Success!

After some research and reading the manual of my Ultimaker 2, I found that the missing element was something to make the glass build surface tacky so the extruded plastic would stick.  Interestingly enough, to me and maybe to anyone reading, all it took was a fifty cent tube Elmer's glue stick.  The very same glue stick my kids use for arts and craft in school.

So, I applied what I thought was a thin layer of the sticky stuff to the bulls surface, and decided to make the default build, which is a 3D model of the Ultimaker logo.  It took about an hour to finish.  My kids and I would poke our heads in to see the progress.  

Excited by my success, I decided to go back and try printing the 808 cube my brother had created.  Unsure if I had to do anything to prep the surface, so I decided to plow ahead, and print as it was.  

Success again!

This one took about an hour, too.

Ultimaker 2, first look

I inherited an Ultimaker 2 from my brother recently, so I set it up to see what was what.  I've been reading manuals and "how to" websites, so I figured it seems pretty plug and play. 

I fired it up, scrolled around the control panel for a bit, and saw that Bob had left some files on there.  I scrolled through the list, and found one called 808_cube. 

808 was a number used by my late brother as l33t speak for his name, Bob. 

So, I selected the file, not knowing what material it was made for, not knowing if that even mattered.  It took several minutes to warm up.  Given the temperature it reached, I found out it was set up for ABS, which matched the filament that was loaded in the printer. 

Well, it began extruding a thin line of plastic in midair, presumably to clear the print head.  The bed rose up.  The print head moved toward it. 

Sadly, the plastic didn't adhere to the printing surface.  After a few minutes of watching the plastic ball up on the print head, I aborted the print job.  I had even calibrated the print head before printing. 

So sad.

Since then, I've read that I should have applied glue stick to the print bed surface, so hope this helps.  Tonight, after the boys go to bed, I will get out back out and try again.