about to give up, prints keep failing

[falc 6]

My prints keep failing and I cant figure out why.

ive taken appart the extruder twice, cleaned it and put it back together, there is no leakage.

I keep having feeding issues. the gear doesnt move when its supposed to, i checked everything thats on the wiki + some stuff thats not on there but the first layers keep failing. they dont stick enough and get grabbed by the extruder.

any other tips ? cause i'm about to put it on ebay

i am using netfabb now

[Daid 306]

Maybe your extruder motor driver is overheating. See:

http://wiki.ultimaker.com/Electronics_b ... or_drivers

Did you calibrate NetFabb?

[mr_seeker 0]

Have you checked your code? I know people that kept shouting about "my extruder never does anything", but in the end it was just a simple piece of code that kept failing:

G1 F0.0 (aka. do not use stepper motors to move). Just check if there is anything saying 0.0, that could be the cause of your problems.

About the non-sticking issue, what I do (especially with prints like this) is first level the bed, then slowly turn the bed up until you can see that the hotend is actually pushing the layer on the bed, instead of depositing it on top. This way I am sure that the layers are actually sticking to the bed and wont come off while printing.

Try printing this testcube:

http://pastebin.com/76LRgybW

It will make 2 spins to get the flow going before actually building the object, make sure that when its doing its first 2 turns that the filament is sticking to the bed. After that, you should get a good test cube. If not, please post a picture of what goes wrong.

Tips to remember:

Layer not sticking to bed: Turn the Z-axis screw left.

Nothing gets deposited, but the extruder screw is turning: Turn the Z-axis screw right, until you see filament getting deposited.

Another problem that I recently found out is that some people experience problems with their filament. What filament are you using?

[falc 6]

actually i just got somewhere by using a raft

its not perfect but its definatly an improvement

[mr_seeker 0]

What layer size are you actually using? 0.05mm is my recommended setting, if you go lower to 0.0075 (which I got achieved) it would only result in a lot of fluff and a lot of failed prints.

[jimbojones1000 0]

Has anyone got an Ultimaker which works? I certainly dont.

[joergen 2]

Has anyone got an Ultimaker which works? I certainly dont.

Mine works pretty well now, but it took me some time to get there, a wild combination of properly adjusting the hardware, to getting the software right (biggest issue of it all). what is your problem?

[Daid 306]

Has anyone got an Ultimaker which works? I certainly dont.

Best way to get help in diagnosing the problem is to get people to read your mind. Could you sit still in front of your machine for a while while I tune in on your brain frequency?

[jimbojones1000 0]

Best way to get help in diagnosing the problem is to get people to read your mind. Could you sit still in front of your machine for a while while I tune in on your brain frequency?

Did i ask for help? Nope i asked if anyone had a working Ultimaker.

 

Mine works pretty well now, but it took me some time to get there, a wild combination of properly adjusting the hardware, to getting the software right (biggest issue of it all). what is your problem?

Cheers, but too many to list, think its going in the bin, was only really to see if FDM might be of use to us, but all the fiddling means its not really helping to answer the question!

[Daid 306]

Best way to get help in diagnosing the problem is to get people to read your mind. Could you sit still in front of your machine for a while while I tune in on your brain frequency?

Did i ask for help? Nope i asked if anyone had a working Ultimaker.If you would have spend a few minutes on your own looking if people have a working Ultimaker then you would have known many people have working Ultimakers.

Yes, there are trouble cases, which we try to help here.

You have to many problems to list? Sounds like you have no idea what's wrong then. Because there are 3 distinct problems covering 99% of the cases:

1) Software issues (solved by just using SkeinPyPy IMHO)

2) Extruder issues (a few different causes, but not that hard to diagnose)

3) Motor issues (needs adjusting in the pololu drivers)

But you don't want a working machine. You just want to bitch. And clearly didn't investigate what you bought before you bought it.

[micha 0]

Did i ask for help? Nope i asked if anyone had a working Ultimaker.

I got. And I am pretty sure, there are plenty other working ones around... :ugeek:

[jimbojones1000 0]

But you don't want a working machine. You just want to bitch. And clearly didn't investigate what you bought before you bought it.

I didnt want to bitch, it was a genuine question, you look around the forum, its always going to be full of people who have problems, it doesnt give a fair representation of how many people have no problems, and when you cant get something to work you start to wonder if anyone has. So i asked the question, not one thats anywhere else on here and what did i get? you giving it the bertie big bollocks.

I didnt want to bother everyone with a giant list of problems which have probably been covered elsewhere, i was being polite, and trying not to waste peoples time.

[mr_seeker 0]

Did i ask for help? Nope i asked if anyone had a working Ultimaker.

I got. And I am pretty sure, there are plenty other working ones around... :ugeek:

me = looking at 4 fully functional ultimakers

[cyclone 0]

Mine works very well too.

"Trash" Ultimakers can be sent to my address for disposal. :-)

[joergen 2]

I will also help to "recycle" your UM if you want to dispose it in the NYC region :-)

[thedudevt 0]

I too have a working UM, but it took a few days to figure it out. The only hardware issue I had was that the X limits were swapped (probably my fault). First prints looked terrible, but that's because i wasn't using the proper profile settings in NetFabb (EDIT: and E14 in the gcode header...). Once I got that sorted, I was able to print at the ultra 0.08mm setting right away. Since then i've been trying to learn what all the buttons do.

There are a lot of good places to start, here are a few.

If you have the stock firmware/software:

http://wiki.ultimaker.com/Newcomer_guid ... t_3D_print

More advanced troubleshooting:

http://wiki.ultimaker.com/Troubleshooting

Kyle

[variador 0]

I have also received and built an Ultimaker in the ten days. The hardware was a snap. The software cost a day purely from the amount of choices available. The forum has many answers and adds to the choices. The printer is awesome.

[c-ernst 1]

Jimbo,

If you want a perfectly generic, calibrated machine with absolutely no way to customize it you should look into the BFB Touch 3d printer. Oh... it cost 2x the Ultimaker.

If you want a machine that prints 3x the speed at 4x res you will need to get your machine working.

First, pics of what you are up against would be huge. What does the filament look like? Is it chewed up? Are you getting any extrusion? Are you getting leaks?

What sounds are you encountering?

I would skip Netfabb for starters, it is a great piece of software but not for beginners. Use Daid's SkeinPYPY.

https://github.com/daid/SkeinPyPy/zipball/master

Even a moron like me can use it.... this will solve most software issues.

Second You need to solve one thing at a time. It can get overwhelming when you don't understand the functionality of the machine.

1) temps (over crank the temps, start with 250 for PLA) later you can dial it in once things are working.

2) leaks (once you have filament pushing at 250c and no leaks you are in good shape. if you have leaks check these forums for solutions. Leaks lead to jams usually)

3) bed height and tape surface. Make sure you clean the tape surface with windex or alcohol. The painters tapes tend to have a wax coating. I couldn't get anything to stick to mine until it was cleaned.

4) always use a raft for starters. Think of it as training wheels for printing. Printing on the print bed directly can be difficult until you have worked out the bed heights etc.

Curious, you didn't get your Ultimaker off of ebay did you? Those machines are Chinese knock offs.

Chuck

 

I don't think anyone here has had as many issues as I had but my machine now is well worth the effort. Prints fast as all get out and at crazy resolution. A big part of that is the feedback from the people on this board.

[Daid 306]

I would skip Netfabb for starters, it is a great piece of software but not for beginners. Use Daid's SkeinPYPY.