A Tea between friends :-) How was Your Day

[LePaul]

What's the price for just the feeder?
Or just the print head?

[Meduza]

The print head is not sold as a assembly, so you would have to order all the separate parts as spares.

Price... no idea :p

[Titus]

nice communication UM

[reibuehl]

Ultimaker never managed to publish a proper spare parts list (to end users) as far as I know. Neither with nor without prices. So you have to go into GIT, hope the parts list there is up to date and find out what you might need and order that without knowing the price upfront.

A while after buying my UM2, I had to clean out my feeder after some grinding accident and I lost the feeder spring. I tried getting it via Ultimaker - I didn't know 3DVerkstan then - and it was impossible. I had expected a "sure, we will put one in a padded envelope and mail it to you" since it is a <1EUR part for a >2000EUR printer but no way. I ended up digging out the original manufacturer of the spring with some google and a hint or two from people on the UM forum. They sent me the part for a small fee no problem...

[LePaul]

You know, from the outside looking in, we can spot some of these silly things...and they seem like the sort of things that could be quickly resolved.

Why make it so complicated for the customer?

[Izzy]

For the last 4 1/2 days my printer has been running almost continuously as I'm having a go at printing the bits for a 3D scanner that uses the iphone to take pictures that you then send to Autocad etc to get the 3d part generated.
I've printed the 4 main base parts and this morning I started the turntable, 3 hours into the 24 hr print as I was making a cup of coffee when I heard a strange noise coming from the printer Not the feeder but didn't sound good it was the 'y' axis motor that was beginning to seize and was a bit hot.
This is the second one, after I replaced it last time I striped the old one down cleaned it up and replaced the bearings, so I have a spare motor and some spare bearings. Rather than replace the motor which would have required getting access to the mother board and turning the machine on its side, I just de-mounted the motor and striped it down on the bed (power off of course)' a good clean out with contact cleaner, replaced with new bearings,reassembled and testing them out, so far some testing is good.
But that's two axis motors that have failed on me in the last 8 months.

[Izzy]

Gripe,
My print plate isn't fully level.
It's level to the 3 bed levelling points, but across the rear there is a slight slope from high on the left to low on the right. It's only 0.2mm difference across 100mm but enough to bug me.

So, at the moment to test the 'y' axis motor and doing short prints for a little while, I'm going to design, print and try out a couple of little 'bottle jacks' one each side of the plate at the back to just try and level it a little, I'll let you know how it goes, oh I've got some PTFE sheet to insulate against the underside of the heated build platform for the top of the little bottle jacks so not going to short it or anything.

[Anders Olsson]

I heard a strange noise coming from the printer Not the feeder but didn't sound good it was the 'y' axis motor that was beginning to seize and was a bit hot.

Interesting, I never heard of the x-y-axis motor failing before but I noticed a strange noise from one of the axis on my UM2 lately.
I thought it might be one of the axis bearings that is failing, but now I am thinking the motor is probably a more likely suspect.

Finished the EOS training today bye the way, here are a few photos (since you asked )
Everything was printed in Stainless Steel 316L (the variations in the color of the parts is caused by my camera)
The parts should normally be sandblasted after printing to remove loose particles on the surface, this has not been done on the parts in the pictures though.

I am considering to start a separate thread about the EOS M 100 when I have more time, if anyone is interested in reading about professional metal 3D-printers?

[LePaul]

You should start a new thread!

Izzy, my UMO seems to have a spot like that. No motor noises, but one back rear section drives me crazy on larger prints, no matter how much I twist and turn those alignment screws.

[Frederik]

Gripe,
My print plate isn't fully level.
It's level to the 3 bed levelling points, but across the rear there is a slight slope from high on the left to low on the right. It's only 0.2mm difference across 100mm but enough to bug me.

Have you checked if that might be caused by the screw heads sticking out because of improper countersinking?
I had that problem when I got my printer with the UM2 heated bed resulting in bending of the glass plate.
0.2mm seems to be very well in the ballpark of being caused by that.
If so, this is an easy fix.

[Izzy]

Hi Frederick,
Welcome to the forum
Yes I had spotted that all those screw heads were not countersunk quite enough but I increased the countersink depth for those back in 2015, it seems that the plate may have a very slight twist or angle across the back, if I do a 200um first layer it gets so that the nozzle will about touch the glass towards the rear left area.
I'm designing a little type of "bottle jack" that will fix between the main plate and the heater plate, one to be placed towards the ear on each side, that can then be adjusted to lift and level that point and the other side adjusted to just contact to hopefull level.
I will print and test them and then add the results in here later

[Frederik]

I tend to have a little sag in the middle of the build plate. Measuring fro front to back is near perfect, but left to right I am looking at a valley that is V-shaped (deep in front, getting less and lesser towards the back).
Usually I just print a bottom layer with some overextrusion and go back to normal settings on layer two, or three.
I was thinking about placing an adjustable poking stick in front as well, but never felt the need to do it as I had already found my setup routine

You could easily take one of these brass standoff spacers for PCBs and a stainless steel flat head / hex screw as the stainless steel is not a very good heat conductor.



Picture just for reference.

[Izzy]

Cheers Frederick,
the only little issue with those bits is a) approximate gap is 10mm, b) only way to adjust is to remove and reinsert.

I've designed, printed and tested the little "jack" below, and although not perfectly level I'm now within 0.08mm across my general print area.

The 3 printed parts from top to bottom are:
A) Screw cap, m3x8mm screw is inserted, (bore is threaded to lock the screw) the lip goes against the side of the top plate to prevent it rotating.
B) adjuster knob, wit m3 nut pressed into place.
C) bottom plate mount.
The next two photos show the assembly in place on the rear right side as this was the lower point.

The last photo shows my levelling test piece, 6 200um thick disks that I print, measure then adjust the screws to suit and print measure and repeat.

So my final measurements from back left to front right are:
Back left = 0.12mm
Back centre= 0.20mm
Back right = 0.20mm
Centre= 0.17mm
Front left = 0.20mm
Front Right = 0.20mm
If anybody want to print these parts and try them yourself let me know and I'll but them up on YouMagine.
Other than the 3 printed pieces you will need 1x M3x8mm pan head screw or similar, although a longer screw can be used depending on you gap between the plates. And a M3 nut.

[LePaul]

I wonder...what if the bed was made of thicker aluminum but a lot of it milled away to reduce weight? Maybe a good question for Gudo

[jonnybischof]

I wonder...what if the bed was made of thicker aluminum but a lot of it milled away to reduce weight? Maybe a good question for Gudo

It would be good, but MUCH more expensive than the simple lasercut flat sheet they're using now
(The milling part being what makes the part expensive)

/edit:
I generally use stainless steel (2mm) for my printer designs. It's just so much stronger than aluminum, and there is almost no price difference since it (laser)cuts better and cleaner than aluminum, and the work is what makes up most of the price anyways.