Meduzas "bolt-on" belt geared feeder upgrade for UM2

[neotko 1,417]

If I could @meduza I would like to suggest 2 little changes.

1) Add holes for screw access to the motor, this way the outside unit with the belt can be ready outside, as a separated unit and assembled after the robert/um2 feeder it's attached with it's feeder bolt and gt2, etc.

2) Make the nut holes just a little tinny little bit bigger. Printed 2 times, once colorfabb natural and other a cheap bq white filament, both versions printed at 60mm/s had to use an screw and a bit of 'hammertime' to be able to push the nuts inside for the screws to be able to reach. I had to use a vice to insert the nuts and then smash-smash.

I have made this changes on rhino using the stls, but boleans on stls are a gamble.

Edit: Anyway I might be wrong, but at least it would allow to make the 'box' with the gear ready, and then attach the motor, and finally the robert/um2 feeder.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Guest

[meduza 191]

@neotko, of course you can suggest changes, feedback is one of the reasons for open sourcing it from the start, i want to make this as good as possible :-)

I have uploaded a new version to Thingiverse with 0.15mm larger nut traps and 4.2mm wide holes over the motor screws (i had to shorten them a bit compared to your version to not make the hole too much into the nut trap, but you should be able to angle the screwdriver slightly with no problem)

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/belt-geared-um2-feeder-upgrade

The file is "geared-feeder-plate-V2.stl"

The shafts also look great, and if you add a knob to the outside you should as you say be able to use it to manually purge the feeder

Edited September 12, 2015 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

Yesterday I had sometime and assembled one on my new umo+. The extra holes (pure luck) ain't block by the IRobertI feeder so it will allow to disassemble the upgrade on one piece. But to assemble it's a bit tricky to do it but posible. I still need to turn on the new umo+ but my test will be with normal motor with 1.75 filament. Anyhow everything fits nicely and the footprint is really sweet. Great design @meduza !

Edited September 12, 2015 by Guest

[meduza 191]

Nice idea with the coupler, but those shafts seem to have a flat on the end, should be quite easy to design a nice knob with a stop screw to prime the feeder instead of using a coupler

[MrByte 4]

Sorry I haven't shared any photos, but here's mine:

I'm going to be tweaking the mount I designed for the spool holder some more as it slumps slightly down right now.

I'll get more pictures, soon.

[meduza 191]

So, @neotko, and especially @MrByte that is using it on a UM2, how is it working out for you guys?

[neotko 1,417]

I have it installed on my other two printers but only did some basic tests. It works really fine. But I been busy with my main printer and I'm waiting for some couplers from Swordriff to have them working full time. So, so far it's nice but I haven't put them to work much.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Guest

[MrByte 4]

It's been working fine for me, but I've got some extruder issues more related to filament grip than anything. I'm going to try machining some alternatives to the knurled bolt and play around with them attached to belt-driven extruder. I'll try and keep you updated on how that progresses.

[alexk195 0]

Hi guys,

I had extrision problems and also thought about belt feeder just like this one. But than I found this post:

https://ultimaker.com/en/community/view/17794-detailed-documentation-of-our-hardware-and-software-mods-for-reliable-printing

I tried their mods and got fantastic results: 9-10mm^3/s extrusion at 210 degree instead of 3-4 before. You might check out my posts there.

[neotko 1,417]

I finally got my second printer fully set and running and I been using the addon on umo+ 1.75mm filament with the bolt addon. I must say it works great but because the 65-70m 5mm dia thingy doesn't has the flatten area for the gt2 pulley and the mk7 both end up sliding because the screw (specially the mk7 that only uses 1) even realy really tight. So when the extruder needs to push hard the mk7/gt2 pulley slides on places and stop pushing the filament. Did just means that it needs some dremel action or a better 5mm thingy to grap on to.

Edit: almost forgot to write this. the extra holes yo access the motor without disassemble everything work great but the area to push the belts I think it should be longer, to set the belts tighter and to loosen it more (to remove the feeder easier.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

I'm trying to make a geared version that it's based on your structure. It's printing atm so it might not even work

BTW he 5mm bolts I just found out that they can get filed quite good with a metal file, so the gears won't move anymore.

[ultiarjan 1,221]

You may also want to have a look at these, I find them very smooth and silent, but never used them under stress.....

Http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:331751/#files

[neotko 1,417]

I used geargenerator.com for the shape but I'll take a look. First print seems to work but some small mistakes. So far seems quite ok but I suppose that to make good long lasting gears this small I should print them on ngen or carbon. So I'll finish the pla version and then I'll go for the carbon gears.

[meduza 191]

Nice @neotko, looking forward to see more of that geared feeder :-)

I myself wanted to go with belts since i still have the memories from the UMO and especially the UMO with chopmeisters H3 feeder wich functions great but have incredibly noisy retractions, and i thought belts would offer a much quieter option even if it turns out a little bulkier.

I have some ideas to make a V2, but have not had the time to draw it up, but it is mostly about moving the larger pulley closer to the edge of the UM2 and offsetting the whole feeder to the right to hopefully be able to fit a standard spool on the standard holder.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

The design it's uploaded on Youmagine if someone want to play with it.

http://www.youmagine.com/designs/geared-addon-inspired-on-meduzas-bolt-on-geared-feeder

So far it works, quite nicely. About the sound, It doesn't seems louder, maybe because I'm use to the printing noise from the UMO+. Anyhow, the gears would need some harder-than-pla filament.

Edited January 10, 2016 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

After many google-years (days searching) found a cheap m5 metal gear shop. And they are quite cheap compared to many uk-usa shops.

It's hobbyking dot com, I bough this:

3x #439000079-0/45537 25T/5mm M1 Hardened Steel Pinion Gear (1pc) = $7.14

3x #439000064-0/45522 10T/5mm M1 Hardened Steel Pinion Gear (1pc) = $6.3

So I will upgrade my design to use this hard gears, also I plan to make the design more 'boxed'. It's going to be really cheap to make geared x3 boxes.

[meduza 191]

Oh, that is a nice find! with those gears we should be able to design a geared feeder even slimmer!

[eldrick 64]

For those who aren't into DIY, the BondTech QR feeder works incredibly well (at a price).

http://www.bondtech.se/

I've recently run 5kg of PLA through my Bondtech, printing at 12mm3/sec. without a single failed print or issue of any kind, and excellent print quality. It's a real treat.

[neotko 1,417]

It sure looks and works fine, but a 9€ + print can give me enough torque for my needs. Ofc that extruder with planetary gears it's way more stronger (and the feeder part seem to work really nice). I plan to make my feeder to have dual feeder grip but for now it's ok

[meduza 191]

@eldrick: Yes, this is more about a simple low-cost upgrade for the ones that do not want to shell out for the UM2+ upgrade or the BondTech feeder :-)

I have suggested to Martin at Bondtech to make a geared upgrade like this to mate with the Bondtech QR to make it a true bolt-on upgrade without the geared stepper and without any need to open the electronics box, but he never answered my latest email on the subject.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Guest

[eldrick 64]

If you use Tinkergnome's outstanding firmware, you can set the E-steps directly from the front panel.

[neotko 1,417]

@meduza btw I forgot that foehnsturm already found also a great source for gears on this post

https://ultimaker.com/en/community/10657-a-different-multi-extrusion-approach-um-tool-printhead-changer?page=30&sort=#reply-122932

They are a bit more expensive but also they have much more options.

Also. Bontech sells their grip gears, so a bolt upgrade it's posible to design. Ofc their gears ain't cheap, but they seem quite nice for 50$

Edited February 3, 2016 by Guest

[stu_le_brew 42]

I have just installed the complete Bondtech QR and can confirm several things it really does a great job, it allows very fast printing (more than 100mm/s), high quality prints even at those speeds !

The gears are really well made, if I had the time (and more design skils) I would have gone the DIY route but it is an option I very much would reccomend

[neotko 1,417]

'Metal' Geared version (beta & unprinted & untested)

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/metal-geared-addon-inspired-based-on-meduza-bolt-on-addon

First time I see a post that uses a think I did, I was so happy when saw that @oceanblue72 used my printed gears design that I wanted to use my last 15minutes of the day to update the version to work with the metal gear version that uses 25T/5mm M1 Hardened Steel Pinion Gear & 10T/5mm M1 Hardened Steel Pinion Gear.

Hopefully @oceanblue72 can test it before me, I won't be able to print/assemble it until this weekend. I hope it works ( ºoº ) ''

Edited March 1, 2016 by Guest

[meduza 191]

@neotko: Seems very nice, i wanna try it and i was almost about to order the gears from hobbyking but then the 25T one was out of stock... :/

You should probably add the bearings and the shaft to the BOM on youmagine... right now it says that you only need the gears :-)