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Ultimaker S5 grinding noises


balint

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Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

Hi,

 

I've had my UMS5 for about a month now and recently I started hearing noises during printing. 

The printer is almost running every day and the noises started about a week ago. I keep the axis well lbricated and still there is this grinding noise that gets worse when the printer has been already working a couple hours. 

I can only hear it when there is a movement on the X-axis to the left and it sound like it comes from the stepper motor in the back right side of the printer.

I haven't noticed any change in the print quality but it really makes me nervous when using the pinter. 

Did anyone have a similar experience with an UMS5 or any idea what the problem might be or how to diagnose it? I've tried moving the printer by hand when turned off and there was no noise besides a small squeaking noise from the belts.

The only difference I noticed is how hot the steppers are, I can barely touch them for a second. 

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    It's almost certainly belt related.  Look for black powder dust below the 4 corners of the printer.  Particularly on the steppers.

     

    I've seen printers that make a horrible noise that still print great a year later.

     

    I would give it at least another 1000 hours of printing and then there is a block and pulley kit that replaces the 4 blocks and the 4 long belts.

     

    Another thing to check is that the long belts are exactly aligned above or below the 4 long rods.  But often the noise is from a short belt which is harder to check if it's perfectly aligned.

     

    Also put one drop of oil on each of the 6 rods.  Use any light oil like 3-in-one oil or sewing machine oil.  See if this improves the friction (push head around by hand before and after).

     

    Anyway I wouldn't worry about it unless the noise is driving you crazy.

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    Hi, many thanks for the suggestions!
    I decided to take down the plastic panel covering the stepper motor and the motor for moving the filament on the right side. I took out the stepper motor (upper motor) and looked for any clues. Indeed, as gr5 mentioned, there was some black dust from the belt on the plastic adapter that connects the motor to the back plastic panel. I cleaned it and then tried to put it back together making sure the belt lines up with the teeth on both ends (maybe this was the problem originally?)
    It seems to have gotten way quieter, I don't hear the squeaking noise now.
    While playing around with the printer I noticed one more thing: It is easier to move by hand on the y than on the x axis. Is this because the axis is thicker meaning more surface area and more friction?

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    Also the lubricating part was never the problem, I keep the threaded part of the z-axis with the included PTFE cream and everything else with PTFE spray well but not overlubricated. I really don't think this could be an issue as this was the first thing I checked. 
    Once again, thanks for the suggestions.
    My remaining question is still how taking the stepper out and putting the belt back on could possibly help (it somehow did) and why one axis is harder to move by hand than the other?
     

     

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    And as I'm new to Ultimaker lastly I was wondering what settings you guys use for PLA. It is my most common material and I print huge parts with it and had problems when using the fast draft preset. After lowering the speed to 50mm/s with a 0.2 layer height everything looks much better, I still get disgusting stringing inside between the infill pattern. 
    Also when changing an empty filament to the next one often I experience a big shift between the last printed layer and the one with the new filament (both being the same type ofc).
    I'd really appreciate some help with printing quality, as I print bigger models often with rather simple geometry and still have this issue.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    X and Y friction is identical on my S5 so... that's not good.

     

    When you put it back together you probably didn't push as hard down on the stepper than the original assemblers while tightening the 4 screws.  This sets the tension.  The tension may have been too high on that short belt.  That's the only think I can think of that you might have fixed.

     

    Double check that the axis are square/perpendicular through the head.  Do this by pushing the head all the way to the left and right sides and watch the sliding blocks to see visually the distance between the blocks and some part of the printer (do the same with the Y direction).

     

    There's no retraction during infill so you get more stringing there.  You can change that setting but will get a slower print: remove combing everywhere.  Combing moves don't retract.  Non combing moves do.  Alternatively "max comb distance with no retract" can increase retractions without going too insane - I'm not sure if latest cura has that feature but if you want it and it's not in your cura I can point you to the version of cura that has that (the burtoogle version).

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    Thank you once again for the help, I'll just accept the inside stringing as it does not matter for structure or even the finish. But it is good to know that I could change that in the future!
    The tension should be now the same on both short belts, I definitely will check the perpendicularity and report the results!
    Thank you:)

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    OK the noise is definitely back, same as before, on the X axis, only when the short belt turns counterclockwise (viewing it from the front, so the head goes to the left (fro the front again). 
    Is there any way to add video or audio files?

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    Zips seem to be working, here you can hear the sound when the x-axis moves left (short belt in the left back counterclockwise), POV standing in front of the printer

    ezyzip.zip

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    Oh!  That's nothing.  I've heard UM printers much louder.  Just caked in a layer of black dust.  After many kilometers of filament printed.  And they still work great.  I'm pretty sure it's one of the 3 belts on the X axis but it's so hard to know which one.  It could also be a bearing.

     

    How much worse is the friction between X versus Y axis?

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    Posted (edited) · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    The friction is a bit worse, and I've noticed a few scratched lines on the x-axis (I'll attach a pic)... faulty bearing?...

    The sound is definitely from the back short belt I checked many times and drove myself crazy doing it. It's not that bad with the air manager I have on.

    One more question (probably a least difficult one to solve) I have is with the quality while we are here. I have an almost 4 day print going on for a bit more than a day now, printing with

    0.2 layers, (0.4 core)

    20% grid,

    30C build volume temp,

    200C print temp,

    35mm/s speed and 3500mm/s2 acceleration,

    20mm/s jerk,

    99% flow,

    NOT infill before walls
     

    and get these lines on the wall (I'll attach a pic here as well) 

    IMG_5011.jpg

    IMG_5012.jpg

    Edited by balint
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    Posted (edited) · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    I print in this case with freshly opened PLA 

    And as far as the last question goes my axis should be perpendicular, I tried the method you suggested and later tried to do a print test for it, it came out all fine 

     

    Note that I don't expect the theoretical, perfect quality with no lines on an in all directions constantly curved surface like this, however I'd really appreciate any suggestions about settings, vibrations, etc. to make these prints a bit better as I'm talking about 35mm/s speed and almost 4 days of printing to achieve the best possible results.

    Thank you so much for all the help I've gotten so far, without which I'd be probably completely lost, I'm hoping one day with more experience I can give back to people with similar issues in a yet unknown/unexperienced topic.

     

    Edited by balint
    Note
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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    Hi @balint, I have collected a few other things you can check to validate if it is indeed a faulty bearing creating the noise or something different:

     

    • You can check if the short belt is not too tight against the side of a pulley, probably the one in the back. If it might be pressed against it, you may try to loosen the tension on the motor slightly so you can comfortably move the belt a little bit to align it closer to the middle of the pulley. (short belt tension)
    • Is there any play on your axles, which can result in a ticking sound when parts touch when they shouldn't? (I don't think this is it, but who knows..) (pulley adjustment, these are instructions for the UM2+C, but you should be able to apply it to the UMS5 too)
    • Could the pulley on the motor might be too far up on the axles? If so, it could rub against the frame. The 'downside' of this is, that you have to entirely remove the motor from the frame to check. 

    But solely based on the sound, I still feel like it resembles what a bearing might sound like. But I/we can't stick our head in the printer to check 😉

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    @balint when you have two issues in the same thread - one issue always gets ignored.  Please create a new thread.  I have lots of good answers for you on the horizontal lines issue.

     

    Those scratches look really bad.  I have one of the the first ever S5 printers and have no scratches like that (or maybe I have different lighting?).  If it were me I would take the head apart and check the bearing.  It's a simple metal tube.  It could have a burr or maybe it's crooked?  Anyway you should probably contact your reseller about those scratches.

     

    The resistance between X and Y should be identical.  I tried again - pushing the head with one finger diagonally and I couldn't decide which axis has more resistance.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    That rod is stuffed, and should be replaced. 

    replace the rod and the bearing -  given the cost of the printer, you can justify maintaining it properly.

    if is is new, I would be asking your reseller to supply the parts under warranty.

    you can’t polish those scratches out, as it will change the dimension of the rod.

    Little linear bearings do not like rods that are not perfectly smooth

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    Posted · Ultimaker S5 grinding noises

    Also this is likely the cause of your average print quality

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