Edit: Here are some pictures of the UM2Go printing Colorfabb XT-CF20 after upgrading to the Olson Block with a 0.5 mm hardened steel nozzle with heated build plate and 40W nozzle heater. Tinkergnome’s firmware which runs the heated bed is not a compromise but actually an upgrade. Highly recommended.
thinking of getting a UM2Go printer. I realise it doesn’t have a heated print bed, some people argue that with such small prints it doesn’t need to be heated. I print with ABS most of the time and am therefore asking if anyone here has found a good solution to this “weakness” of the Ultimaker 2 Go?
Any feedback regarding cold build platforms for ABS and other materials is appreciated!
*First of all, thank you for of all your comments! The best solution currently is the 3DSolex heated build plate upgrade for the UM2Go at around 110 euros. Second best solution is trying BuildTak and maybe heating it with a hot air gun before a print job. Third solution is using the standard tape/glue/ABS juice trick.
Thank you! This seems to be the best solution at the moment. Will do more research on this! The price is high but I guess since the manufacturer is making it in low volume it is justified.
I would propose you choose the Ultimaker 2+. We have 2 machines and print small production batches in ABS daily. They are really good reliable machines for ABS productions.
I really love the Ultimaker 2+ but unfortunately it is out of my budget as a second printer. I forgot to mention I already own a Zortrax M200 but want to print with other materials such as Ninjaflex, Woodfill, Bronzefill, Carbon fiber etc.
i don’t have any experience with ABS. It’s smell too much. Normally i use nGen, XT, bronzefill, woodfill or PLA/PHA from colorfabb, my two printers have a heated bed.
The buildtak manufacturer claims that its buildtak surface works with ABS, but when it’s pôssible he prefer a heated bed.
You can give it a try without and decides afterwords if a heated bed is needed. The purchase of a UM2go and the upgrade with a heated bed will cost a little bit less then a purchase of an UM2+. So at the end i’ll choose for the UM2+
What country are you in? 3dsolex sells a um2go HB kit in most of the world, thegr5store.com 1 (my store) sells it in USA. These places also all sell a 1.75mm conversion kit if you want to continue to use your 1.75mm filament.
Ultimaker specifically will tell you that you can’t print ABS without a heated bed. For good reason. I printed some ABS parts on my um2go last night and even though they were tiny (4 minute prints) I had to enclose the printer completely to get good results.
I recommend staying away from ABS. There are much better materials out there (easier to print, stronger, higher glass temp, less brittle, etc). Why do you want to print ABS and not PLA?
I love my UM2+ with the heated bed. I’ve never had to use tape or glue. The prints stick so hard to the bed that they are difficult to pull off while it is still hot. I usually just wait for it to cool down and they release on their own.
The UM2+ is fairly portable. But if you need something smaller to travel with, go with the UM2Go and go for tape and glue.
I’m in Germany. Thank you I have found a store that sells the mini heated bed here! You are absolutely right, we don’t always have to go with ABS. I am also planning to use the UM2Go to print other materials such as Ninjaflex, Woodfill, Bronzefill, Carbon fiber etc… So I think the HB upgrade is worth a shot don’t you think?
Very true. I’ve printed plenty of ninjaflex on various UM printers and having the bowden is a disadvantage but you can do it - you just have to learn some tricks and you will end up printing much slower but you can do it. But if I were going to be printing a spool per month of ninja (or more) I would seriously consider getting a different printer. They have a “cheetah” filament that is even easier to print now by the way. Not quite as flexible.
Thanks for the heads up. Luckily i don’t mind tinkering around! Maybe should go with less flexible materials like flexible polyester from plastic2print.com or as you mentioned Cheetah or Semiflex. Seems to me they have better surface quality too because of a wider T_g range.
Another way to think of it is this - I couldn’t come up with a safer solution in software to share the power. In theory I could let both heaters be on at the same time if I’m very very careful with overall power usage over the course of a second. But this software solution would be more complicated, harder to 100% test, and more likely to have a bug that cuts power half way through a long print! Plus I wouldn’t be 100% sure it would work with all um2go power supplies.
But the solution I came up with is easy to test (tested actual power usage by cutting open the power cable and inserting current measurement using oscilloscope).
the heated bed kit will be here on Saturday. Getting some stuff prepared for the installation. I have a question about the Tinkergnome Firmware perhaps you could help me. How do I load the firmware? Thanks for your help!
After downloading, connect USB between your computer and printer and using CURA choose “install custom firmware…” and select the downloaded hex file. It’s easy to go back to original firmware also in CURA.
On their site 
