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Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas


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Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

Made my own version of the body of iRobertl feeder. It has a 4mm metal eyelet and the bowden is as close as I could get it to the hobbed wheel. Tightened tolerances for arm and latch. They are now as tight as can be to prevent the pressure wheel from moving about (which it was inclined to do before)

Uses iRobertl's arm, latch and yoke.

My feeder body

 

Edit: Also used studs with nuts to hold the stepper in place. Wing nuts make it quick to remove the whole assembly.

 

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Did you consider cutting the bowden tube in V shape to get it even closer to the wheel?

     

    Good idea! I hadn't, that would get it pretty close.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    From what I could see the tube pretty much stays put. I made the internal chamfer (for the bowden clamping piece) in the feeder body deliberately on the "tight" side - so when you put the blue locking collar in place everything is tight with no movement.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    I like the use of the butterfly screw on the spring tension. Can you twist it easily while installed or is it touching the wall?

     

    You can easily twist it as the whole assembly sits proud off the printer body on the nuts (and washers) which hold the stepper in place.

    Assembly is: stepper, stud, washer, nut, washer, feeder, washer, wingnut.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Great I'll go with those for my next changes.

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    I can upload the .stl if anyone might want to try it. Just finished illuminarti's tower torture test with no problems.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Here is my small improvement to Roberts Feeder.

    https://www.youmagine.com/designs/um2-iroberti-s-feeder-v6-yoke-and-hub-with-guide

    Based on the V6 feeder I have added a filament guide directly on the Yoke to reduce occurrence of the bearing sliding in front of the filament. I had that issue a lot with V4 and started having it again on long prints.

     

    :grin: LOL I can believe you designed the same thing as me, I just didnt think anyone else would require it as i was trying to get filaflex to work. I made the same thing a back in august to go along with Roberts snap on guide with tighter clearance posted here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/6829-printing-filaflex/?p=63705

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    I like the use of the butterfly screw on the spring tension. Can you twist it easily while installed or is it touching the wall?

     

    Not sure if it's an actual issue but I wanted to avoid any unwanted movement so I used a locknut with printed knob ...

    MyFirstSony Feeder

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Not sure if this has been done previously but thought I'd share a small improvement I've made to the feeder by IRobertI.

    20141212 140907[1]

    20141212 140827[1]

     

    I was having issues with NinjaFlex slipping off the bearing in the feeder. I decided that if the bearing surface had a u groove all my problems would be solved. Couldn't source a u groove bearing easily (although the wire guilds used in a wire straighter should work if you can find them at 16mm) so ordered some 13mm bearings from RS Components and printed some profiles to press fit over them.

    https://www.youmagine.com/designs/feeder-bearing-mod-for-flexible-filament

    Works with standard filament to so no need to switch out the bearing.

    See what you think. Again this may have been done already so apologies if so.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    That's very nice.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Very nice. Did you try making a version for the existing 16mm bearing? You could do 2 half and press fit them on each side.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    I experimented with a guide wheel like that early on. After I had 2-3 of them snap in half I gave up on it. Mine where fairly thin though due to space constraints in the design at the time so that might've been the main issue. I never had any trouble with filament slipping off so I never went back to it again. If it holds up it's certainly not a bad addition.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    I did think of doing one for the existing 16mm bearing but like you say Robert the guild would have been to thin. You could make it thicker but thought it would interfere with the clip on piece that brings the feed hole closer to the drive wheel. But the 13mm is reasonably cheap so it shouldn't break the bank.

    I have thought about making one out of ninjaflex as it does seem to be pretty strong but was worried about layer separation over time.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Update for the bearing u groove mod.

    I've done two days straight with ninjaflex now and no problems.

    However............. I left a PLA print run last night only to find that at some point the filament snapped in the feeder. Looks like the printed u groove got pressed against the drive and rolled with it for a while until the retractions started and then ground a nice groove into the surface. After some investigation I found that the filament snap was not a feeder issue but a filament one.

    20141215 095407[1]

     

    Thought I'd try some filament from Verbatim which was going really well but as you can see the last third of the spool has cracked all the way up the feed tube. Even as I try to uncoil it by hand it snapped in several places.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    My improved feeder based on iRobertls design. 4mm metal eyelet reduces friction. Pressure arm is fixed to reduce side to side play, bowden tube as close to feed out as possible. Works a treat! :smile:

    Bottom

    Detail

    Side

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Hi Chris,

    I like the simplicity of you take on Roberts design. Could you give us some more info please.

    How many hours have you been using it for?

    Have you had any failures yet? Had to print my one in nylon as I had several failures in PLA.

    Have you tried printing with any flexible filaments yet?

    What parts have you used?

    I'm looking to get one machined in aluminium but really like Roberts quick release functionality.

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Hi Chris,

    I like the simplicity of you take on Roberts design. Could you give us some more info please.

    How many hours have you been using it for?

    Have you had any failures yet? Had to print my one in nylon as I had several failures in PLA.

    Have you tried printing with any flexible filaments yet?

    What parts have you used?

    I'm looking to get one machined in aluminium but really like Roberts quick release functionality.

     

     

    Thanks gixxer :smile:

     

    I've used it for roughly one spool (750g) of PLA filament with absolutely no problems so far - see the cylinder torture test picture - 10mm 3 /sec, run just now.

     

    My design has quick release functionality - that's one of the things I liked about Roberts feeder and wanted to incorporate that feature in my version.

     

    The spring "latch" swivels up. Just grab hold of it and pull it up to release. It pivots on a metal ball end swivel which is attached directly to one of four studs which hold my stepper in place - so you can remove the feeder without having to worry about the stepper falling. This also has the advantage that the force goes directly through to a metal stud rather than through any PLA body bits. To quick release, pull the pivoting spring latch up, and the pressure arm is then free to fall away. Very easy and quick I think!

     

    What I didn't like about Roberts feeder was the "slop" in the arm hinge, the "slop" in the sliding pressure arm, which all tended to make the filament wander against the hobbed gear, the distance between the feed point (to the hobbed gear) the distance to the bowden entry point and worse of all, the crucial (imho) filament entry point which is PLA on PLA contact.

     

    I don't like any filament on PLA contact - as that (imho) is a recipe for friction and wear. Plastic on plastic just isn't good and = friction!

     

    On my version, the filament comes in through a 4mm metal eyelet, which is as close as I could get it to the drive wheel so as to prevent any "wandering" of the filament. The pressure arm is fixed, again to prevent any wandering. The output of the feeder goes straight into the bowden as I could make it. The filament just see's "metal, metal, bowden" in its travel through my feeder with as small as spaces in between as I could make them.

     

    I imagine my feeder should work ok with flexible filament - but as I've never tried any, I can't say for sure... but I think all the criteria are there for it to work?

     

    10 mm 3 /sec torture test. Printed just now.

    Test

     

    Edit: For extra rigidity the top of the pressure arm is contoured to the ball end arm when closed, so everythings nice and snug and tight :smile:

    Side

    Quick release

    Mechanism

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Seeing how people are still interested in this subject, I just loaded a Mod i did to Roberts Snap-On guide onto Youmagine here: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/feeder-snap-on-guide-with-oiler.

    It has a slot to put in a pipe cleaner with a loop at the end. You put some oil on the pipe cleaner then feed it in the slot and your filament pushes through the loop. This oils the filament after the drive wheel. You can also add some more drops of oil as its printing for long prints.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Just one comment on the PLA-PLA contact complaint for the entry point. It seems a lot of people miss that you should be putting a small section of bowden tube in the entry point to prevent this. I also haven't had any issues with the filament wandering due to slop in the arm and as you might imagine I've put a meter or two through different variations of the feeder :)

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Hello

    I appologize for the rude "tldr" request, but is there some synthesis or review of all your work on the alternative feeder systems?

    I'm interesting in testing one

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Well you could test out my "old"Feeder Design.... havent needed to work on it for months.... not even needed to replace it on my machine. It is basically a mule.... does not look good but does the job great.

     

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    Posted · Ultimaker2 Feeder System - Improvements and Ideas

    Just one comment on the PLA-PLA contact complaint for the entry point. It seems a lot of people miss that you should be putting a small section of bowden tube in the entry point to prevent this.

     

    I always wondered why that piece was for. :s

     

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