First prints with Ultimaker

I just got the Ultimaker 3 Extended set up a week before the holidays but I completed two prints before the break. 

The first print I did was a standard 3D printing benchmark, #3DBenchy.  It came out really well, much better than the one I’d made earlier with the Makerbot.  Here’s the Ultimaker 3 print (white) next to the Makerbot print (red), both in PLA:2016-12-29-14-46-42 2016-12-29-14-47-02

The Ultimaker print looks better in many ways although the comparison is a bit unfair given that white is pretty forgiving while glossy red isn’t. 

In order to test out some of the capabilities of the new machine I wanted to do a two-color print.  There are many available to download but this two-color frog has struck me as really nice looking and worth having around to showcase the printer’s capabilities.  Here’s how it looked after some post-processing (cutting away the “brim” around the outer perimeter mainly).  2016-12-29-14-29-182016-12-29-14-29-25

It came out super well just using default settings on everything.  More prints to come, soon with one using the dissolvable support material (PVA). 

Since the Ultimaker has a heated bed we’re not having to use the blue tape anymore, even for PLA.  Keeping the bed pretty warm ensures good adhesion although it can help to add what’s called a “brim” around the base of the part where it attaches to the bed.  I did that with both prints, here’s a photo of the frog on the bed showing the brim.  2016-12-23-09-23-27

You can see it even better from the underside.2016-12-23-09-24-24

Notice the square post in the photo above next the frog? That’s the “prime tower” where the printer clears extrudes a little extra scrap material between colors.  Apparently this improves the quality of the print.  I’ll have to learn more but for now things seem pretty good.  Here’s a close-up of the tower which is interesting in itself. 2016-12-29-10-03-17

Getting the brim off the frog was rather labor intensive so I’ll probably skip the brim next time and put down a little glue using a glue stick on the bed before printing.  I believe that’ll be more than enough to hold this print on the bed.