Custom heater block to fit E3D nozzle on Ultimaker 2 ("The Olsson Block")

[swordriff 119]

Hey!

The reports coming from Block owners are regarding Blocks shipped in batch 1,

some in Australia, New Zealand and North America had several weeks shipping time.

 

You gents in Europe are waiting for batch 2, which is in production.

Thanks!

 

[gr5 2,172]

I love having the transparency into your operation! I wish Ultimaker would share things like that - e.g. "all shipments will be delayed for at least a week because the current batch of heated bed thumb screws are defective and we are waiting on a new batch and we have to retrofit 300 printers once they arrive and are meanwhile still assembling". Or "serial numbers after XXXX now have a weaker spring (call it V3) and are set by default to the tightest setting.

 

[swordriff 119]

Thank you! The delay is because:

We have (yet another) engineering change, which will allow the standard

temp sensor to be much more easily recovered after it has been inserted, which is not always

the case in batch 1. The fault is a symptom of inconsistant diameter of the temp nozzle in

the crimp zone (not our fault).. We are also making a verification of the M3 fastening screw hole diameter holding the

cartridges, and changing the screw from umbraco style to phillips style.

A tiny, small screwdriver is included which is so small that it will help not overtightening the

cartridge screw.

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

I love your eye for details !!

[kepolas 2]

You are just plain awesome, cant wait for that 2nd batch.

Keep up the good job.

 

[skinny-kid 65]

I am also looking forward t the second batch (should have my UM2 later this week!)

 

[mohissa 0]

Thanks to this great teamwork and to gr5, I have received 'the gold' (heater block and nozzle kit).

Has anyone posted step-by-step instructions to changing it? or a video of some sorts?

Thanks again! They look great.

 

[mohissa 0]

Here is the nozzle torque wrench:

 

 

Any reason why the inner part on my print looks like this?

I still have not changed the nozzle (original 0.4mm nozzle)

0.1mm layer height, 100% infill, 50mm/s print speed, UM PLA, 210C/60C

I dont think this will affect the torque, but i would like to know why my prints arent turning out so great.

any ideas?

 

[swordriff 119]

Im guessing you print at 225C? right?

Try lowering to 210, but then combined speed down to 30-40mm/s.

In advanced, minimum travel for retraction 0.0

Retraction ON.

Try it first!

[gixxer 1]

Looks like to high temp/not enough fan. Try printing cooler and slower.

If that's um pla, it's not the best.

[swordriff 119]

No video yet of change of hot end:

power off (so not destroy tiny backfan)..

get another light source...

unscrew 4 vertical screws.

unscrew assembly holding alu brackets together. leave fans in place.

you COULD also remove bowden; remove horseshoe, hold insert down, remove

bowden tube and spring.

remove teflon coupler.

using small umbraco tool that came with the printer, carefully

unscrew the stainless steel coupler by inserting the tool in the radial holes.

using same tool, unscrew M3 vertical tiny screw inserted into heater block.

Hopefully remove the cartridges, DO NOT PULL cables.

Reverse the action, dont overtighten the screw in the new Block, just so the cartridges will not easily move + 1/4 turn.

Re-assemble.

Leave a gap between the SS coupler with the holes and the Block

of appx 1mm,

LEVEL THE BED; OR YOU WILL SUFFER A HEAD CRASH.

The new Block (named 3dSolex), steals a few more millimeters of build height.

When levelling bed, no need to touch the 3 screws in the bed, if it worked well before.

When adjusting the bed using the digital wheel, lift the bed so a piece of standard paper is

"just cought" between head and glass. Then open up 2 clicks rotating wheel or more, depending on if you mount 025-040 or 080 nozzle.

Bigger nozzle, bigger bed-gap.

If you have a hardtime removing the temp sensor, get back to me without destroying it.

[Anders Olsson 136]

If you use PLA, it is likely that the overhang on the springs will be a bit rough like that.

I printed a few in Ultimaker blue PLA and they came our quite ugly. My spool of Ultimaker blue is by far the worst unfilled material I ever printed by the way (!)

However, there is plenty of space for rough overhangs inside the torque wrench, so it will work even if it looks ugly :smile:

The one in my picture on youmagine was printed in E3D blue ABS and I think I might have used some fan, that is why it came out really nice.

If you use ABS you should be careful with too much fan though, since it can affect layer adhesion.

 

[mohissa 0]

Thank you guys for taking the time to answer my questions.

Swordriff, as I mentioned in my post, I was printing at 210C. On the advanced tab, most of my temperatures are around 20-30. The fan was on at 100% except first layer. Retraction was on as well.

Thank you for the instructions on installing the heater block. I will try to make a video when I'm changing it, if the video is any good, I will share it.

Anders, the UM PLA (the filament that comes with the printer) is the only filament I have. I just received my printer last week. I'm having a problem finding filament at 2.85mm in Canada (any suggestions are welcome). Buying it from UM will get unnecessarily expensive. I'm reading on other posts about using 3mm (or 1.75mm) which seem to be more standard than 2.85mm.

[swordriff 119]

Hmm.. I will try to print it with the same material!

3mm filament is almost always ok! the inner diameter of the bowden tube is more than 3.1 mm, your

main "bottleneck".

 

[SandervG 1,521]

3.16mm to be precise.

There is always a chance your feeder my flatten your filament a bit, which will make it slightly wider so it is wise to always leave some room for play.

Besides that it needs some room for the curvature of the filament.

If it is too tight there will be a lot of friction.

 

[mohissa 0]

Do you guys recommend printing Roberts feeder if I use 3mm filament? Or is the original feeder just as good?

I'm planning on installing the custom heat block before trying 3mm filament just so it's easier to unclog if need be.

[swordriff 119]

Mohissa! Robert is the very best.

I personally have never had any problem with my original feeder. I am thinking;

If it works, don't fix it,

It makes changing filament easier, one of the advantages of Roberts feeder.

 

[3dw 1]

I'm interested in the pricing in US$ of one of these sets of Anders' custom heater blocks and 3 nozzles sets out of the second batch currently being manufactured. I missed where that purchase price was mentioned in the last 14 pages. Either that, or I'm getting old. LOL

How about a price quote, guys for a US buyer? Include shipping, as well, please.

 

[ccw1984 1]

Anders, the UM PLA (the filament that comes with the printer) is the only filament I have. I just received my printer last week. I'm having a problem finding filament at 2.85mm in Canada (any suggestions are welcome). Buying it from UM will get unnecessarily expensive. I'm reading on other posts about using 3mm (or 1.75mm) which seem to be more standard than 2.85mm.

 

Mohissa, most filament listed as "3mm" is actually 2.85 mm +/- 0.05 mm. For some reason it's been decided to round up like that in marketing. What you should do with any filament you get is measure it (get some good calipers) in several places (5 or more), discard the smallest and largest measurements, and average the rest. That will give you an average diameter for your filament that you can put into the "Filament Diameter" setting (on the UM2 under "Material Settings" not Cura).

The UM2 isn't set up for 1.75mm filament out of the box, I've heard of people using it if they get a smaller bowden tube (one with an ID slightly larger than 1.75mm) and change the material settings however. I'd look around the forum and see if anyone has a thread about using 1.75mm.

 

[gr5 2,172]

The fans come of extremely easily. You unscrew the 4 hex head screws first (buy a screwdriver shaped tool - don't use one of those L shaped tools!). Then slide up the weave above the print head and locate the wiring. There are connectors near the print head either inside the print head or just above in the "wiring harness". The 2 connectors that go to the fans are connected together by a short wire. The 3rd connector goes to the rear fan. Disconnect the 2 side fan connectors and pull them through the head gently. You *might* have to loosen the 4 head screws completely which is not a big deal and it all goes back together without much fuss - just take your time and be gentle.

ABS doesn't need much fan but it helps on overhangs and bridging quite a bit. So if you are printing say a flat gear - no fan needed. But if you are printing something like a human head with a chin overhang or the UM robot or, well, 70% of my prints, then you need a little bit of fan for the overhangs if you want the parts to look nice. Some of the older slicers (back in the days before PLA) turn the fan on and off just for overhangs and bridges.

 

[gr5 2,172]

@mohissa - that's typical print quality for that particular structure (very very thin walls sticking out with 45 degree overhang).

There's a whole topic on this:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4094-raised-edges/

Skip right to "page 2" and look at foehnstrum's video and read all the posts after that possibly. It's not until around post #39 and later that we really begin to understand what causes the issue.

 

 

[gr5 2,172]

If anyone wants a quote for North America, send me a PM. I don't know if Anders and Swordriff want me to post pricing yet so I have been just emailing directly. My prices are identical to the prices in Europe (but converted to nearest dollar) except of course your shipping is very low. In other words the cost of shipping from Europe to USA and the cost of my spending time taking/shipping orders is already taken care of in the reduced price of the blocks that Swordriff charges me.

 

[gr5 2,172]

I don't know if Anders and Swordriff will be manufacturing their own nozzles and which sizes but if they are, what sizes does everyone like? What should be in a nozzle kit? I asked several people and got these answers:

.35 .4 .6

.25 .4 .6 .8

.4 .6 .8

.3 .4 .6 .8

.5 .6 (EldRick in next post)

I told them they had to restrict themselves to the ones at this store (link below) but people posting here can pick any size - not just ones at this store. Keep in mind that above about 1.0mm you don't get faster print speeds because the heater element can't keep up so it's silly to go to 1.2mm.

http://e3d-online.com/E3D-v6/Extra-Nozzles

If you pm me I will add your name and answer to this post. Or if you post below I will do the same thing (edit this post).

 

[eldrick 65]

.5mm and .6mm would be good choices: they each add a significant amount of flow vs. the stock .4mm. Smaller than .4 gets pretty fussy, IMHO, and I'm not sure that the accuracy of an Ultimaker warrants the loss of print speed.

 

[swordriff 119]

Printed with 0.30 nozzle mounted on a Custom Heater Block "3dSolex" for UM2.

 

0.80mm nozzle has 4 times the throughput of 0.40mm (standard) nozzle.