Unboxing & Review of the Ultimaker 2

[printingtherevolution 0]

Hey guys,

I am completely new to this forum as well as the 3D printing technology, but I have definitely learned a lot in the past 3 weeks since I have had my printer. Mostly due to my own experience but also by reading through some useful topics here.

Since I already have two other Youtube-Channels and enjoy making videos, I decided to open up another Channel exclusively for 3D printing.

First video is the actual unboxing, review and showing some of my first results with the printer.

Please keep in mind that all of the prints were basically my first, so I have since refined the settings and do not get underextrusion, blobs or warping anymore.

Hope you will tune in every now and then for my future creations. I am currently learning CAD and have already designed a few things.

You can find my review here:

Best regards,

Alex

 

[DidierKlein 729]

Hi thanks for sharing your experience, nice video

Just a comment about ABS, i don't print it because i don't like the toxicity of the fumes, but a lot of Ultimaker 2 users are printing ABS with no problems, of course a clogged nozzles is always something that can bug you a lot but even ABS clogs can be cleaned quite easily (ABS can also be cleaned with Acetone).

Except that most of the things described in the video are very true, it's also good to say that it's not a real plug and print printer (as in, you won't have to get your hands dirty sometimes), because some buyers think it will never fail.

You got yourself a new subscriber

 

[printingtherevolution 0]

Thanks for your feedback and the subscription, Didier!

Yes, I actually have the Ultimaker set up in my living room and the fumes when printing in ABS were quite noticeable and smelled toxic. However, I thought it wouldnt be so bad if I kept the windows open and wasnt in the room while printing.

Worst thing for me was warping and lifting of the corners while printing. I read about a method that included dissolving some ABS leftovers in acetone and then using it like a spread on the printbed for better adhesion. Never tried it though, the clogged up nozzle threw me off immediately. I had to use the atomic method 10 times before all the new material came out clean. For cleaning the nozzle with acetone you would have to remove the nozzle though, right?

After all, I am still learning and my results in PLA get better each day. The only downside to PLA so far has been its low melting point. I worked on a model of the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original series. While painting it with my airbrush kit I used a blow dryer to speed up the dry times between layers. The material weakened pretty fast.

Other than that, I love printing in PLA. I felt that I could never get such fine results in ABS.

 

[skint 61]

Welcome to the Ultimaker madness Alex

 

[DidierKlein 729]

ABS is nasty stuff, don't stay in the room when printing or ventilate as much as possible.

On key point with ABS printing is maintaining a constant temperature inside the printer (you should enclose it).

Anyway you might want to have a look at Colorfabb XT filaments, they are strong, have a higher melting point than PLA (around 80°c i believe), and don't spread nasty fumes while printing.

 

[printingtherevolution 0]

I will definitely give the Colorfabb filaments a try in the future. As of now I am printing with a 2.1 kg PLA spool of the silver filament by German Reprap and get really good results. Also, the original feeder seems to work much better with a 2.1 kg spool than with the 0,75 kg spool from Ultimaker that came with the Printer. I hardly get underextrusion now

 

[nallath 1,120]

ABS isn't that bad. I've looked up the safety charts. The problem is styrene, which can irritate your throat. The only way that concentrations would get high enough is if you print in a very small room with no fresh air coming in.

 

[printingtherevolution 0]

Well, the health risk issue did not concern me all that much either since I kept the room properly ventilated.

What threw me off mostly was the warping and lifting of corners problem and the fact that it probably will shorten the life span of my UM2.