Ultimaker 2 - pros and cons?

[AnnikavH]

I know that it works on SD-card and not USB, and I like that!

I want to buy a printer for the firm I am working for (a technical/engineering consultant firm). We want to be able to print small prototypes, both visual and practical prototypes. We do not want to spend to much money on the printer, but we still want good results. We know how to use CAD sodtware (since we are engineers ;P).

We want the printer to be easy to use, reliable and have a resolution of at least 0,2 mm. The speed is not important.

[Flashp0int]

Overall great experience with the UM2. You might want to do some of the recommended tweaks, but works fine out of the box.

I printed in PET, Nylon and used a large set of ColorFabb PLA, XT and bronzefill. The only materials that did not work great are the wood fills.

[Didier_2]

WoodFill fine will work with standard UM2 but it’s true that it’s better with a larger nozzle, which you can put on the UM2 with the so called Olsson block (one of the great hacks of the UM2 done by a community member)

[novabeans]

Do you have Ultimaker prepaid card ?

[TribalRhino]

I’ve had mine printing pretty much constantly for 18 months now and I have only had to relevel the bed a couple times. The belts are still tight and the thing performs day after day. Tolerances seem to differ from lots of other people when I share STL files, but I think that is normal, some people are less tolerant than others about it though I spent a great deal of time comparing it with other printers in its class, and in my opinion, I made the best choice, even though the promised dual printing head never materialised and never will. The heated bed, for me, is the real clincher. I don’t print with anything on the glass any more and I always get a solid print and very minimal warping/lifting (a bit of an elephant foot though, but nothing too bad). The biggest downside for me is that it doesn’t do “small” very well. This could be just down to how I’m doing it, or my unrealistic expectations, I haven’t decided yet. I have learn’t to live with it though, as everything else is awesome. I have tried a few of the exotics. Woodfill, I’ve had 2 new spools of this and got cloggs continuously. The way round this seems to be to print fast… which means print big. I’m scared to print the bamboo-fill which doesn’t have as big bits so shouldn’t clog as easily but I will get round to it soon. I have tried the brick-lay and never got a print out of it as it was so brittle and would break all the time at the extruder feeder knob. I’m a huge colorfabb fan so I’ve used the XT filament and I use a cup I made with it every day. I have also tried the carbon fiber and it produced some nice little test pieces. I’m not sure I’ll use it much as they say it wears the brass print head. I’ve wanted to try some of the flexible stuff, ninjaflex and filaflex for example, but these don’t seem to work with the UM2, so I have left them alone. There are some less flexible ones out there but I haven’t tried them.

[PrintME3D]

Hello,

At PrintME 3D, we are resellers of Ultimaker 2 and are slightly biased!

Our thoughts on the Ultimaker 2 is that is produces excellent prints, simple to use and relatively stress free. Plus, the versatility on filaments is great, with brands like ColorFabb and NinjaFlex who test their products on the Ultimaker 2. Which basically means that you can use PLA, ABS, Nylon, Metal, Wood, Carbon and Rubber based filaments.

The only cons would be that like all 3D Printers, they do require maintenance. It is effectively a tool to heat and extrude plastic, so there will be on occasions issues with the hot end, but all of that is manageable.

They have also released the Ultimaker 2 Go and Ultimaker 2 Extended, effectively a smaller or larger version.

If you need any further help or want to order any products, feel free to email us at hello@printme3d.com

Thanks

PrintME 3D

[RoboSavvy]

Hi,

Ultimaker 2’s are great printers and it sounds like you have your mind made up to get one. It isn’t too loud and can print relatively quickly.

I’ve done some printing with flexible filament (Ninja Flex) as well as many types of PLA and ABS suppliers. It does jam up sometimes and will print in the air, so it’s always good to put a raft on your piece.

We have some on our website as well as options to purchase filament. https://robosavvy.com/store/3d-printing/filter/manufacturer/ultimaker.html

Let me know if you have any more questions, and enjoy printing!

Joe

Robosavvy

[StarJeff]

Well, i think the UM2 will be perfect for you.

It’s reliable and has a really good price/quality ratio. The Cura software is really intuitive and yet, very complete.

The minimum resolution is 0.06mm, well below 0.2mm.

I use the UM2 in the same context as you described and it works perfectly. If you have any questions or problems operating the machine, the official forum is always here to help you.

[Cleven]

The only issue is the feeder system *though it does work, issues are only witnessed at higher speeds*. There have been some slight improvements to the PTFE coupler inside which has improved things greatly. There are also versions that can be printed which work very well.

Note that the PTFE and the bowden tube will eventually wear if you do a lot of printing. I suggest ordering extra if you are planning to do a lot of printing.

[clouded3d]

Hey There. This is the only printer I have ever used so I can’t really compare it. But I will say if you are trying to print any materials other than PLA, PET, or ABS… Then don’t waste the money. It is a great printer but it’s even hard to get ABS to print… At least for me but I’ve only tried one spool so it may be the material I bought. ABS just doesn’t want to stick to the hotbed. Other cons would be changing the nozzle, there should be an easier way than taking the whole print head apart, and you only have one nozzle size option. Also if you remove the glass to get your part off you’ll have to level the bed again once you go to print again. Once again I have zero experience with any other printer so I can’t really compare it to much but it does print PLA like a Champ! lol kinda bummed that I can’t get any other materials to print that well. Don’t want to stray you away from the machine cause it is solid but I think the biggest downfall is the material options, for me at least.

[steven_10]

Yes you have to pay the Ultimaker tax, in that your 1st prints will be that of a new feed guide (bearing type) and new spooler (Also bearing type) and eventually a new extruder. but I have over 1000hrs on mine, printing PLA, ABS, Bronzefill, CopperFill, PLA/PHA (Colorfabb) and the only times it goes wrong is when I make a mistake slicing! they are one of the best printers out there! (I have been builing Repraps since Darwin came out so have a bit of experience…lol)

[fancyinterio]

we are using PLA has the raw material and not used any other material for printing apart from PLA, the printer is really good to buy and its prints at high resolution. it can be used mainly to build small sculpture and small engineering prototypes, For large architecture models the build plate is not enough. Now Ultimaker has provided extended model, but i feel that makerbot bed size is good for building large architecture models. I personally feel that the Bed size can be increased like Original Ultimaker that is older verson.

[DrieDeeDesign]

I am using my UM2 about 3 months now. For me as a newby, it is a realy good plug n play printer, probably the best you can get. Great quality prints, good support and a very large community and lots of info to find about it on the web. Con’s? Still no dual feed officially available and printing ABS is realy a hassle. But that is more a material problem with almost all printers. As others stated here already : buy good fillament!!! UM2 is still very custumizable and ready to tweak ur prints and experiment with it if you want in combination with Cura. I am one happy UM user and think you won’t regret buying one.

Good luck,

Frank

[Didier_2]

You should come on the forum to find solutions for your problems!

If you want to change the nozzle easily look for the olsson block (www.3dsolex.com)

[Flashp0int]

Yeah, I did some prints with Colorfabb woodfill fine printing 200+ micron layers fast.

But much higher risk of clogs and other challenges. Also except woodfill fine from Colorfabb all other resulted in clogs pretty much within the first 10-20 layers.

In comparison, my Rostock MAX with .6mm does not have that challenge. So not impossible, but would not recommend UM2 for this.

[danilius]

If you have never used a 3D printer before, then you are in for a shock, because 3D printing is really very, very hard beyond the simplest of things.

Having printed around 2000 hours on the Ultimaker 2, I find that it rarely fails on a print and can handle quite a broad variety of materials, including PLA, ABS, Nylon and NinjaFlex. But I suppose as is the case with every printer, if you want really great results the greatest skill you need is infinite patience and print things really slowly.

[Phil_CCR]

I’ve had one for 18 months and love it. The only negative is customer service which is amateurish at best (at worst, they simply ignore you until you kick a fuss). Having said that, there are lots of great people on the Ultimaker forum which somewhat compensates the poor service you receive from the manufacturer.

[Robin]

DISCLAIMER: I might be biased as I just got a job at Ultimaker (as of this month, I’ve had an Ultimaker 1 for almost 4 years )

pro:

- very good printer working out of the box.

- ease of use (if you can overlook printing via SD card, I’ve recently switched to SD card based printing(on my um original) and must say I don’t care much either way, until we have a printer that you can just send a file via the network it’s slightly inconvenient anyway)

- support open source development of the next better versions of cura, marlin and more.

- fast

- accurate (when not printing super fast) (has better x,y,z resolution than some other printers)

- reliable

- support, they can help people with problems etc.

- large and helpful user base

- upgrades, at least potentially (the ultimaker original got a whole bunch of upgrades)

con:

- the bowden tube makes it more difficult to print stuff like ninjaflex/fillaflex, as mentioned below it’s still possible though

- the feeder of the 2 is not as good as the current original (it is still light years ahead of the first version)

- price, it’s not the cheapest printer out there

there are printers that can beat it in say price (for example printrbot), or quality as some resin printers do, but resin is quite messy and far more toxic than PLA and often they don’t beat Ultimaker on multiple aspects imho.

[Pampentaucher]

I only can tell you about the Ultimaker Original. The Ultimaker does print the most filaments well. BUT the ULTIMAKER printer and the heated bed has the worst quality i’ve ever seen before. Much wrong parts, damaged parts, wrong connected cables, bad solderings and malfunktions. I have my Ultimaker since 9 month and its the third time that the printer is out of order. I’m very angry about the Ultimaker Company for that poor quality. Better by another Printer! Best Regards Pampetante

[Fabrice_Leger]

bonjour, ce là ne fais que deux mois que je la possède ,mais j’en suis très satisfais

je la trouve fiable ,je regrette juste qu’elle ne sois pas fermée pour certaine pièces

assez complexes que j’ai réalisé en ABS.