Heater works very Well.

After getting my machine going, I installed my design of heater.
I built a new connections board for it. - 2 LED's, Resistor and a 4 pin Molex header.
Why 2 LED'S ? - I install em both ways around so 1 is on nomatter which way the heater is connected.

I also had to make a new Z flag as the new heater is longer.

It gets Nozzle temp much quicker than the Block Heaters.
The nozzle is only 2 degrees lower than the heater (According to my IR beam thingy doofah).
The Block heater was 5 degrees C cooler.

It prints well, even after turning up the Extrusion speed.
It stays put, no noticable movement in it.
The M4 screws that keep the PEEK in plase stay Cool.

I really can't see any operational disadvantages here and now, howerver it is not easy to make.

You need a good lathe with a 4 jaw Chuck.
You need to be able to hold and spin a lump of  brass 10mm x 20 mm x 35 mm. 50% Off Center.
You also need to hold the whole thing steady enough and fast enough to get the 0.5 mm hole in the end.

I'll get some pictures up either later tonight or tomorrow.

Heater: Update 2

Spent the morning completing my new Heater.
I glued, with Fire cement, the thermister into a 1 mm hole, about 3mm deep between the heater and Nozzle. That seems to me to be the most logical place for it.

The whole thing is also encased in kapton Tape so it can't ping out.

The PEEK block needed some thought or I'd never do up the nuts on the bottom, or worst still, transfer all the heat up the M4 rods.
The Heater side nut is recessed into the PEEK with enough space to get a socket on to it.
The resistor wires have been crimped and Insulated and I'm prety much ready to go.

Once i get the machine printig later today (I hope) I can swap over to the new design.

If this works I'll get on and do some propper drawings and maybe even make some more and try out the removable nozzle.

Update: New Heater / Extruder Design

Today i have spent most of the afternoon in Terrys Workshop.

I made a new Style heater first. there is a fair old bit of Turning involved in that.
All went to plan and only broke 1 0.5 mm drill.....

I then started work on my own design.
Once the 4 jaw chuck was in place, I hacked off a lump of Brass about 35 mm long.
It Took a while to set it up in the chuck but once it was centered away we went.

Starting  with the 13 mm M10 Thread first, then just moving 2 jaws turnd the job around and turned the nozzle. I decided not to do the Removable nozzle. If I need to I can do that by machining this one.

Once the Nozzle was machined, I drilled it to suite my 1.8 mm filament and put the 0.5 mm hole in the end.
Turned it around a second time. Put in the M7 thread for the PTFE in, then the M10 Thread for the peek.

The job was moved sideways 12 mm and the hole for the resistor drilled.

The results i think are really good.

The PEEK I drilled at 8.5 mm and Tapped it to M10.
the Teflon is standard design.

Extruder / Heater design

I have been thinking all weekend about how I can improve on my Heater and Nozzle design.

Looking at the current designs HERE I keep thinking that the heat block is the wrong way around. 
The resististor needs to run in line with the filament....

It would also be good to have easily interchangable Nozzles.


This is what I have come up with. (I only have MS paint so the drawing is not great).

The PTFE insulator is the same.
Drill and Tap the PEEK insulator to M10 then screw it on to the Heater.

You will need a bit of Brass 10 mm x 20 mm x 30 mm.
Cut the insulator end out with a hacksaw and turn it a lathe with a 4 jaw chuck.
Screw the Heater on to the teflon.
Add the whole thing to your extruder plate.
Make you Nozzle shorter than usual.
Screw in your nozzle to suite. You may need a Brass m6 nut to retain the Nozzle.

You could always turn the nozzle on the other end of the heater if you wished.

I plan to try and make this in the next week or so.

Your comments and ideas are as always welcome.

PTFE End                                                                                                     Nozzle end

Will this work ?

I bought 20 mm doa PTFE so there is plenty of space.
after pushing 2 nozles out of their threads i came up with this idea....

You reccon this will work ?

There is a nut on the Nozzle resessed into the PTFE.

After the Success of yesterday......

I'm now 2 nozles down :(

The first I broke yesterday - it pushed itself out of the PTFE heat shield, but I had just turned up the extruder speed so blamed my stoopid for that.
I also badly gouged the bed so that went in the bin as well. thankfully MDF is cheap :)

Drilled out the Old PFE last night and re glued a new heat shield.

I wound the heater today, new Thermister new everything.

I then started a Print which delaminated again. Similar to yesterday and upped the Temperature before starting again.

 The Tape on the heater was flush with the PTFE Heat shield. It's moved several mm.












Thankfully this Print bed will survive.....


Back to the drawing board........

First attempts at printing

I Got my electronics on Friday. I went for the Gen 6 Offering from Mendel-Parts.
These boards are Professionally produced to a VERY High Standard.

Install was Plug and Prey, (As I turned the power on for the first time) Nothing did anything nasty and the Magic Smoke stayed contained as it should.

Saturday AM I connected it up to my Lappy and worked out how to set the USB Port in the RepRap Host software, however it flatly refused to play.
RepSnapper was downloaded and the default settings used, but that also refused to do anything usfull either.

I also broke the Extruder, repaird that and then the Heater failed.

Attempted a Print late Saturday evening and the Repsnapper software refused to do anything like waht i was expecting.

Sunday AM I got the copy of RepSnapper from the downloads page at mendel-parts.com.  Fired it all up and loaded the "Test Object" file from the RepRap Host software.

This is what I got after about an hour.
It looks good from the top, Unfortunately the result is in reality far from good enough.
 

The base lauer Peeled up from the Tape on one end. The next layer then failed to stick to the base.

As you can see there is a lot of air in there as well.

The base also Curled on one side.

On a positive note, the angles are all correct and the sides are Vertical in both directions.


All in all - not to bad for a 1st attempt.

more tweaking....

Spent the past few days going through every Nut, bolt  and screw. It's taken me ages but i know everything is done up tight.
Broke a Y axis belt clamp in the process :(. Now reinforced with a bit of steel.

My Bed is square - I think I went a bit ott on this bit.

The machine is square and the Z axis is Vertical to the bed.

 Also added a Big Red button !








Anyone got A "Panick" sticker to go on it  ?
The 2 LED's are Power To the Button and Power to the Electronics. They will also act as a double check on polarity.

My Electronics are in the post. I may well video and broadcast on u-stream.tv the installation and Power On.

Lets hope the magic smoke stays where it should.....