"Autolift" Kickstarter campaign

[kitwashere 1]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dglass3d/autolift-precision-3d-printer-hot-ends

Just came across this campaign today. Any thoughts on it? I don't see how lifting the head a little helps with retraction/oozing but they are saying it's all the difference.

If they are correct, and their mechanical "cool head lift" is great, this could probably be implemented by just giving your hot end mount a little slop in the Z axis and have the extruder motor push it around?

Edit: Here's a video

 

 

[discostu 0]

Cura -> Expert Settings -> Z Hop will exactly do this job.

I have enabled this and i think the retraction qualitiy has improved a little bit.

[kitwashere 1]

I think you would mostly see the benefits of this with dual extrution.

What is a little bit? I'll have to give that option a try after my next print finishes, although I don't really have too much of a problem with retraction now.

Maybe there is a little truth to that campaign. Although $120 is pretty steep, and that's the "early bird" price.

 

[discostu 0]

Yeah i use a dual extruder.

Im going with 0.2mm. Before i activated that feature i got sometimes little blobs at the retraction point. Rarly i also got strings. But now with the z hop they dissapered.

Yep $120 isn't cheap. I dont even now if it fits the ultimaker head.

[takei-naodar 0]

Really nice it is going to get when there is a pin inside the nozzle to close the opening when retracted. no oozing or anything else

 

[jeremie 13]

Isn't this how the lastest makerbot works? The filament pushes the head down. On retraction the force drops and it moves back upwards. See this gif here: http://intentional3d.com/teardown-of-the-makerbot-5th-gen-replicator-smart-extruder/

It introduces a bit of sloppiness though (at least on the MKI head), may be this one is better.

I definitely see it as a benefit for dual head setups, but it may be worth just for retraction (much faster than a Z-hop!)

 

[drayson 74]

Isn't this how the lastest makerbot works? The filament pushes the head down. On retraction the force drops and it moves back upwards. See this gif here: http://intentional3d.com/teardown-of-the-makerbot-5th-gen-replicator-smart-extruder/

It introduces a bit of sloppiness though (at least on the MKI head), may be this one is better.

I definitely see it as a benefit for dual head setups, but it may be worth just for retraction (much faster than a Z-hop!)

 

Thank you for this link - very interesting how makerbot managed the filament check and "standing filament because of grinding or glogged nozzl" issue-check.

Might be possible hacks for a UM1 too - is´nt?

 

[jeremie 13]

Thank you for this link - very interesting how makerbot managed the filament check and "standing filament because of grinding or glogged nozzl" issue-check.

Might be possible hacks for a UM1 too - is´nt?

 

Oh don't ask me -- I am certainly not the one to say it cannot be hacked for the UM1 !

Now you get my head running again and I have work to do

I need to add "dual head with autoraise" to my wishlist http://www.tridimake.com/2014/01/features-and-improvements-for-a-homemade-ultimaker.html

 

[drayson 74]

:-) great that I helped you with inspiration

B.t.w. - great page. found it a while ago as I planned my heated bed :-)

 

[kitwashere 1]

Hmm, if a few people are doing this then it probably does work.

I still suck at modeling things but I'm going to have a shot at making a mount for the UBIS hot end and see if this can be realized in just the mount. A spring might help with lifting the hot end up, just in case someone lives in a perfect world with no friction in their bowden, and maybe if I can't control the "slop" a metal tube of some sort the whole unit can slide in.

 

[jhertzberg 19]

Really nice it is going to get when there is a pin inside the nozzle to close the opening when retracted. no oozing or anything else

 

This. IMO, retraction only works for a little while if the block is kept heated. Eventually some melt will ooze from the undesired tip. Another solution that comes to mind is to direct cooling (eg. fan airflow) to undesired tip to form a small plug, then allow time for that tip to reheat when it's called for. It might be tough to calibrate.

 

[kitwashere 1]

A needle valve would help a lot but it would be a pretty complex set up I think and would add some sort of motor or solenoid or something to the mix per nozzle it's used on. Maybe with some type of four way valve you could get away with one, but then you are mixing material.

I do like the KS author's idea of using 1 Stepper motor to drive 2 filaments. Not the best implementation on their part but a cool idea. Maybe a solenoid could be used to pivot the motor into one of the filaments on either side of it? Would need a decent strength solenoid or at least a locking mechanism though. Simpler and more complicated at the same time than 2 stepper motors.

 

[foehnsturm 969]

I was curious if and how an autolift will work and made custom PEEK and aluminum parts for my Merlin hotend. Seems to work quite well. The Voronoi Yoda test print is running right now.

My intention is to find out if I can eliminate the annoying issue of knocking down small (support) pillars with raised edges when traveling across.

 

 

[kitwashere 1]

Very cool. Seems to be working well. Print turn out okay?

Looks like there's no slop in the X or Y axis when it's lifting up and down which I though might be an issue but I guess not.

 

[foehnsturm 969]

Print turned out pretty good, especially when taken into account that it's quite small (I scaled it down to 70%).

There is no slop so far. But since it's a simple PEEK / Aluminum bush bearing, I'm not sure if it will last forever.

The best thing is, that small structures are entered from above and left upwards. So there is no possibility for the nozzle tip to catch a raised edge or something else which unintentionally sticks out above the last layer.

In fact these collisions not only knock down or distort down small parts sometimes but they also can displace the (at least my UM original) print bed by a few tenths of a mm.

 

[kitwashere 1]

Hadn't really considered that this is a better "angle of attack". Another nice feature of this simple mod.

By the way, how simple is your set up? Did you add in a spring like the Kickstarter guys, or is just kind of a floating tube in a tube? Wonder how long the peek will hold up.

Would you say the print is better than what you'd get without this "autolift"?

 

[foehnsturm 969]

It's a simple set up without a spring. The PEEK can move approx. 1 mm vertically. Just see the two pictures.

 

I'm buried with work these days, so I don't have much time for comparative studies. But I started a new topic to invite people to print a small .stl file I've made for testing.