Ultimaker 2+ Connect Air Manager

[bnucifore 0]

I am looking for a hood for my original Ultimaker 2+.  Will the new Ultimaker 2+ Connect Air Manager fit on my original Ultimaker 2+?

[gr5 2,210]

No.  80% sure it won't fit.  The 2+ I think has a top more like the UM3?  I don't have the UM2+C but I don't think it will fit.  @Smithy care to comment?

 

However there are lots of 3rd party covers.  If you are in the USA look at printedSolid.com.

 

Why do you need this?  Depending on your needs I have different recommendations.  For example are you printing high temp materials and you need higher air temp?  Or are you printing ABS and need to filter the air?  Or are you just trying to keep kids fingers out?  Or something else?

[bnucifore 0]

Thanks for your response.   All the reasons you mentioned are why I would like a cover over it.   I will check out that site you mentioned.  Thank you

[Smithy 1,145]

hmmm, hard to say....

UM2+ has 34cm x 35cm and UM2+C has 34cm x 36cm, so they have the same width, but UM2+C is 1cm deeper. 

 

You can just try it, but you have to make some tool to mount the hood, because the UM2+ is missing the holes in the back. So maybe you can design something which moves the hood back 1cm then it could fit.

 

But as far as I know the hood and the front door are sold as a bundle, you don't get just the hood. So a 3rd party hood will be much cheaper and fits without any tinkering.

[gr5 2,210]

>  All the reasons you mentioned are why I would like a cover over it. 

Unfortunately that makes it much harder for me to give you a good answer.

 

So if you have kids know that you can stick your hand in the gantry and your hand will survive without much or any pain (the print will be ruined of course).  So if this was the only reason then don't get a cover.

 

You shouldn't be printing ABS which is the only material I know of that really emits nasty smells.

 

Most materials (PLA, PETG, Nylon) have very little smell.  Research studies suggest that the dangers of the particulates in the air are no worse and no different than what you would find at a McDonalds but much higher quantities at a McDonalds.  Basically frying bacon for 15 minutes is probably much worse for your health than printing for 1 hour.  Ultimaker published a report about this and there are a few articles (mostly trying to scare you so read them carefully).

 

So because of all this there isn't as much demand for filters and so that's going to be much more difficult.  But if you just want to raise air temp then a simple cover is fine.  You can measure the air temp with a thermometer but most solutions are perfect.  You want the air around 30C to 45C for most prints - much hotter than that and you are in danger of damaging the servos.  Even with the bed at 110C it's hard to get the air above 35C so you don't really need any kind of thermal control for printing things like Nylon.

 

DO NOT close the door or use the cover for PLA if possible.  It will tend to make prints worse as you want the air closer to room temperature for PLA.  

 

[bnucifore 0]

Thanks - I work at a school, and they are requiring that all my printers have a cover on them.  I have 2 S5s with the air managers, so I was looking for one for the older 2+

 

I print mostly PLA, so I want to print with the doors open? I didn't know that, I will give that a try.  

 

[gr5 2,210]

Yeah.  then printedsolid.com is your best bed for covers but yes, ideally keep the doors open.  It's hard to keep PLA sufficiently cool with the print bed at 60C as you want the air below 30C if possible.  You can do it but the quality may go down a bit (it may look slumped a bit or stringy but will be mostly fine).

[gr5 2,210]

For the S5 it's fine to have the cover on as there is a fan that keeps the air close to room temperature.