UM2 extended - "clack" noise with every rotation from left stepper motor

[MichaelB 1]

Last week I received my Ultimaker 2 extended. I am new in 3D printing and in the past few days I played around with my new toy.

I have some issues with under extrusion, skip back noises from the feeder since the first run of the printer (the Ultimaker robot, what else). I use silver PLA, which came with the printer and did not change any values before printing.

This night after aprox. 3 hours of total printing for the machine a strange noise appeared. It comes out of the direction of the left stepper motor. With every rotation of the motor you can hear a "clack" sound. Not scary, but loud enough for me to start worrying. The printing process is not affected, visually everything (except the said issues with skip backs above) works fine.

The print ran 15 hours and the noise did not change its intensity.

If this is a not know issue, I could provide a video of the behaviour.

Thanks in advance,

Michael

[MichaelB 1]

Here is a video with the described noise:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0fe200zaykfpygs/IMG_2778.MOV?dl=0

[gr5 2,004]

It's probably not serious but you should fix it at some point.

There are 4 rods in the outer edges around the top of the machine. I think one of them is sliding back and forth a few mm. The next time it is printing put your fingers on the ends of each of the 4 rods and see if they move a little bit. Once you identify the loose one memorize which of the 4 rods. Later when nothing is happening you need a 2mm hex wrench (don't use inch measurements or you could strip it) preferably a 2mm hex wrench with a screwdriver handle but the L shaped wrenches are fine. Also the ones with the ball end are even better.

Push the rod both ways and decide which way is better. On the side that is now loose you want to loosen the pulley that the long belt goes over - then slide that outward against the side of the printer and retighten - tighten the hell out of that one - it was obviously not tight enough the first time. The wrench should twist a bit with the force.

[gr5 2,004]

That last poster - gr5 - ignore him! He didn't watch the movie.

But *I* just watched the movie and it's something else. Not sure what. It seems to happen once per rotation of either the motor or the pulley on the other end of that short belt.

When power is off push it back and forth and try to figure it out. That's a new one on me.

[MichaelB 1]

Thank you gr5 No.2

I did so for endless minutes now, but I absolutely can not figure out, where it is coming from. I am kind of helpless at the moment.

And to be honest: I am not very motivated to do some trial and error disassembling on such an expensive machine, which is just a few days old.

If someone asks for me, I am pushing the print head back and forth the next hours...

[MichaelB 1]

Well, gr5 No.1, even without watching the video it seems that you could be right.

There was no moving of any rod determinable during printing.

But the screw of top left pulley was not really tight, I could loosen it easily. After that I could push the rod a bit to the outside of the printer. I tightened it again with the describe amount of force

Hand moving does not make any more noise now. Printing follows later this evening...

[MichaelB 1]

Printed a few hours in the meanwhile, the noise is gone!

[gr5 2,004]

I think you should have voted 2 posts above as the best answer.