Ninja Log

Ultimakers are referred to as 1,2,3 in relation to their position from left to right Tazsare referred to as 1,2,3,4 in relation to their position from left to right

5/17/2017 9:00-5:00

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Error Message on the Ultimaker 2+ (1) Read: "X or Y switch broken"

1) Pressed "Home Head" under advanced settings to determine the source of the problem.

2) Stepper Motor ground as it tried to continue to move the printhead

3) Turned off the machine, checked to see if the X and Y switches were being activated when the printhead reached "home"

4) Once the switches were verified to be mechanically activated, the print-head was moved to the bottom right corner of the machine. Pressed "Home Head" and held each of the switches to determine if they halted the movement of the printhead.

5) The x-axis movement ceased but the y-axis continued to jog.

6) This indicated that the error was caused by the Y switch

7) Disconnected the printer from power and un-screwed the Y switch

8) Mechanically everything seemed to be in order so we grabbed a Multimeter to test the switch

9) There was no distinction between when the switch was pressed and when it wasn't (OL both ways)

10) Unsecured the two electrical connections and saw that one of the wires had broken off

11) Grabbed the sautering gun and sautered it to its connection

12) Checked the other connection and saw that it was in need of the same operation

13) checked the resistance across and saw that it was zero

14) resecured the left switch to the Ultimaker 2+

15) tested to see if "Home Head" worked

16) Everything back in order

Laser Printer produced flames, indicating that the compressed air "Air Assist Feature" isn't properly working -Check to see if PSI is around 30 -Hook up

Ultimaker 2+ (3) print failed mid-way through: -Appeared to be an extrusion problem -Filament connection was still intact in the rear of the machine -Reversed material, saw that the filament was grinding and had gotten stuck -Cut off the spoiled filament and reloaded it into the machine -Saw a small blockage in the printhead nozzle -extruded a little extra of the filament from its chamber and forced it down to push through the blockage -blockage cleared easily and I extruded another five or so rotations to make sure all was good.

Color Mapping -Ensure to check the "Air Assist" box when color mapping. Otherwise, no smoke will blow from the nozzle and flames will occur

Ultimaker 2+ (1) Print wasn't extruding -After fixing the X and Y switch, a print was started that didn't extrude -heated the nozzle and wasn't able to move the material -checked in the back and saw that the filament had snapped because there wasn't much filament left in the spool -attempted to reverse but there was no movement -used pliers to remove the filament from its housing -put in a new spool of filament and loaded it into the system -prints like a charm

Taz Lulzbot Fix Up -noticed that it was in its home position which is touching the buildplate. As a result, the printhead was crusted over and had to be popped off of the buildplate -filament had broken near the spool, I heated it up to 215 and removed it. -Loaded up some new filament and ran a calibration print -Everything looked good from the calibration print -Ran the calibration print with the other type of filament (red) and achieved the same results

Birch Plywood 1/8": Laser 1, 9 speed, 100 power cut all the way through a living hinge and some other intricate cuts

Chair fix up -several chairs have been stuck in the down position and would drop once you sat in them -took them apart to see what was occurring -the lever that triggers the hydraulic press was being activated at all times. -because of this, weight would always push it down -took the cylinder (with the help of a mallet) out of the chair and attached some shims on either side -put it back in, secured it, and they work like a charm

CNC (1 hour) -started off running it at 6000 RPM because I forgot to check SPEEDS AND FEEDS -hit the E-stop immediately -rotated the E-stop button and pressed the green button to fire it back up -cut at 2500 RPM, 20 thou cuts, 8% (11.2), from 4.00 inches to 3.60 inches. -some very fine chips were created, almost like fluff. Probably from the backcut when moving in one direction

Recorded the statistics of the three Ultimakers: 1 Machine on for: 7085:24 ... printing: 2979:27 ... Material: 2310m 2 Machine on for: 4086:21 ... printing: 1564:18 ... Material: 1138m 3 Machine on for: 4415:42 ... printing: 2164:14 ... Material: 1694m

5/18/2017 10:00-6:00

Realized Designs Steel Cut -Cut steel duct segment down from 24 inches to 18 inches -8-inch diameter, eighth of an inch thick, open cylinder meaning the piece didn't close on itself -taped each side of the piece to close the circle and then set it up for the chop saw. -Moved the jaws of the chop saw back to fit the piece onto the workspace -measured out cut with a little extra space to clean it up after -Secured it as best as I could and stabilized the piece with my left hand -cut about 2/3 of the way through before the workpiece prevented further depth -spun it around and cut through from the other side -marked out the exact size along the piece -flattened it and cut to size with the shear cutter (way better than my initial idea of bench grinding it down) -Took a picture with the guy and was flushed with success -Asked Dr. Schuler about it later and he informed me that the piece was actually aluminum -shouldn't have cut it on the chop saw although it's not the end of the world -attempted to cut on the bandsaw but it was hard to get any bite with the hollow piece's tendency to deform -will attempt to cut with the Sawsall moving forward

Taz 1 -Print had finished but it was extremely stringy and deformed -No obvious mechanical issues -restarted the print and it ran perfectly smoothly -my guess is that the brim was insufficient and some of the initial filament dump corrupted the workpiece

Taz 2 -Print had stopped extruding at a certain level -Filament was broken off near the printhead -Checked the spool and saw that the filament was tangled and prevented further extrusion -unthreaded the spool and removed the spoiled filament -reloaded the filament, restarted the print, and all was good

Ultimaker 2+ (2) -Print had finished, ball of tangled filament on the buildplate, error message "Error Stopped / Z Switch Broken", caked nozzle -The original piece had fallen underneath the buildplate so that, when the print finished and the plate returned to home, the piece prevented it from doing so -attempted to raise the buildplate through the LCD screen but the buildplate needs to auto-home before doing so -Used a hex wrench to wrangle out the piece from underneath without unduly disturbing the bed -Moved the nozzle to the middle of the printer -unscrewed the eight screws holding the two fans and secured the fans together with tape and out of the way -unscrewed the four hex screws holding the nozzle body -heated the nozzle to 215 to melt the filament -removed the nozzle body once the filament melted a bit -gently used a screwdriver to detach the caked filament from the nozzle, taking care to not affect the heating wires -used a wooden skewer to remove the filament from the nozzle and its surroundings -once clean, re-attached nozzle body and fans -extruded out the filament, snipped off the corrupted portion, loaded it back in -works like a charm

Ultimaker 2+ (1) -Saw the belt of the x-axis stepper motor was rubbing against the wire that we had replaced yesterday. Most likely, this was the cause of the broken connection -Initially looked to raise the belt by inserting spacers -Determined the problem was because of an upside-down belt thread on the stepper -used a hex wrench to loosen and correct the issue -used a hot glue gun to secure the wires to the body of the Ultimaker -re-attached the stepper motor and secured the belt firmly -ran a print and saw that the belt was slipping -re-secured the belt very firmly and fixed the slippage -problem solved

Taz 4 -The PEI material has been warped and even burned all the way through -removed the buildplate and dis-connected the heating wires -began the arduous process of removing the existing PEI that was adhered to the plate -got help and pulled with two hands as someone held the glass plate down firmly -was making some progress until the glass plate snapped -ordered a whole new buildplate and will install once it arrives

Ultimaker 2+ (2) -didn't appear to be laying down properly, the brim forms billows and those corrupt the print -attempted to re-calibrate the buildplate -cleaned the buildplate with rubbing alcohol -tried placing covers on machines so the ambient heat will have less affect -the jury is still out on this one