izzy

Interesting thread, I'm looking at the fan duct too, I'm using Mnis' fan duct and noticed an improvement especially on the left ear of the Ultimaker robot, although I wasn't sure what all the little holes are for other than perhaps preventing over pressure. But I do like the way the ducts can swivel out of the way for access. What's the recommendation on the angle of the fans? Horizontal or Angled? I'm looking at getting the flow centred about the nozzle but not fighting each other's flow and I may experiment with a thin heat shield to protect the heater block.

Hi Paban, ive not used ABS but mainly print with a good PLA. I've not built an enclosure for mine as ive been building ok, but I have a stable room temperature of about 20'C some people enclose it if using some filaments due to the smell and they fit a carbon filter. If you have a lot of retractions in a small area and if you have too much pressure on the feeder it will deform the filament and then start to grind it away, I would definatly recomend Roberts feeder as you can easly adjust the pressure and release the filament for changing. With this ive printed with ColorFabb WoodFill which is soft and can be prone to this problem if not careful.

Hi Ivan, I found with WoodFill being a softer filament that the pressure on the feeder needed to be reduced to stop it squashing, also if you have a lot of retractions in the same small rear the feeder is constantly back and forward on the same small area of filament again squashing it down, if it gets too squashed then it will either not feed into the Bowden tube or may be just not feeding into the heated head in which case the feeder grinds down on the filament still in the feeder. If you haven't already I would highly recomend printing Roberts feeder and fitting that, much easier to adjust tension etc, I have also fitted the mod to the bearing that aids the concave groove helping to prevent squashing

Might be worth dropping Faberdashery an email, they may have a US importer or be able to ship to you.

Have a look on YouMagine at Roberts feeder, well worth making as your 1st upgrade,

I use my wife's hairspray(she's brought me my own for the printer now, not for me im solar powered) works well for PLA ranges

The 2 PLA filaments that I like are from ColorFabb and Faberdashery. ColorFabb has a PLA/PHA and a XT which is a copolyester and I s produced in Holland, and Faberdashery produce in the UK, both are Dia 2.85 with a tight tolerance and print print very nicely. I have got some short sample lengths of some other makes that I have been doing some tests on, T-Glase, Reprapper, and a semi flexable Ninjaflex, ive tried these as the have thermo colour changing, UV reactive or flexibility, with diameters faring from 2.75mm up to 3.05mm although I have managed to get these to print ok. Quality wise then for me it's ColorFabb and Fabadashery, both have great colours and print nicely with a good finish when I get up and running as a hub then these will be my filaments of 1st preference.

Hi Swordriff, just ordered a block and all the bits. Beats a cholocate egg for Easter

For ColorFabb PLA im usually printing at about 205'C - 210'C. I'm doing a load of UM2 extrusion test using the cylinder test part for different materials and will post the results when ive completed them, I'm going to do one for each colour to see if there is variation. For ColorFabb PLA, ive run std black and sky blue so far I think the recomended range is 190 - 220, Starting at 190 and increasing in 5 degree steps, the maximum rate that still held the print in mm3/s, Standard black, 3, 4, 5,6,7,7,10, and I tried 225 and got 10 Sky blue, 5,6,6,6,7,9,10. Usually running at 205 or 210 that's about 6-7mm3/s for both. BambooFill gave we 9mm3/s at 200' and 205' as they recommend running cooler.

1 feature I'd like to see under the advanced maintenance is to be able to move the print head to the front centre making it easier for Atomic Pull cleaning, as well as cleaning the nozzel of muck and changing the nozzel.

Not recieved the fan yet delevery still has a few more days within delevery timescale, I also ordered some filament from GlobalFSD to try, they also do 5m lengths of some of the ColorFabb filaments. I tried the CopperFill and BambooFill samples I got last Tuesday, print nice. And I'm printing some volume rate test pieces, ive run an Ultimaker PLA in 5'C steps to see the max rates, as well as ColorFabb XT, and ive run the BambooFill at 210'C. I'm putting together a chart of the results

Hi Ryan, looks like something might be a bit tight, are the shafts and bearings oiled etc. and can you easily move the head on both the X and Y axis?

Hi CCW, ive designed a dovetail mounting system for various spools, loose filament and other items, details on YouMagine. Don't like blowing my own trumpet but if others want to have a look and comment on its good or bad points

I found that the cooling was uneven, the metal one is designed for 2 print heads so the right hand fan has not applying an airflow to the correct area, printing mims really helped I now want to improve the air flow to the applied area without putting back pressure on the fan and reducing its effectiveness, for my experimenting duct I want to be able to adjust the size of the opening to concentrate the flow and to direct it or angle it at the work piece and not at the nozzel. all good fun.

Hi Neo, I went to the 3Dhubs london event last night, it was an interesting evening talking about getting the best out of the printer finding the optimum settings, just waiting for the slides to be put on the 3dhubs london site, to get the details of the test samples. But the gist was the volume flow ie nozzel diameter, layer height and speed, all effect the melt, once you have found the ideal setting for your machine in mm cubed per second you can make adjustments about that rate. Improving retractions bridging etc. When they post the slides I'll add the link.

I went to the London 3D Hub meeting tonight, and got some ColorFabb samples inc. CopperFill, BambooFill and XT-CF, one of the guys giving the talk said he got through 3 nozzles for a roll of XT-CF...So my sample will be waiting untill ive upgraded to a new E3D nozzel system. Although one person did mention about getting the nozzel diamond coated! May need to look at that, the steel nozzels have a few quirks.

I've got this heat shield fabric below from eBay about £5 Search for heat shield reflective Mtex Not used it yet, but have just printed a LH fan duct, need to get the adjustable opening going, and don't want to put back pressure on the fan reducing its effect, but it swings out of the way nicely for easy access to the heating block. Does anybody have the dimension of the difference between the std nozzel and the E3D nozzel? From EBay Heat Shield (High Performance Metal Textile) Dimensions: 290mm x 200mm Application temperature: 590C (approx. 1100F) Glass fibre fabric coated both sides with aluminium metal. Produced by application of molten technology. Excellent adhesion of the coating on the base fabric, even after hundreds of degrees temperature increase. No adhesives used in its manufacture so cannot delaminate. Made by a thermal coating process coating directly with metal. Temperature permanent coating - no flammable binders. No hazardous substances, smoke or smell will develop even at maximum temperature. Can be easily cut to size and shaped. ** Custom dimensions are available upon request. Message us for details **

Have you measured how much has been worn away?

Hi Pm-dude, like the duct, I'm begining to play with a duct design too, I want to be able to alter the exit size for finding the best cooling of the part, I like MNIS' duct that also directs some cooling to the PTFE coupler and can swing aside, I am looking at incorporating them into mine, But I like your little shield too, I might try making a simular prototype cutting up an aluminium drinks can. Need some advice on breakaway supports in the design, what gap to keep between the support and the part to allow for easy removal?

Album now made public, hope you can see them now

Hi Kuno, I use a "Really Useful Box" I use a 42 litre for all my Faberdash filament, it also has several reels in there as well, and I use a 19 litre which holds 4 boxes of ColorFabb. I also use a few of the 4ltr and 9 ltr ones for odds and sods and some tools as they stak on each other. http://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/uk/

Managed to take some photos of my lazy susan mounting base, plus a small video, dimensions of the base board are 520mm long x 400mm wide, top board is 400mm square, both 18mm thick. from home base the bearing is a 12" or 300mm round lazy susan bearing (I got mine from Bearing shop UK £13.08 + p&p)

Hi mekks, The only main difference between PLA and XT is the temperatures. PLA prints at ~210C and has a glass transition temperature (Tg) of ~55C XT prints at ~ 240C and has a Tg of ~ 75C So on a hot sunny day PLA will be a little softer than XT. Both materials are biodegradable, I ve not had my machine long to look into UV stability of filament. I like both Faberdashery and ColorFabb, the benifit of Faberdashery is that you can buy any length of any colour, with ColorFabb you must buy a whole reel, or a sample pack but for PLA it's only about 1/2 their range of colours. No need really to go to the higher temperatures of ABS. To store my filaments I have a couple of "Really Usefull Boxes" my Faberdashery fillaments fit into a 42litre Box along with several spools of origional Ultimaker PLA, it's a larger dimension box to take larger diameters (48x44x30cm), my 4 boxes of ColorFabb Are in a 19 Litre box. Re the Dust, I have a pipe cleaner wound round the filament just before the feeder, photos of my fitting of Robert's alternative feeder can be seen on YouMagine my designer name is Izzy. When not in just just cover the printer with a Cotten sheet.

I would recomend making yourself a lazy Susan base, that way if you want access to the rear of the machine to access the filament feeder etc. you can just spin it round. I used a 300mm lazy Susan bearing, and a good 18mm thick wooden shelf from a DIY store, along with some rubber feet. cutting one long length of board for the base mount the bearing on it then the top board for the printer to rest on. My bottom board is long enough to rest against the wall and that the top board can rotate without hitting the wall. I have also cut a large hole through both boards at the bearing centre so that the leads (power and USB) can be feed through and out. This little accessory gives me very easy access to all side of my machine very quickly, for Filament changes.

I would start with a more basic print and using the normal rate of 0.1 step height, checking carefully your Cura settings, or was this produced using the old Cura file you used before? I don't hav an origional Ultimaker so not sure where the problem may be but the flow looks uneven, has the tension on the feeder changed? And is the room temperature different? As slightly different temperature settings may be needed.