more and more materials available with very good temperature resistance that can be printed at more conventional temperatures like bioFila plaTec or Extrudr Green-Tec...

    (@ultiarjan: you mixed both ;) )

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    Right -- The UMO hot-end does not like high temperatures. Keep it under 240°C and all will be fine.

    Beyond 240°C the Teflon coupler will not last long, and 250°C is the absolute maximum, as the PEEK insulator will start deforming.

    As said: if you really need high temps, consider mounting an E3D hot end for that purpose (I did that on one of my UMOs); but there are more and more materials available with very good temperature resistance that can be printed at more conventional temperatures like bioFila plaTec or Extrudr Green-Tec...

    (@ultiarjan: you mixed both ;))

     

    Thanks for the concrete answers.

    I guessed something in that way.

    So when I change to the E3D hotend, I have some questions:

    The E3D hotend will work fine with PLA also or only with ABS.

    I mean is the printing quality equal to the original?

    Is this hotend better to manage than the original?

    (I mean the extensive disassembling and reassembling

    in case of cleaning off the original construction).

    How hard/easy is the changeover to the E3D?

    Do I need special settings in Cura with that

    and is that easy to make?

    Thanks in advance.

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    People are complaining that the E3D hot-end clogs with PLA. Maybe I am lucky, but mine does not. The head fan is very important as you don't want that part coming to hot. Also avoid unnecessary retractions in particular at end of the print.

    In term of quality, with the same nozzle and the same fan system you get very similar results with the stock hot end and the E3D (I have posted a couple of pictures here).

    For maintenance, there are only 4 parts (Nozzle, heater bloc, pipe and main part) -- nothing difficult to manage.

    The switch is quite easy, just find a mount which suits you -- there are plenty available. Depending on the mount, you might have to move your end-stops as most mounts are asymmetrical.

    You don't have to change anything in Cura (you could change the printable area, but I don't care too much...)

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    I am having good success printing ABS on my UMO. I like it for the lack of stringing, overhangs, heat resistance and durability of the finished parts. Also, the parts are easier to post process as the material can actually be sanded as opposed to PLA.

    My setup is a non-standard, but this is whats working for me. Take from it what you can.

    -Heated bed set at 100C with glass and hairspray.

    -Large .8mm nozzle running around 243C. It's a custom hot end, but it shouldn't matter.

    -I am usually printing at around 35-40mm/s and .2mm layers. Quality goes down if faster, and if can I wait just a little longer everything is good.

    -No cooling fan

    -Closed off chamber with tailored oven bag over the top and clip in Lexan panels on all 3 sides. Contains the heat and the stench, although since I switched to ABS I only print in the garage.

    -The real kicker is an Amazon/Chinese PID heat controller powering a cheap hair dryer laying in the bottom of the enclosure. This cost about $45us to set up, and maintains a temp 48+/-.3C from start to finish.

    -I don't care about color and I like the constant results of the same filament. I am currently printing off a 5lb coil of Ultimachine Natural (off white/ yellow) ABS filament. I also think the lack of coloring agents aids in the heat/flow properties. It is also slightly cheaper in this color and in bulk.

    Matt

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    Of course there's more. I almost forgot, I generally print double walls, 10 top layers, and medium density infill. Like maybe 4-6mm spaced tetrahedral pattern.

    I am getting mechanical parts that with a little trial and error and some scaling are under +/-.2mm in size. Typical scaling is around 101.8% in X&Y and maybe 100.5% in Z.

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    Even if you change out the nozzle to print ABS, you still will have trouble with splitting layers if you don't enclose the printer, for small low objects it's ok, for taller and more solid objects you could see problems :)

    I could never really get nice ABS prints on my UM-original, so I switched to Colorfabb-XT, it prints more like PLA, and has the high temperature resistance like ABS, and you can use fans to cool the object.

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    I switched to Colorfabb-XT, it prints more like PLA, and has the high temperature resistance like ABS

     

    No, XT is not a temp resistant material. It does better than PLA but it is way under ABS. Tg is around 70°C, even nGen does (a bit) better. ColorFabb position XT as an high-strength material, not high temp.

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    nGen has about the same tg as ABS (85C), but Colorfabb HT is the real High-temp material.

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    i think tg is "Glass Transition Temperature" ? I use FormFutura EasyFil ABS and the temperature of this is about 103°C. It worked perfect on my UMO+. I printed a plate around 190*190*10mm with 3dlac on the glass. No warping, everything came out perfect.

    The only mod i did to my umo is the dualfan mod from neotko with the "coupler/top peek cooler" show in this post. When i'm at home i coud post my print temperature if you like.

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    Posted · Original Ultimaker+ and ABS-Printing really recommendable?

    Hi ultimativmaker,

    my experience with ABS on UMO+

    I like ABS and nearly never change the material. Cheap, easy to get, easy to post-process - especially glueing with Acetone helps to fix improper prints or cracks due to mounting or whatever (but it needs some exercise to find out how to do it for good results).

    Heatbed - 110°C : Needs very long to reach on UMO+ (especially when not fully covered), adhesion ONLY on Glass-plate - i do not use anything else. I like it very much to print with more or less good adhesion and VERY easy removal when the plate is cooled down. At the moment i'm printing ABS on Prusa i3MK2 with PEI on the heated bed (100°C) and its very difficult to get the parts off the plate - destroyed also the PEI sheet on some areas.

    Nozzle - 230-250°C, depending on your ABS and Hotend:

    I printed good results with the UMO+ Hotend (0.4mm nozzle), never concerned about long lifetime, at the beginning i didn't know it better ;-) and later the plan was to move to E3DV6. Concerning temp. you have to try depending on your ABS - for ABS from Orbi-tech i used 250°C for the first layer and 245°C for the rest, it was good for my needs. Fan speed 30%, regular fan speed at layer 5.

    If you change your Hotend to E3DV6 - be aware!!

    It is often said that no cooling is recommended or needed for ABS - after my experience i'm in doubt. When i changed to E3DV6 i only got scrap at the beginning, mainly because i had no cooling for the nozzle, but also adjustements in temperature. After designing a fan mount for my dual-hotend (using 40mm fans) it was much better, usable results when running the fan(s) between 60-100%. I redesigned the fan mount for 50mm fans, now i'm running them with 50% (reg. at layer 5) resulting in good prints.

    So try it out for your configuration - according to my experience cooling preferences are essential - contrary to other opinions/experiences.

    Warping:

    yea, is a problem. Better with PLA, no doubt. When i had problems with warping the part was partially loosened from the build plate. Then using a glue stick helped for me, or try also other propagated methods (hairspray, abs-acetone or whatelse). First layer is important - check your nozzle/bed adjustement to get a good first layer with slow printing speed (no cooling on first layers!).

    On my Prusa (PEI-sheet) i have no problems with warping at the moment (don't know if the used material or the used temps/adjustements are crucial) - but removal of the parts from the build plate is very difficult :-/

    Dimensions:

    shrinking is a problem but this occurs with nearly all materials. Find out what you need, get experience and consider it in the design phase (when modelling). F.eks. clearance holes for M3 i design with at least 3.3mm (better 3.5mm). This topic is quite complex, depending on the geometry (holes, shafts, ...) and size the shrinkage varies. Wheter you print PLA or ABS - the problem is the same, the adjustements/corrections differ. No chance to correct ALL with a global scaling factor in Cura.

    If you need further help, send me a message. Maybe i can help with some Cura config-files. But anyway, you have to try it out...

    Good luck

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