Building UMO+ from scratch

[Moddler 0]

Hello,

 

i own a UMO and have been using it a lot. It is around for quite some years  and has developed a few issues. The Hot end is kind of worn, the fan assembly is bad, the Rods are bent and there is no heated bed. The acrylic bed has been punished alot and is a mess.

I like everything about the Ultimaker so i do not want to switch to another printer.

 

Long story short i want to source all the parts myself and build a Ultimaker Original (+) from scratch. The panels will be watercut from 6mm aluminium. I also thought about Building the Ultimaker 2 Extended while im at it, but believe it may be more trouble to build, the panels i guess is a small problem here. Any comments on this?

I plan on using TMC1200 steppers, so i have to go with the 1.5.7 Version motherboard-Design, correct? Then the Ulitmaker 2 Extended idea would not be possible, right?

Since it uses the newer board with the stepper controllers soldered on to the board. In general i like the idea more of a modular system and not everything packed onto one PCB.

 

These are my first Ideas for the rest of the printer:

- E3D V6 Hotend with two Dual 40mm fans (with the option for titan aero direct extruder, sometimes i print rubber filament)

- GT2 belts

- bowden extruder but know idea yet what exactly

- DIY heated bed, i have not found anything except the original upgrade kit which seems not the be existing anymore.

- No dual Extruder

 

Problems i dont have any idea for yet:

- Sourcing the Rods. they dont seem to be available anywhere. Worst case i have to get them custom made.

- Motherboard in general. I tend to use the 1.5.7 version. The 2.1.4 cant have the steppers changed, and i dont know if there is any trouble with a DIY heated bed on that board. Comments on this?

- Heated Bed DIY builds, any good ideas to this?

 

I am really thankful for any comments or ideas. A few thing hold very little information to read about, maybe i am missing something out entirely. 

 

Cheers,

Moddler

 

[gr5 2,268]

It might be easier to just straighten the rods you have now versus sourcing new ones.  There's a guy who posted a video of how he rotates the rods and can measure easily where the bow is the worst - then he markes the rod then bends it the other way and then retests it.  I think he fixed all his rods in an hour or so.

 

I am not a fan of E3DV6 all metal.  This hotend you are thinking of - is it all metal or does it have some PTFE?  I strongly recommend a head with PTFE.  I believe their 3mm head is all metal but they have a 1.75mm head that is quite excellent and has some ptfe in it (teflon).  The problem with all metal is you can print anything but PLA and PLA is the best material out there (overall properties and ease of printing).  But if you are willing to switch to 1.75 or if you are never ever going to print PLA again (which is fine - PET/nGen/CPE is a fantastic material also) then go for it.

 

They may tell you it prints PLA but it doesn't.  It gets stuck.  molten PLA sticks very well to all metals.

[nilrog 103]

Building an UM2 Extended clone vs. an UMO+ clone is no difference.

 

Personally I would ditch the UM boards and use a Duet3D, or some other modern board. But if you look around there is a clone-v2.1.5 version of the UM2 board with removable steppers available. But given that it is a clone I would not buy it...it's a hit-or-miss kind of chance not worth taking imo. That said, using a different board means no more UM firmware...so it will no longer be a 1-1 clone.

 

If you want to keep the UMO board and change stepper you can also build an UMO Extended...just make the side panels higher...all you need to change in the software config is the height of the build area.

 

If you want an amazing extruder I can recommend the Zero Gravity Extruder. I, and a few more, have been using it for a long time and it is awesome...regardless if you are printing stiff or flexible filaments.

 

Rods can be bought from many places...Misumi if you want the best...Robotdigg (or similar places) if you want to save some money.

 

If you look at the Ultimaker 2 Aluminium Extrusion clone at Thingiverse you will find hints on where you can source material used to build an Ultimaker clone.

[Moddler 0]

Hey people,

 

thanks for your infos! TBH I don't want to invest a lot of work in my UMO, I want to build a new one.

What head I will use I won't decide now, the zero gravity extruder definitely looks very interesting. 

The Duet3D also looks very promising, but id rather see this as an upgrade since it is indeed a little pricey.

 

I want to keep the Clone as "Original" als possible. My problem with the Ultimaker 2 ist the Sandwich build-structure. The different panels have different holes. I got my quote for Watercutting the printer which is quite reasonable. 200€. 

 

Now I have to decide if I want to build a UMO Clone or build an extended version.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

If you know a bit of CAD you can easily change the drawings of the um2 extended to make a design for for watercutting. I did the same with changing the um2go and cnc'd a frame.

 

Also +1 for using the duet3d board. I converted a um2 with it and really like it...

[Lionprinting 0]

Hey. I thought of giving you some insights of my own UM 2+ clone I started building last year. I used HDF for the panels (laser cut). The bed is an "original" ultimaker heated bed from aliexpress. But because I used an 12V power supply for my hotend (e3d v6), I am heating the bed with a silicon heating pad. The Mainboard is an Mks gen 1.4 with original TMC 2130 drivers.  So far the printer does a nice job and I printed over 100h on it.