A few weeks ago, our 3D printer failed me with an error #17, and all subsequent print failed in the same way. It turned out that a course-limiting switch could not be reached by the printhead, and the printer could not locate its origin. While I was columbo-ing the probable cause, I’ve noticed that two sliding blocks were cracked. It is also worth signaling that one of the printed objects didn’t adhere well to the print plate and was strongly curved upward. This is likely what happened: without feedback, at every layer, the printhead forcefully bumped into the malformed object, and at some point, the axis rode shifted and the sliders cracked. Although I could reposition the rode allowing the head to reach the limit switch, I’ve decided to contact the Ultimaker support.
Stellar Support
After opening my ticket, I was swiftly put in relation to fbrc8 who is handling the technical support for Ultimaker in the US (at least for my case). To make it short and straight to the point: I received stellar customer service, and my repaired & serviced printer made its way back home last Friday as new. Everything, from the quality of work to customer communication, was exceptional! At every step of the process, I was kept informed and presented with options when needed so I could make the right choice. Again, thank you fbrc8 for the exquisite experience, in par with the quality of the Ultimaker 3E printer!
Cura 3.1.0
It turned out that while my printer was serviced, Ultimaker released new firmware and version of the Cura software (3.1.0). Yeah! For my first quick test print, I’ve picked a 3D surface generated using Mathematica: model = ContourPlot3D[Sin[x] + Sin[y/2] + Cos[2*z] == 0, {x, -π, π }, {y, – π, π }, {z, – π, π }, PlotTheme -> “ThickSurface”] followed by Printout3D[model]. ~4 hours later, the test print was ready for dissolution (of the support structure). The result turned out perfectly. The new version of Cura is a major improvement, translating into better, faster and cheaper prints. A neat feature: in the layer view, you can, for every slice, preview the course of the print heads and the material deposit. Used alongside the print time breakdown & materials used, debugging bad models get easier (check out the videos). Now I can resume my project, perfect timing since I am on vacation!