S5 collides with print and X/Y axles pop out of holders - completely frustrated

[Farnsworth9 1]

Hi all,

I had an issue this afternoon and can't find anything on it, might be looking for the wrong topic.

The x-axis axle popped out of it little black plastic holder while a print was running. I noticed it only when I walked in front and there were no warning messages, it kept trying to print as if nothing was wrong.
I noticed a small crack on the black plastic holder (on the left side), so it seems it was either cracked or cracked after this happened (there's a good chance it was after as the thing kept running for a while). 

What would cause this to happen? I do regular maintenance and oil/grease everything.

Last week I did get an issue where the print head somehow pushed the whole glass plate to the left by 10mm. I've been having a lot of these issues since the last Cura update (4.9.1) and I'm wondering if it's software related. Or it's just a coincidence, but so far I'm not very fond of this thing's history of reliability.

 

 

Cheers

Edited July 29, 2021 by Farnsworth9
Update

[kmanstudios 1,120]

I have had the glass plate being shoved over due to a strong plastic curl. The printhead collided with it and it would push it over quite quietly, bit by bit. Make sure your clips are really grabbing the plate by pushing them down.

 

Did you use a different filament than normal for this?

 

As for the broken slider block, I would contact your reseller to see if you can get a replacement (free if still within warranty period.)

 

As for changing and realigning, it will take a better support person than myself to tell you how to do it. There may also be video lessons on how to do that as well.

[Farnsworth9 1]

Hi all, I've had this issue come up 4 times now. I sent the printer in to our local supplier, it took a week for them to "fix", then I received it back "fixed" and within the same week had the issue happen again. This printer has only been a headache since we bought it and we're gaining huge downtime and waste because of it (print core broken, sensor wire broke, feeder constantly needs adjustment, print head collisions for no apparent reason, firmware errors, the list goes on). I wouldn't suggest anyone to get an Ultimaker at this point.

It seems what happens is at some point during the print, there's a collision between the print head and the print, then the X or the Y axles (random) will pop out of it's holder.

 

[Farnsworth9 1]

So what I've tried so far is completely uninstalling Cura and deleting all saved settings. I started another print from scratch using no modifications in Cura, but I had the same issue almost immediately.

It also seems that during the print the fan was not working and the print core was not heating up, so the material feed jammed inside the print head. It's the 2nd time that happens. It also looks like there's restriction in one of the linear bearings of the print head as well as the axle blocks are being pushed back and forth during printing, which may be what is causing the axles to pop out.

Has anyone had any issues with this? 

[Farnsworth9 1]

For anyone that's searching and has a similar issue in the future.

Here is what we had to replace to get the printer working properly again.
-Both X and Y belts with sliders blocks (this was the main culprit).
-Steel rods.
-Complete print head (Fans were jammed with filament).

The whole thing is just worn out after over a year of use. We would fix one thing and next day something else unrelated would break. So replacing the whole top end seems inevitable on these machines if they're getting used 24/7. We'll buy spare parts in the future in case this starts happening again.
 

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @Farnsworth9, thank you for your post and apologies for not responding sooner and for the issues you've had so far. I didn't see your post until now. We had a bad batch of sliderblocks in the past, and they could crack and loose grip on the rod it is suppose to hold. You could get it replaced and that should solve that issue. So I'm happy to read you had those fixed. 

 

When the fans are jammed with filament, as far as I know this is usually a few small strings of filament which you should be able to pull out with some pliers or tweezers. When the fans don't work, this could lead to filament expanding due to heat and pressure above the print core, leading to under extrusion. But that wouldn't lead to your rods getting disconnected or your print head bumping into your print. 

 

How does it work after replacing those parts? Have you encountered the same issue again? Looking forward hearing from you! 

[Abrasive 4]

I had a similar issue with the Ultimaker 3.  The linear bearing on one axis would wear out and eventually grab the rail and pull it out.  I replaced the bearing and eventually it happened again.

 

The culprit was the belt was too loose on that axis motor.  I tightened it and added some loctite so the bolts did not vibrate out.  Now the linear bearing doesn't wear out prematurely.

[Farnsworth9 1]

On 8/16/2021 at 4:04 PM, SandervG said:

Hi @Farnsworth9, thank you for your post and apologies for not responding sooner and for the issues you've had so far. I didn't see your post until now. We had a bad batch of sliderblocks in the past, and they could crack and loose grip on the rod it is suppose to hold. You could get it replaced and that should solve that issue. So I'm happy to read you had those fixed. 

 

When the fans are jammed with filament, as far as I know this is usually a few small strings of filament which you should be able to pull out with some pliers or tweezers. When the fans don't work, this could lead to filament expanding due to heat and pressure above the print core, leading to under extrusion. But that wouldn't lead to your rods getting disconnected or your print head bumping into your print. 

 

How does it work after replacing those parts? Have you encountered the same issue again? Looking forward hearing from you! 

Hello @SandervG, so far it's been working non stop since the fix and I haven't run into many issues. The only issue I have at the moment is one of the drive belts on the right side motor has broken fiberglass strands in it, but I've got some replacements ready.

Another unrelated issue I've spotted recently is when doing Prime Blobs, it seems it makes Prime Strands now (must be some update recently?) instead of blobs and does them off to the side/underneath the print bed. One time one of the strands got caught in the Z axis ACME rod and jammed in there, also spread grease all over the walls (see attached image).

[Carbon 28]

We've had the same problem.

 

Only started to happen since Cura 4.11.0

 

[SandervG 1,521]

5 hours ago, Farnsworth9 said:

but I've got some replacements ready.

Hello, that is great to hear! Broken fibre glass strands? Is that debris from a print? 

 

 

5 hours ago, Farnsworth9 said:

it seems it makes Prime Strands now

 

I believe this was implemented some time ago already, it was deemed better to not have unwanted filament on the build plate since you use it for building your models as these might be in the way or get caught in your print. From testing we've seen that they only quite rarely could get tangled up with your Z-rod, but even if it did it shouldn't cause any issues. But 9 out of 10 times it should just fall on the bottom plate and should be easily picked up when you need to pick up your print anyway. Hope this helps. It is not something to worry about. 

 

Maybe we can even appreciate those mechanical Pollock paintings your Ultimaker is making? 😉

[ChrisKohl 0]

On 8/16/2021 at 3:04 AM, SandervG said:

We had a bad batch of sliderblocks in the past, and they could crack and loose grip on the rod it is suppose to hold

 

Hi SandervG, I'm replying to an old post I know. I'm having a similar issue (S3 Extended) except I JUST replaced my slider blocks (cracked as you mentioned). It is really just the Y-rod that keeps coming out of the slider blocks. My first thought is that I need to re-lubricate the rod and I plan to do that but I have a hard time imagining a small amount of oil will fix the issue completely. There seems to be a fair amount of resistance between the rod and the print carriage with that specific rod. How do I solve this? My next course of action is making some sort of bracket to pinch the rod into the slider block to keep it from moving.

 

Thanks for the help in advance.

[gr5 2,172]

I would order a new set.  You might be able to get them for free since this problem is a known problem for certain printers with certain serial numbers.  The set is not expensive.

 

If you want to fix it yourself, I recommend you get some 2 part "5 minutes epoxy" and some string.  put the string on tight around and around the block holding it closed tightly.  Each wrap adds more tension (and more strength).  No need for any knots.  Then coat the string with epoxy.  This will be strong as hell.  I'd probably do this with the rod popped out.

 

But over the years, eventually, all 4 blocks will fail.