AA 0.4mm Printcore Ruined

[taylorjed1991 0]

Hey,

Recently purchased an Ultimaker 3 Extended and have a beginner to intermediate experience with 3D printers. I've set the machine up in a well regulated cupboard and followed all calibration guides and print tips. However, on only my 3rd print my AA 0.4 print core has been completely destroyed. I had a relatively simple print with a 60% infill and 1.5mm walls in an attempt to achieve quite a hard finish. I was also running on 80% print speed and there was only a very small amount supports needed. The print was due to complete in 36 hours.

When I came back this morning to check on the print the print bed had completely moved (was fully attached before I left at the end of yesterday) and the print ruined. I've uploaded a picture of the destroyed print core.

Can anyone let me know if this is salvageable and why this would have happened?

Thanks,

Jed

Edited October 10, 2017 by Guest

[stu_le_brew 42]

it should be salvageable, put it back into the machine and heat to 180 degrees (no need to load any filament though), let it soften for a few mins and then remove bit by bit the mess, using what ever tools you have to hand - even a long tooth pick should do

keep an eye on the temperature as if say the temp sensor is trashed then it could heat to destruction

Hard to say what caused this

good luck

[taylorjed1991 0]

Hi Stu,

Thanks for the reply, I'll give it a go. I fear the extruder head might have sheared off but will see what happens when it's cleared.

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @Taylorjed1991, thank you for your message. Sorry to hear about your print core. First of all, I would suggest to get in touch with your reseller. Perhaps they can help you out as well.

Your print most likely got detached from your build plate, which meant the object got dragged along with your printhead over the bed. Instead of depositing a layer the extruded material accumulated and generated this blob.

Do you know if the silicon padding was inserted, or inserted correctly? This should prevent material from crawling up.

Possibly you could try to heat the filament with a blowdryer and peel it off with some pliers. It seems like it did not reach the electronics, so you should have a fair chance to recover your print core. (be gentle with the wires tho!)

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

By the way.. is it on or in a cupboard? I was not familiar with it, but google teaches me this is like a closet? It may work, but you may want to keep an eye out that the enclosed temperature does not get too high. It may result to a clog in your print core when the filament gets too warm. Although, this has nothing to do with your current problem, just a side note.

[SandervG 1,521]

oh, I've just been notified that it looks like that outside of the blob, it looks like the print core also broke. How did this happen? I guess cleaning wouldn't make much sense in this case. I would recommend to reach out to the reseller. Good luck!

[taylorjed1991 0]

Hi SandervG,

Thanks for the advice. To stop the print from detaching I've seen people recommend using glue on the print bed, would you agree?

Yeah the silicone padding was all in nicely but it's actually been a bit torn, hopefully this doesn't affect future prints.

Here's the printer setup, the light isn't normally on so that's a little less heat. Do you think it would be too hot in there? Those pipes aren't the boiler. (I wouldn't say it's particularly hot)

Cheers for the help

[SandervG 1,521]

Seems spacious enough, so I think you are fine

Glue could certainly help, but it kinda depends on what material you use. I would recommend to check out our resource pages for some tips for each of the Ultimaker filaments. (For other materials, you usually find some tips within the box it arrives in, or on the resellers website).

It is usually either glue or an adhesive sheet, and the right temperature of the build plate. This also generates adhesion.

Regarding the silicon padding, they can wear down after usage as well. You may want to inform with your reseller about getting a/some replacements. I don't think they are expensive. When a tear would grow bigger or is too big, an additional risk is that airflow from the fans can crawl up in the printhead and make it more difficult for your print cores to heat up, resulting in irregular temperatures.

[Oj00 5]

We had a somewhat similar failure with our printer:

Ours was caused, we believe, due to one of the head bearing seizing up, a belt tensioner snapping, and a build up of plastic around the head.....

Fortunately it stopped when it took too long for the second print-core to heat up. It took about 3 hours to carefully dissemble and remove all the plastic. Due to the heat cycling it was mostly brittle inside, only what had been exposed to the air on the outside was very hard.

Its back working after we changed the head now.

[SandervG 1,521]

There is some beauty and eerie in that particular clog, almost looks like it is bleeding.. happy to hear you got it back to work!

Did you add additional belt tensioners to your Ultimaker 3? Did you feel it was necessary? There should be springs in the sliderblocks that always keep your belts at a good tension.

I'm not sure what you mean by a bearing seizing up. Can you elaborate, and what makes you think so?

[Oj00 5]

We didn't add any additional tensioners, the springs inside the blocks had snapped. (probably due to high and repeated strain caused by the bearing seizing up)

The bearing fail was quite obvious, the head would hardly move on the shaft and you could see it was missing balls in the linear bearing. (This is the linear bearings in the print head)

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

@Oj00, may I ask which of the two bearings in the printhead lost a ball?

[Oj00 5]

I believe its the extended X axis bearing.

On another machine we just received the bearings already feel very rough in the head. Some bearings will just run up and down the shaft under gravity, some require pushing (and sound and feel rough) and the one that failed would not move on the shaft when it was in the print head and tilted at a 45 degree angle.

We do maintain the machine well and clean shafts and apply oil etc as required.

Sorry to hijack this thread