Fixed the ultimaker -- Please let us know if it is not working!!

Okay,

So I didn’t even know the ultimaker was not working. Please post to list if you have problems.

DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN FILAMENT TENSION.

With the feeder I designed and put on that machine, there is a LOT of torque and can be a lot of “pinch” if you tighten the yoke too much.

Here’s what happened:

The tension yoke was tightened too much on the feeder. This pressure made the knurled wheel that moves the filament freeze. When the stepper kicked in and tried to move the wheel, it actually broke the set screw and just spun the shaft around, heating up the wheel with friction.

I put in a new set screw. I reduced the pressure. If in doubt, go light on pressure with this feeder. It has enough torque. If it doesn’t extrude, the most likely culprit is not the feeder, it is a blockage in the bowden or extruder.

In this case, the PLA on there is super brittle and cracked in the bowden tube. That was the problem. In that case, simply pull out the bowden tube from pus to fit connectors and check the filament path all the way…

Finally, just send an email to the list if 3D printers are being difficult. If you get frustrated, someone else can probably help. If we don’t know something is broken, though, we can’t fix it…

Lorin