Ultimaker 2+ I hope ...

[JJ79 0]

Hello everyone. I'm new here because I have start to hate this printer. I hope it is because of me... maybe I can't "configure it as it should be... 

Is there any default and working print settings for PLA? I know it is not Prusa, so it won't work straight away ... but how long time it has to take to finaly set it up? 

After 3 times bed calibration that is the "best" result I have got 😞

 

 

Here is some bridging test ...

 

 

Here tolerance test ... all welded together...  (elephant foot is on everything)

 

 

Any advice what should I do to finally print something on this printer?  

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

 

 

 

[gr5 2,295]

Sorry you are unhappy.  If you post 3 questions on this forum you will almost always get only one answer.  So consider breaking this out into 3 posts.

 

I have no idea what you are trying to say in the first photo.  Okay I looked a 3rd time - I have an idea - how many layers have you printed here?  3?  Are you talking about how thin the bottom layer is?  Some glass aren't flat.  They can be thinner towards the outer edges.  That doesn't look too unreasonable.

 

Bridging and stringing works differently that close to a heated bed.  The bed should be at 60C for PLA.  Is that really a bridging test or a stringing test?  I don't understand if the bottom print is better (better bridging) or worse (worse stringing) and what you did differently between the top and bottom part.  White filaments (not just PLA but all filaments) string more for me.  So you picked the toughest filament to work with.  I think they add chalk or something and it just doesn't print as well as darker colors like gray, blue, red, etc.  Wait until you print black which shows up "errors" that are hard to see in white filament.  Tiny changes in slope that can't be measured with a micrometer suddenly show up visually when you hold it to the light in the right angle.

 

Elephants foot I fix by using "initial Horizontal Expansion" at -0.25mm.  That is a bad idea for certain rare parts but 95% of the time it works great.  Elephants foot is two issues - one is that you are leveling the nozzle "too close" to the bed but you want that - you want really good adhesion and one of the key things to get your part to stick to the bed is to squish it quite well.  So I squish quite well and then compensate with IHE.

 

The sticking issue is also horizontal expansion related.

 

everything is a tradeoff.  UM3 default profiles are for parts to look pretty.  UM2 default profiles are tuned more for accuracy but not 100%.  You will get better looking and more accurate

This last part I would tune.  It's the only thing you mention that I found I need to tune.  I would play with "horizontal expansion" to get it to print this last part correctly.  It appears you need to set it to -0.6 to get these parts to "not stick" but that seems crazy.  I've never had to set it to a value larger in magnitude than -0.15.  Maybe just print a little slower and 5C cooler.

 

Ultimaker published these improved accuracy values - called "engineering profile" (not available for most printers so you have to just modify the settings manually).  Note that this makes uglier prints (more ringing) but more accurate prints if you pull out the micrometer.  Also this makes for slower prints - particularly the combing setting and speed settings.  Disable jerk control - these are for UM3/S3/S5 where most profiles have jerk and acceleration control.  I advise against enabling those for UM2 printers (doesn't need it and it will just make accuracy worse).

 

Line width: 0.4
Wall thickness: 1.2
Top/Bottom thickness: 1.2
Speeds: 35-40 (first 7 speeds, all except travel)
Jerks: 20
Horizontal expansion: -0.03
walls: 3
Inital Layer Height = 0.1
Slicing Tolerance = Exclusive
Combing Mode = off
Outer before Inner Walls = Checked

 

 

[JJ79 0]

Hi!

First of all, thank you for really professional answer!

 

On the first picture those two red circles are much thinner – right corner of printed square. First contour line thinner on the left side of the bed (red lines). There is only one layer printed and it is on 0,12.

 

Bridging – I just enabled bridge settings in cura with standard settings. But I have order new filament, black and gun silver. So I will make one bridging test soon.

 

I print with 205° (200° to 210° tested). Speed between 30 -50mm.

 

I’m going to change all settings like you suggested 😊

 

Once again Thank You!!!!
 

[gr5 2,295]

"bridging" in 3d printing...

 

If you are printing a wall with a door or window opening - when you get to the top of the door/window - it "bridges" across the top.

 

It's when it is printing a layer where it bridges from one wall to the other to cover up some hole below.

 

You aren't doing that in your "bridging" photo.  So I'm confused.  Maybe you are talking about "stringing" which is when the printer prints but you don't want it to and you get strings/threads.

 

[gr5 2,295]

Well you seem very picky on the thinness of the part in the first photo.  The only way to fix that for a print that uses the whole build surface is to get a flatter print bed.  So you can complain to your reseller and hope for a free one.  You might get one even worse than it is now.  If you can get your reseller to open 10 glass beds and test each one then one of them is bound to be better than what you have but... not too many (if any) resellers would be willing to do this.  You can try to level the glass yourself with shims under the glass to bend up some of the corners.  Or you can pre-bend the metal plate under the glass (it only takes an ounce or so of pressure to deform the glass at the outer edges).  Or you can by some regular plate glass (which is much flatter - Ultimaker uses tempered glass which isn't great on flatness).

 

I went the "pre-bend" route but after I did that I realized I could have easily cracked/ruined the heated bed on the other side.  In retrospect I'm glad I didn't know as I put a LOT of force on that aluminum plate to get it to bend slightly.

[JJ79 0]

@gr5 TAK! Thank You A Lot!!! 

 

I will try to explain my problem better. English is not my mother language. 

I will try with results of printing test models on one go with settings you have posted. 

This what I have changed:

Print speed: 35mm/s
Nozzle temp.: 205°
Bed temp.: 60°
Retraction: 5,5 / 35mm/s

 

 

That how starts:

(I understand that glass will not be equal and I don't want this perfect 🙂 )

 

after 8,5 h thats results - I think those are the best in last 3 weeks. 

 

Z resonance test: 

 

Tollerance test the best one 🙂 only 0,2 can't move :

 

Overhang test:

 

 

Bridging test:

 

And last one: 

 

 

All of this looks like some Z axis problem for me... 

 

Bridging why is so important for me. We want to print few pieces from our new project. We have tried to print one thing and this is result: 

Top

 

Bottom

 

I'm attaching also STL to see how it looks. 

 

Today I'm changing filament, and Iøm going to print some test again. 

 

Thanks again for any advices 🙂 

 

 

Bunddel Endelig liggeflade.stl

 

EDIT: 

 

New filment, 205° (tolerance test second ring from the bottom). 

 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by JJ79

[gr5 2,295]

If you care about bridging the most then you should only ask about bridging.  I look at all your prints and they look pretty normal/typical except for the bridging pictures.

 

I think you should ignore all issues except your bridging issue.  Concentrate on one issue at a time.  I believe I gave you zero help on bridging yet that was your most serious problem and now 5 days have gone by.

 

Bridging will be worse close to the hot glass.  I would be tempted to turn off the heat on the bed and use blue painters tape on the glass and re-level the bed (now with tape).  But most importantly, wash the blue tape with isopropyl alcohol.

 

There are a LOT of bridiging settings - particularly in the "experimental" section of cura - those features were added by a non-ultimaker person here on the forum named "burtoogle" who still actively works on cura but is not active on this forum anymore.  Google "site:ultimaker.com burtoogle bridge" and read all the posts by burtoogle.  He is the expert on bridging.

 

I think a very important bridge setting is "skin flow" (skin is that first layer of bridging that is most important).  If your bridge strings are snapping then you want to increase flow.  If they are drooping you want to decrease flow.  It looks like if you enable these settings it defaults to 50% flow.

[JJ79 0]

@gr5 You are the best 🙂 Thanks! I'm working in spare time on all settings at work, so there is not so much time 🙂 
All the besr results I've got is thanks to yours advices! I'm learning every day something new. 

All the best!