UM2 opinion after 3 days testing

[mtmvetultimaker 1]

I received my UM2 last Friday (jan 3rd). During the first two days, I was a little disappointed regarding cost/benefit. As a relative new user of the3D technology, I kind of believed that the machine would work by itself, but, for sure, one must put a little effort to see the results.

Today (Monday jan 6^th), after some settings, I could print some very good quality pieces, much better than the ones I was getting with my old solidoodle2. In the first trials, using the CURA default settings, the UM2 quality was just a little better than the Solidoodle (with a huge finetunning). Also, I am a CURA new user since I was using slicer3 before.

Some comments:

The glue that came with the printer was dry and was the reason for some initial failures. Using a new one or a hair spray solved the problem

The machine does not like filament with the diameter near or over 3mm. It must be the 2.85mm to get a good quality. Maybe I have to make changes in cura. Any advice?

The estimated time on the LED is totally different from the estimated by CURA. I had a six hours project that the machine estimated to take 48 hours. I almost aborted the project but, by the end, it took the six hours estimated by the slicer. Any advice why this happens?

I could not figure out how to manual extrude. I learned from the forum that if you plug in the computer it is possible to control with pronteface or cura, but…for a 2000 euros machine plus a lot of import taxes, I think it should do. On the maintenance menu, there is an item named “move material” but I could never extrude using it. Any advice?

The manual extrude is very important because, sometimes, when you abort a project, the filament retract and does not goes back to the nozzle for the next print (I believe other users also had the problem). I had to simulate a material exchange to make the filament reach the nozzle.

Anyway, so far, I am starting to be happy with UM2 after all the delay and first negative experiences .

Lets see what happens during the next weeks.

Regards,

Mario

 

[IRobertI 521]

You can't use filament over 3mm in diameter, that's a mechanical limit. That is, the material simply can't pass through the printer if it's too big.

Yeah the time estimation on the display is way off. I can't remember the exact algorithm it uses but basically the estimate gets better the longer the print has been going on. I believe something is in the pipeline to help with this. On the plus side the estimate in cura 13.12 is now quite exact so you can trust that instead.

Manual extrude. You were in the correct menu. Did you wait for the hotend to get up to temperature? Once it's hot enough you'll be able to move material by spinning the button.

The excessive retraction of filament after an aborted print is a known bug and has been fixed for the next release. It should be available soon.

edit: If you don't want to wait for an official update: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ultimaker/tDKAHxe8rI0

 

[mtmvetultimaker 1]

Thanks for the reply.. All my problems printing were using Formafutura frosty white 3mm PLA filament. I did measure the material and it was in the range 2.95-3.05 mm. When I changed to a PLA on the 2.78-2.90 mm , I sid not have more problems.

I could not manually extrude even when the temperature reached 210.

thanks,

Mario