Filament problem with new Ultimaker 2

[prb4 6]

Hi

I received my Ultimaker 2 yesterday.

I have followed the setup instructions. Everything worked until I came to load the filament.

The filament loads ok and zooms down the Bowden tube, then nothing happens.

No plastic comes out the nozzle.

I am new to 3d printing, this is my first printer and I don't know what to do now.

I would be grateful for any assistance.

Thanks

Peter

 

[ian 32]

Morning Peter !

When you did the startup process. did the screen say first.. heating up hotend..or prepairing.. something like that ?

the progress bar would have been filling up as the hotend heated up.

When that was finished and the extrider at the back of your printer should have started slowly rotating.. to allow you to load your pla...

When the pla is grabbed and pushed up the bowden tube, it sometimes can take even a minute or two before the pla gets down into the hotend and start coming out....

Did you let the process work alone for a few minutes ?

Was the extruder pushing the filament ?

you can put your finger on the filament just before it enters the extruder and feel it moving...

You could also take a little piece of broken off pla and push it carefully against the brass hotend nozzle. it should actually melt... if it doesnt... then there seems to be something wrong with your hotend..

check that the heating cartridge and heat sensor are securely fastened and tight fit into the alu heating block !

if that all seems perfect.. then it might be worth opening the lid on the bottom electronics and check the connectors for the hotend... make sure they are all connected and tight.

hope this helps.

Ian :-)

 

[prb4 6]

Hi Ian

Thanks for the quick reply.

I will try those things tonight and see how I get on.

Peter

 

[illuminarti 18]

You should also just complete the rest of the setup, and then go into the Material Change menu, and unload the filament, and reload it. Sometime it can get hung up on the entrance to the heater, somehow, and not finish feeding. When that happens, you should hear the extruder motor clicking every second or two, and see the retaining screw on it ticking back as it does so. That indicates that the filament has gotten stuck, and the extruder can't push it as fast as it is trying to.

When you take the filament out, check if any parts got damaged, - such as flat spots ground into it. If so, cut off all the damaged parts. Regular teeth marks in the filament from the extruder drive are ok, but not larger torn/ground parts.

 

[ian 32]

you could also try and load pla down the bowden manually with your hand and see if it comes out or gets stopped.

I once found a small broken part of pla stuck in my bowden just above the nozzle.. couldnt see it. had to put in some old pla into the boweden tube and use a little force to quickly ram the piece out of place and then it just dropped down into the nozzle and the printer was back in business !

Ian :smile:

 

[ian 32]

but please do not use my ramming tactics to start with !! thats a last chance option !!

 

[prb4 6]

Hi

Thank you for the assistance it was all very helpful.

The problem turned out to be strands of the old filament from the factory test blocking the print head.

I had to unload my filament, remove the Bowden tube from the print head and pull the strands of old filament out of the print head.

After reloading, my filament started to come out of the nozzle.

I then tried to print the test print provided with the printer.

This worked ok until about half way through. Then not enough plastic was being extruded. The amount of plastic coming out kept reducing until eventually there wasn't any.

I guess the print head/nozzle is blocked again.

Tonight I will try the suggestion in the manual to heat the head up to 260C and print for 10 minutes.

Presumably I do this by changing the PLA temperature in the material settings?

Do you know why the nozzle has become blocked and how to prevent it happening?

Thanks

Peter

 

[illuminarti 18]

You can just use the 'tune' menu once the print starts to set the head temperature.

One thing to check - is the small fan on the back of the print head always running?

Also, did you make sure that the filament you re-inserted wasn't damaged from the initial attempt to insert it? If the filament gets ground down, you should make sure you cut that part off before you re-insert it.

Finally, make sure that when you re-inserted the Bowden tube, it was properly seated all the way down into the white coupler piece above the hot end.

 

[prb4 6]

Thank you for the reply.

 

I eventually tracked the problem down to the knurled wheel on the feeder being loose.

Once this was tightened I have been able to print the minicaltest, however it did peel a lot at the corners. (yes I did use glue).

I have also tried the robot that comes with Cura.

This peeled so much that it detached from the bed.

I printed the robot again with a Brim. This worked ok.

If you have any suggestions on how to stop the print lifting off the bed /peeling without using a Brim they would be helpful.

Thanks

Peter

 

[ian 32]

morning Peter.

the automatical temp for the heated bed is 75.

That can be sometimes to hot.. i always use 50 and thats help the flat stick...

Also i strangly found that when you put a little prit stick on the bed and let it fully dry... and print.. the tiny amount of uneveness actually really helps objects to stick.. ! you dont notice it on the base of the model and it helps !

Ian :-)

 

[prb4 6]

Hi Ian

Ok thanks, I'll give both those suggestions a try.