Ultimaker 2 Restoration

[adamjvr 0]

So I was gifted an Ultimaker 2 in what appears to be ok condition but upon further inspection I'm noticing a few things  some good and some problematic:

 

- While it is an Ultimaker 2, it appears to have been upgraded to the Olsson block hotend that came with the Ultimaker 2+, this is a nice upgrade
- The rods have no lubrication anymore, some of the rods have residue from a previously used lubricant
- The thermocouple was hanging out of the olsson block and routed through the X motor shroud
- The gantry appears to be crooked and doesn't move easily, could be because of lack of lubrication but the 6mm smooth rod that runs through the print head seems to be crooked
- The rods of the X axis slide and will slide out through the holds on the side of the machine, seems like bushings are supposed to keep this in place or is the side panel of the machine damaged??

 

Other than those issues everything else seems to be fine! I wasn't given a powersupply with this machine to I will have to buy one to be able to power it on, I don't want to make this investment until I know if I can fix the problems with the gantry, which I think I need to: straight the out the gantry and make it square again, and secure the X axis rods so they don't slide out through the rotary bearings and out the side of the machine. What are your thoughts and how can I correct these problems ??

On another note I want to convert it over from 3mm filament to 1.75mm filament! I have an unused E3D V6 hotend so I printed a new head and installed it, and I'm going to replace the extruder with a bondtech style one.

I have attached some pictures of the machine so you can see what I mean about the X axis rod.

Edited June 25 by adamjvr

[gr5 2,229]

Personally I think it would be worth the $95 or so to get the power supply.  This is the most expensive part by far and maybe the only part that needs replacing.

 

The rod sticking out - there are pulleys with little screws in the pulleys to keep the pulley in place and this also keeps the rod from sliding out (the pulleys plus there are plastic cylinder spacers).

 

Clean the rods with wd40 or other cleaner.  Get them nice and clean. You don't really want any oil on the center two rods that pass through the head as that just brings dust into the ball bearings.  But the other 4 gantry rods should each have about 1 drop of oil after cleaned.

 

The tightness probably has more to do with being crooked.  This usually happens when a pulley skips a tooth.  Loosen at least 2 of the pulleys on the outer 4 rods, make gantry square, and re-tighten.  You have to loosen one of these anyway to fix that rod that sticks out.

 

Going to 1.75mm filament?  No.  Don't do it.  Please don't do it.  Throw the printer away first.  Yes you can do it.  3dsolex has a conversion teflon part and that's all you need on the hot end for 1.75 conversion: https://3dsolex.com/product/ptfe-coupler-um2/

 

If you have other printers - I strongly recommend you only buy 2.85mm filament for the UM2 and make the UM2 more specialized for just certain filament types/colors.

 

If you are going to buy a power supply for $90 and ship a teflon coupler for probably $30 shipping from Norway and a bondtech feeder, at this point I'd consider getting a new cheap printer. Maybe.

 

But once you get it working these printers are tough as hell and will outlast most other printers.  The quality of the prints might not be what you are used to (I don't know what you are used to).  I think most of the quality issues are from Cura not keeping up with latest features.  But the UM2 is a great printer.  I have 3 that I use regularly among my 5 most used printers.

[adamjvr 0]

4 hours ago, gr5 said:

Personally I think it would be worth the $95 or so to get the power supply.  This is the most expensive part by far and maybe the only part that needs replacing.

 

The rod sticking out - there are pulleys with little screws in the pulleys to keep the pulley in place and this also keeps the rod from sliding out (the pulleys plus there are plastic cylinder spacers).

 

Clean the rods with wd40 or other cleaner.  Get them nice and clean. You don't really want any oil on the center two rods that pass through the head as that just brings dust into the ball bearings.  But the other 4 gantry rods should each have about 1 drop of oil after cleaned.

 

The tightness probably has more to do with being crooked.  This usually happens when a pulley skips a tooth.  Loosen at least 2 of the pulleys on the outer 4 rods, make gantry square, and re-tighten.  You have to loosen one of these anyway to fix that rod that sticks out.

 

Going to 1.75mm filament?  No.  Don't do it.  Please don't do it.  Throw the printer away first.  Yes you can do it.  3dsolex has a conversion teflon part and that's all you need on the hot end for 1.75 conversion: https://3dsolex.com/product/ptfe-coupler-um2/

 

If you have other printers - I strongly recommend you only buy 2.85mm filament for the UM2 and make the UM2 more specialized for just certain filament types/colors.

 

If you are going to buy a power supply for $90 and ship a teflon coupler for probably $30 shipping from Norway and a bondtech feeder, at this point I'd consider getting a new cheap printer. Maybe.

 

But once you get it working these printers are tough as hell and will outlast most other printers.  The quality of the prints might not be what you are used to (I don't know what you are used to).  I think most of the quality issues are from Cura not keeping up with latest features.  But the UM2 is a great printer.  I have 3 that I use regularly among my 5 most used printers.

Thanks for your informative and thorough response I really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge and experience !! I've been into open source 3D printing/RepRap since about 2011, I currently have a Prusa i3 MK3S+, a Lulzbot Taz 6 (restored and converted to 1.75mm with E3D Hemera), and a Replicator 1 Clone (updgraded with Micro Swiss hotend kit and custom blower fan). I've always wanted an Ultimaker machine, and this Ultimaker 2 I just got gifted kind of rounds out my collection of the golden era open source 3D printers.
As for the change to 1.75mm and the bondtech style upgrade its not going to be that expensive for me. The extruder kit was 14 bucks on Amazon and will arrive tomorrow, the E3D V6 Hotend I just happen to have new unused on hand, so all I really need to do is order a new power supply, Amazon has them for 72 bucks and free shipping since I have prime.

It sounds like the main things I need to do are:
 

- clean the rods with WD40 and re-lub them
- loosen the pulley set screws and slide them down so that the rods dont' stick out the side and tighten them
- square the gantry

I'm not 100% married to the idea of converting over to the E3D as the olsson block hotend is a very interesting and good design and Its good to know that in order to convert it to 1.75mm all I will have to do is get that plastic part, I have found other sources for it that are cheaper. I think I'll get it so I can try out both options. I'm really not interested in 3mm filament , its just not as common with the suppliers I currently use and I'd like all my printers to use the same format. I will be holding on to all the parts I swap around so I can revert the machine, but the good news is that the gantry can be squared and the rod problem fixed that was the main issue I was concerned with. I'm gonna do all that and make sure everything moves smoothly by hand then order up a power supply and let it rip.

Edited June 25 by adamjvr

[gr5 2,229]

4 hours ago, adamjvr said:

Its good to know that in order to convert it to 1.75mm all I will have to do is get that plastic part, I have found other sources for it that are cheaper.

Other sources that sell that part with a 2mm hole instead of 3mm?  Are you sure?  I didn't check but this is a pretty rare need so I'm surprised there would be another source.  Probably 3dsolex sells 3 per year, lol.

 

You also need a feeder that can grip 1.75, the existing feeder doesn't get tight enough but bondtech sells feeders where you can switch between 2 different gear sizes for the 2 different filament sizes.  It might not be public knowledge.  But they will sell you just the gears or a feeder with the "wrong" gears.

 

But the printer is designed around 2.85 filament and works better that way (feeder torque/speed etc).

 

One more thing: the default black feeder on the UM2 is not great.  I still have one on one of my 4 printers.  The UM2+ has a much better feeder with twice the torque.  If you do go 1.75 then the torque is fine but you need to get the gap where the filament passes to be tighter grip.  There is a "meduza" feeder option combined with the iRoberti option that turns the UM2 (regular) feeder into a feeder as good or better than the UM2+.  The iRoberti feeder is on thingiverse but  unfortunately the meduza torque doubler was only on youmagine.com which is now gone.  I have the files somewhere.

[adamjvr 0]

On 6/25/2024 at 7:54 AM, gr5 said:

Other sources that sell that part with a 2mm hole instead of 3mm?  Are you sure?  I didn't check but this is a pretty rare need so I'm surprised there would be another source.  Probably 3dsolex sells 3 per year, lol.

 

You also need a feeder that can grip 1.75, the existing feeder doesn't get tight enough but bondtech sells feeders where you can switch between 2 different gear sizes for the 2 different filament sizes.  It might not be public knowledge.  But they will sell you just the gears or a feeder with the "wrong" gears.

 

But the printer is designed around 2.85 filament and works better that way (feeder torque/speed etc).

 

One more thing: the default black feeder on the UM2 is not great.  I still have one on one of my 4 printers.  The UM2+ has a much better feeder with twice the torque.  If you do go 1.75 then the torque is fine but you need to get the gap where the filament passes to be tighter grip.  There is a "meduza" feeder option combined with the iRoberti option that turns the UM2 (regular) feeder into a feeder as good or better than the UM2+.  The iRoberti feeder is on thingiverse but  unfortunately the meduza torque doubler was only on youmagine.com which is now gone.  I have the files somewhere.

I found that part as a pack of 4 for 10 bucks on Amazon so I ordered it, won't be here until July but that's ok. Also I got my extruder in the mail yesterday !! Its not a Bondtech proper but a generic one that basically the same design but injection molded plastic. Its a 3DMan dual drive extruder, they are pretty popular upgrades for cheaper printers that ship with bowden extrusion systems, I figured I'd give it a try!! It was really cheap so I thought might as well. Down the road I can always print my own extruder or get another one that's compatible! I also had to order some longer screws to mount it to the UM2 in place of the old one ! So yeah I am 100% going with 1.75mm filament, my 3 other printers use it so I want everything to be the same so I can use the same filament on any printer, I have pretty large collection of filament.
I think the feeder/extruder on mine is the original black one I've attached pictures, I don't plan to use it anymore but I will save it, I don't toss any parts I pull off my machines I save everything. I converted my TAZ 6 to E3D Hemera and I still have the dual nozzle tool head and the original single nozzle toolhead. Also when I was looking through the electronics I found a cable that was disconnected from the motherboard and it was just dangling on the other end by the print head, do you know what its for ?

I was able to fix the problem with the rods sticking out, I loosened the pulleys and adjusted everything so it had no wiggle and tightened the pulley's in place ! The gantry is still not square, is there a proccedure/protocol to follow for doing that ? Everything felt pretty stiff even with the pulley's loosened.

[gr5 2,229]

I recommend you install tinkergnome firmware which (among about 100 other features like continuing a failed print) lets you change the steps/mm easily from the screen.

 

https://github.com/tinkerGnome/Ultimaker2Marlin/releases/

 

If the outer 4 rods are not square you need to squeeze the whole printer with some king of massive vice or something along the longer diagonal.  This is a common problem with shipping (maybe 1% of printers?  No one knows) as all shippers occasionally ask one of the elephants to step on a few packages (guessing from the results - no actual proof).

 

But more likely you mean the middle thinner rods.  To align those it helps to print the "stick" as described here: 

https://support.makerbot.com/s/article/1667412443401

 

 

[adamjvr 0]

18 hours ago, gr5 said:

I recommend you install tinkergnome firmware which (among about 100 other features like continuing a failed print) lets you change the steps/mm easily from the screen.

 

https://github.com/tinkerGnome/Ultimaker2Marlin/releases/

 

If the outer 4 rods are not square you need to squeeze the whole printer with some king of massive vice or something along the longer diagonal.  This is a common problem with shipping (maybe 1% of printers?  No one knows) as all shippers occasionally ask one of the elephants to step on a few packages (guessing from the results - no actual proof).

 

But more likely you mean the middle thinner rods.  To align those it helps to print the "stick" as described here: 

https://support.makerbot.com/s/article/1667412443401

 

 

Awesome !! You read my mind !! I was gonna ask about firmware next whether I should use the original firmware and modify the build or if there was an open source one that's much better !! Sounds like TinkerGnome is a fork of Marlin that incorporates all the modern features that were developed long after the UM2 was released. Sounds like it will give it all the fancy features that my Prusa MK3S+ has, would you agree ?? I will delve into this firmware tonight at my local makerspace meetup !! Right now I am installing the new extruder and fixing the wiring, I got my new screws today !!

About that stray wire in one of my pictures do you know what it is ? Its connected to nothing !!!

[fbrc8-erin 298]

41 minutes ago, adamjvr said:

About that stray wire in one of my pictures do you know what it is ? Its connected to nothing !!!

 

Hi! Looks like our team built that printer back in the day. 😀 I can confirm that the red and brown wire is an extra wire that was in the early Ultimaker 2 machines, as an extra connection in case it was needed later for upgrades. In the later UM2 and UM2+ machines, that wire disappeared from the wiring loom. It does not get plugged into anything at either end.

[adamjvr 0]

1 hour ago, fbrc8-erin said:

 

Hi! Looks like our team built that printer back in the day. 😀 I can confirm that the red and brown wire is an extra wire that was in the early Ultimaker 2 machines, as an extra connection in case it was needed later for upgrades. In the later UM2 and UM2+ machines, that wire disappeared from the wiring loom. It does not get plugged into anything at either end.

Cool so its unnecessary?  I can just remove it to make things cleaner ?? Thanks for chiming in much appreciated !!

[gr5 2,229]

When the UM2 came out the plan was to get it to work with dual print heads.  They tried "everything" and decided an upgrade was just too complicated (needed an entire new print head and really an entire new printer).  But the original UM2s came with extra wires for a second nozzle heater and second nozzle sensor.

[adamjvr 0]

3 hours ago, gr5 said:

When the UM2 came out the plan was to get it to work with dual print heads.  They tried "everything" and decided an upgrade was just too complicated (needed an entire new print head and really an entire new printer).  But the original UM2s came with extra wires for a second nozzle heater and second nozzle sensor.

I knew that, but I thought they got it working and started shipping machine with dual nozzles ? Am I wrong ? I was contemplating trying dual nozzles since I've never done it before. My Replicator 1 clone came with only a single nozzle and I could have added a second but that printer/design always had trouble with that so I didn't bother.

[gr5 2,229]

Sorry - UM never got the dual nozzle working well on the UM2.  If you want to do it there are a few solutions out there.  In my biased opinion, Foehnsturm did it best with the Mark2.

 

https://magnetic-tool-changer.com/

 

You can get all the parts you need on aliexpress. I don't know if you still can but they actually had all the mark2 needed parts as a kit at one point.  I tried it out and it was fine except for the fans were 5V instead of 12V but other than that it was good enough.  Actually to be more accurate, I had 3 other people try aliexpress version.  And all 3 of them got it working and all 3 had to buy 12V fans.

[gr5 2,229]

In addition to above link there is this:

https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/18043-ultimaker-mark2-the-smart-dual-extrusion-upgrade/

 

[adamjvr 0]

2 hours ago, gr5 said:

Sorry - UM never got the dual nozzle working well on the UM2.  If you want to do it there are a few solutions out there.  In my biased opinion, Foehnsturm did it best with the Mark2.

 

https://magnetic-tool-changer.com/

 

You can get all the parts you need on aliexpress. I don't know if you still can but they actually had all the mark2 needed parts as a kit at one point.  I tried it out and it was fine except for the fans were 5V instead of 12V but other than that it was good enough.  Actually to be more accurate, I had 3 other people try aliexpress version.  And all 3 of them got it working and all 3 had to buy 12V fans.

Interesting ! I didn't know I thought they got it working at some point !! Yeah it seems single nozzle with filament mixer or some form of toolchanger is the best way to do multimaterial or multi color printing ! I think I'm going to keep mine as a single nozzle !! Right now I am waiting for the power supply to power it up and check through everything!! I think I'm going to go ahead with the E3D mod since the 1.75mm adapter for the original printhead won't be here for another two weeks.

 

Some other things I'm been thinking:

What are your thoughts on automatic bed leveling sensors ? Is the Ultimaker a good platform for these?

What are you thoughts on direct extruder mods ? There is a printable mod that will allow me to run my Dual drive and E3D as a direct extruder at the sacrifice of speed!! I think I want to keep it as a bowden machine even though that limits me to PLA but I figured a fast printer for disposable draft prints would be good to have and use my Prusa to make permanent stuff out of PETG.

[gr5 2,229]

So with my UM2 printers (Um2, um2go, um2ext), once you level the bed, it stays that way for months/years.  I'm not a big fan of auto leveling unless it also does multipoint leveling and if your glass isn't flat (which is actually a bit of a problem with UM2 glass beds because of how the glass factory makes tempered glass).

[adamjvr 0]

On 6/28/2024 at 9:29 PM, gr5 said:

So with my UM2 printers (Um2, um2go, um2ext), once you level the bed, it stays that way for months/years.  I'm not a big fan of auto leveling unless it also does multipoint leveling and if your glass isn't flat (which is actually a bit of a problem with UM2 glass beds because of how the glass factory makes tempered glass).

 

Sounds good to me !! That was pretty much the case with my Replicator 1 clone though since its made of wood it wouldn't last as long, since the UM2 is all synthentic materials the frame won't warp over time!!

So I got the machine together with the E3D V6 print and nozzle installed ! I got everything wired together ! I installed the TinkerGnome firmware and tuned the PID all the heaters are functional and all the motors/axes work !!

What I'm having issues with now is the offset of the print head the E3D V6 printhead is a bit bigger in the XY directions and the Z height might be different I'm not sure. Is there a method for calculating the offsets or recomputing the print area based on the printhead size ? I know Cura supports this in the machine preferences but I'd like to set it within the printer itself as well as the slicer. How should I proceed ?

[gr5 2,229]

I'm not sure why you need to mess with that.  I believe the nozzle is always over the glass, correct?  No matter what corner you push the head into?

 

If so then you shouldn't have to touch any parameters related to X and Y position.  For the um2go the head can go left of the glass but the UM2 I don't think so?  Maybe?

 

Now the positions of the 4 clips that hold the glass in place - you might have to worry about that I suppose.  That would be in Cura.

 

Let me know if the head can go beyond the glass.  If not then all X and Y parameters should be the same as the UM print head.

[adamjvr 0]

53 minutes ago, gr5 said:

I'm not sure why you need to mess with that.  I believe the nozzle is always over the glass, correct?  No matter what corner you push the head into?

 

If so then you shouldn't have to touch any parameters related to X and Y position.  For the um2go the head can go left of the glass but the UM2 I don't think so?  Maybe?

 

Now the positions of the 4 clips that hold the glass in place - you might have to worry about that I suppose.  That would be in Cura.

 

Let me know if the head can go beyond the glass.  If not then all X and Y parameters should be the same as the UM print head.

When starting a print the print head definitely over travels a little but but not by too much, its physical size keeps it staying over the glass but I would rather it not crash everytime I start a job. The machine had some weird numbers in the EEPROM so I factory reset it and reconfigured it for my extruder and did the bed leveling from scratch. I'm gonna attempt a print right now but I'm pretty sure I'm still going to have to tweak XY max distances.

EDIT:
Just ran a test print and observed that the XYZ postioning seems to be ok, but the extruder is not extruding, any ideas ?

 

EDIT 2:
As in the extrude motor is not moving at all during the print, what would that happen ?

Edited July 2 by adamjvr

[adamjvr 0]

This reddit post is describing what I'm observing

 

https://old.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/18ejn8d/um2_extended_with_tinkergnome_firmware_fails_to/

[gr5 2,229]

He was able to do manual MOVE command.  Does that work for you also?  Has the stepper *ever* moved?  Did you check steps/mm in the firmware (it can be edited).

 

Are you printing with the SD card (recommended) or USB (not recommended but works and feeder stuff changes).  If you use USB you have to change something in the Cura parameters which I can describe.  Did you remember to tell the printer you have 1.75mm filament?  It's in the filament settings and ignored for USB printing in which case you have to tell Cura.

[adamjvr 0]

6 hours ago, gr5 said:

He was able to do manual MOVE command.  Does that work for you also?  Has the stepper *ever* moved?  Did you check steps/mm in the firmware (it can be edited).

 

Are you printing with the SD card (recommended) or USB (not recommended but works and feeder stuff changes).  If you use USB you have to change something in the Cura parameters which I can describe.  Did you remember to tell the printer you have 1.75mm filament?  It's in the filament settings and ignored for USB printing in which case you have to tell Cura.

 

Yes ! I used the move command to feed filament through the nozzle when I got everything together to test it! I modified the steps per millimeter to 385 which is what the extruder's manufacture recommended!! So I know the machine can extrude plastic just fine.
When I do run the print I am running it off SD card, USB printing has always been unreliable with Marlin (I've been using RepRaps since 2011), so I always SD card print. I modified the filament settings in Cura to be 1.75mm.

Anything Else I can check ? I've attached the GCODE file let me know if there is anything obviously wrong with it, I looked at it and it looks to be fine for the GCODE flavor I chose (Ultimaker GCODE).

UM2_3DBenchy.gcode

[gr5 2,229]

The first thing I can think of is that in the UM2 series, changing the filament settings is extremely confusing.  The last step you have to supply the material type (PLA) and that part is very confusing and I usually get it backwards and mess it up and usually on the 3rd try I get it.

 

Also there are different settings depending on nozzle size.  Which seems kind of dumb to me.  Your gcode file specifies a nozzle size of 0.4 which is good and is the default but you have to make sure you set the filament size to 1.75 regarding nozzle size 0.4.  I think?  Or maybe that's in a different place.  I'll go play with my um2go right now...

 

 

[gr5 2,229]

When I go to material (right menus) and then settings and "hover" on PLA I see it says 2.85 for the filament diameter but I think that's only for one nozzle.  I recommend you go to the bottom and do "export to SD" (or some similar wording) and then bring the sd card back to a computer and look at the file it created and make sure you have 1.75 for filament diameter everywhere.  I'd just edit it in any text editor, put it back on the SD and then import it back into the printer.

 

I kind of doubt this is the issue but let's be sure.

 

Other than that I can't think of any reason the feeder wouldn't move when printing but would move with the MOVE command in the menu.  Very strange.

 

OH!!!!  There is a minimum temperature setting where the extruder will not turn unless the nozzle is above a certain temperature.  I doubt this is in the menu systems but it might be.  Are you printing at an unusually low temp (such as 175C?)

 

Anyway this value I think can be read to and written directly with gcodes over usb cable.

 

Did you ever do a "factory reset" after installing the tinkerware marlin?  These kinds of values can get messed up when installing different versions of Marlin particularly if you aren't moving "forwards" with version numbers and tinkerMarlin is a relatively "sideways" version change.  These kinds of values (such as minimum nozzle temp for extrusion) are stored in the eeprom somewhere and are read and then rewritten in the new locations on every version change but sometimes it gets it wrong.

[LePaul 331]

Great thread.  I keep looking around for a used 2/2+ extended height machines on my Facebook marketplace.

 

I've gone back and forth on if it is worth going from 2.85mm to 1.75mm filament.  Since my printer is working fine still, I haven't seen the need to take it apart and upgrade it into a very uncertain path.  If I was in a situation like you, where it was largely a pile of parts, I would be more tempted!

 

While the 3 point bed leveling works, I always fight with the rear point.  Like GR5 says, once you have it nailed down, you rarely have to mess with it.  However, I go back and forth between 0.4 and 0.6 nozzles a good deal and which requires re-leveling.  Now at that point, I sometimes wonder about a hot end setup like he has.  With a custom hot end, mounting a custom BL Tough mount won't be impossible.  I just don't know if that board would take said input?   I know it's a small print volume and that sort of leveling isn't really needed....but I have other machines at that volume and smaller that do use a probe.  (And it is super handy being able to babystep versus hand crank three knobs)

 

The other plus I see to his hot end mod is an all metal hot end.  I've replaced that coupler on mine a few times over the years and it's a bit of a task.  When someone invents a way to mod that out to print cores, ping me!

 

 

[adamjvr 0]

3 hours ago, gr5 said:

The first thing I can think of is that in the UM2 series, changing the filament settings is extremely confusing.  The last step you have to supply the material type (PLA) and that part is very confusing and I usually get it backwards and mess it up and usually on the 3rd try I get it.

 

Also there are different settings depending on nozzle size.  Which seems kind of dumb to me.  Your gcode file specifies a nozzle size of 0.4 which is good and is the default but you have to make sure you set the filament size to 1.75 regarding nozzle size 0.4.  I think?  Or maybe that's in a different place.  I'll go play with my um2go right now...

 

 

I did change the filament diameter settings within Cura to 1.75mm , which is why I'm confused.

 

 

3 hours ago, gr5 said:

When I go to material (right menus) and then settings and "hover" on PLA I see it says 2.85 for the filament diameter but I think that's only for one nozzle.  I recommend you go to the bottom and do "export to SD" (or some similar wording) and then bring the sd card back to a computer and look at the file it created and make sure you have 1.75 for filament diameter everywhere.  I'd just edit it in any text editor, put it back on the SD and then import it back into the printer.

 

I kind of doubt this is the issue but let's be sure.

 

Other than that I can't think of any reason the feeder wouldn't move when printing but would move with the MOVE command in the menu.  Very strange.

 

OH!!!!  There is a minimum temperature setting where the extruder will not turn unless the nozzle is above a certain temperature.  I doubt this is in the menu systems but it might be.  Are you printing at an unusually low temp (such as 175C?)

 

Anyway this value I think can be read to and written directly with gcodes over usb cable.

 

Did you ever do a "factory reset" after installing the tinkerware marlin?  These kinds of values can get messed up when installing different versions of Marlin particularly if you aren't moving "forwards" with version numbers and tinkerMarlin is a relatively "sideways" version change.  These kinds of values (such as minimum nozzle temp for extrusion) are stored in the eeprom somewhere and are read and then rewritten in the new locations on every version change but sometimes it gets it wrong.

I can manually edit Gcode no problem, I've done a bunch of times in the past to make tweaks without having to re-slice jobs.

As far as minimum temperature for extrusion, I'm not printing at a low temp, I have it set to 215C since the PLA I have reccomends that temperature !! I thought this might be the problem too but I have the temp on the higher side of the spectrum for PLA. When I use the Move command it extrudes perfectly fine at this temp!!

I did do a factory reset after installing the TinkerGnome Marlin, I figured that was causing some of the bugs when I first tried it so I did a factory reset and tried it again, It eliminated the Z heigh issues but I'm still having the no extrusion bug! Can I edit the minimum  nozzle temp for extrusion manually with in the machine menu? Or do I need to edit the EEPROM with GCode commands via Pronterface ?

 

EDIT:
I just tested my GCODE again and the extruder is actually moving but its not extruding any plastic, not even after letting it run a while, any ideas ? The move command extrudes plastic just fine.

Edited July 3 by adamjvr