A new child in Denmark, but sometimes it hates me (

[jensleander 0]

Hey guys

My ultimaker has it's two weeks birtheday today (wuhu), and this is my first post in here. I really do love my new machine, i have been printing before both on a Makerbot 1 and a 10.000US thing at my school. Even though the ultimaker really rocks compared to both of those^^ i am struggling :(

When I use the basic settings in Cura it works just fine, i could of course wish better quality, but its ok.

But! As soon as i inter the full settings my problems starts, problems like:

1: It does not stick to the platform.

2: Gabs between the "strings/lines".

3: Bad overlapping.

4: No extrution.

And so on

No doubt its me screwing something up

I have read a lot in here about other peoples problem and also tried what people got suggested, but still :(

So my question is: Where should i start and which settings should be my own "basic settings" from which I can start to tweek and explore? Maybe just the basic settings from cura?

And which settings should I start changing?

I would really love some help. Maybe just some helpful links or other newbie posts like this

Thanks a lot in advance (People seem to be so nice in here)

 

[illuminarti 18]

Welcome!!

You can load the settings from something you already sliced that works ok - under the file menu, 'Load profile from gcode'. That will give you a starting point. Then make just small changes and keep good notes of what works and what doesn't.

Begin with printing between 0.1 and 0.2mm layers, at around 50mm/s. Temperature in the 210-230 range. You need to keep the volume of extrusion under about 8mm³/s - that is, layer height x extrusion width (usually 0.4mm, the nozzle width) x linear speed. Go too fast and you'll have problems of under extrusion and blockages due to too much pressure in the head.

You also want to make sure that the minimum layer time is at least 5 seconds, so the plastic has time to cool between layers.

If you have problems getting the first layer to stick, try making the first layer thicker - try 0.3mm. You may need to re-level the bed, and set the height again, by adjusting the screws in the corner of the bed. How to do that gets posted every couple of days in here, so you've probably seen it already.

 

[jensleander 0]

Nice illuminarti! Thank you! I will try messing around just with speed, temp and height, and just leave the advanced settings on default..

When i level my bed i use the paper method but when i get it nice in the corners the nozzle is too low in the middle is my bed not flat? my thoughts are that i am always printing in the middle, maybe i should take most care of that area?

Thanks again

 

[illuminarti 18]

If the corners are all good, but the middle is wrong, then it might be that your bed isn't flat, yes. Whether this is a problem, depends on how much the difference is. You could try simply flipping the bed over, and see if that makes a difference. Maybe the other side is flatter.

If the difference in height in the middle is small, then it may not matter. Usually the important thing is that head isn't too high up for the first layer, because then the plastic will not stick. If it gets closer in the middle, then the layer may get a bit more squashed, but it's only a problem if the head is totally pressed into the bed so no plastic can come out. If you set the first layer height to be 0.3mm, then that will give you a fairly thick layer that can absorb slight height changes in the bed underneath. The top of the first layer will be flattened by the nozzle, and then everything else can build on top of it as normal.