Feeder roll support

gudo · February 17, 2016

Hi to you all

I'm a new happy UM2 owner since 1 month & a half.

First ! many thanks to all the members in this forum, I learn here a lot before & after buying the machine.

In second ! today I just want to share some experiments I done in improving the feeder system.

The feeder can roll in about 30/35° angle when working, following the bowden tube curved motion, mainly in the Y translation. The spool is hooked on the left side with some freedom of movement.

The UM2 works very well, I'm closed to finishing my first PLA filament spool coming with the printer, now I'll start to experiment another materials as Ninja Flex, ABS, PET....

Here some picks, better than thousand words

Print head in different situations

Happy again to open here my first topic, sorry for my bad English

Regards

PS. can't get image in right position ?

SandervG · February 18, 2016

Hi Thank you for your post!

About the pictures, it could be because you took the pictures with your phone? The forum reads the orientation and rotates it to what it thinks is right. But it isn't always.

It should have been fixed last week, let me forward this to our dev's.

Care to share some more pictures of your feeder?

Have you used the original feeder and mounted it on the original feeder motor but from a different angle from the frame?

What is it that you mounted on the feeder which is on 2 of the 3 images?

gudo · February 18, 2016

Hi Thank you for your post!

About the pictures, it could be because you took the pictures with your phone? The forum reads the orientation and rotates it to what it thinks is right. But it isn't always.

It should have been fixed last week, let me forward this to our dev's.

Care to share some more pictures of your feeder?

Have you used the original feeder and mounted it on the original feeder motor but from a different angle from the frame?

What is it that you mounted on the feeder which is on 2 of the 3 images?

Hi SandervG

Yes ! pictures was took by phone.

I still use the original feeder and its motor, had not yet encountered any particular difficulties I just concentrate for now on the routing of the filament in the Bowden tube.

I found that the filament is still rigid enough so that the tube and all demand significant efforts in all motors and more particularly to the feeder one.

Making the feeder pivoting requires less displacement XY force of the print head greatly and improves the sliding of the filament, being already naturally curved in the curvature of the Bowden tube, with the marking made by the knurled wheel being at the inside of the bend.

I found that the printer is considerably less noisy, the X and Y movements are softer and very sharp. All the engines are less hot than before.

Noting that there is great radial pressure working on the knurled wheel, I also added a bearing hub to the original feeder body it supports the end of the motor shaft thus eliminating the overhang of the drive shaft that will suffer less while benefiting from more torque to push the filament.