Custom heater block to fit E3D nozzle on Ultimaker 2 ("The Olsson Block")

[gixxer 1]

Hi PowerCell, I hope your directing this request to Anders as I've not even tested my design yet.

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

This may be a very good idea not just for ease of machining but to reduce heat transfer up to the Teflon cold end. This section could perhaps be made from a material with a lower thermal conductivity. Hhmm... aim I missing something here or could that be another very good idea Anders?

 

I haven´t really thought about that, but it is worth investigating.

If you go for stainless steel you more or less end up with something that looks like the E3D-V6 hotend: http://e3d-online.com/E3D-v6-Documentation

In my design the bits would have been too tiny and the threads too short, so I abandoned the idea of a two piece heater block at some early stage of the design.

 

 

Going off on a bit of a tangent, has a tapered internal profile be considered for nozzles before. If the taper ended at the cold end would this not reduce clogging particularly for all metal hot ends. From what I can gather the problem with all metal hot ends is that PLA during retraction acts like the seal in a syringe, as the filament is pushed back in it mushrooms and binds to the walls. However if the melt zone was tapered from 3.2mm to say 1.5mm the head of the retracted filament would also be tapered, reducing the likely hood of a clog.

Just a thought perhaps my logic is way off on this.

 

 

In theory this would help, but I have not thought about doing something like that yet. Mainly because it requires custom tools and custom nozzles.

My design was based on what I could get made in my local workshop with tools they already had combined with the design challenge of not having to modify any other component of the printer. That is why it ended up like it did. :smile:

 

The same compromises were made regarding the material. I could have chosen something else than brass, we actually have a lot of rare high performance materials. But I did not immediately see any much better option and I know brass is easy to machine and safe to use.

 

The temperature differences inside the heater block is not more than a few degrees, so I don't think you have to go for lower thermal conductivity really. But it is fun to think about the options of course :smile:

 

I will reply to you about nozzle geometry in the other thread.

 

[gixxer 1]

OK version 3 straight off the press.

First off I feel I must apologise to Anders as the design looks to be a complete rip off of his. However there really doesn't seem to be many other options without further modifications to the fan mount.

I have come up with a solution to the heater and sensor clamp.

 

 

 

The block thickness has been increased be 0.5mm. not much but I wanted to get the nozzle in as deep as possible to allow for greater heat transfer. The thread going to the cold block has lost 0.5mm height and the diameter beneath has been reduced to 4.70 from 5mm. I hoping this will reduce heat transfer to the cold end all be it marginal.

 

The plan with the clamp at the back of the block is to run an M2 through into a hole in the fan mount. This should fix the heater and sensor in place as well as preventing rotation of the block. It should also reduce heat transfer to the cold end heat sink.

 

I was also thinking of mounting small heat sink to the cold end plate.

 

 

Thought this might increase the life span of the Teflon insert.

 

 

Have at it people, cruel to be kind an all that!

 

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

OK version 3 straight off the press.

First off I feel I must apologise to Anders as the design looks to be a complete rip off of his. However there really doesn't seem to be many other options without further modifications to the fan mount.

 

Don't worry, I don't mind other people working at this. In fact I could just have given away the step-file by now if it wasn't for the scientific paper we are writing where my heater block is featured.

And just as both of us concluded, a heater block for the Ultimaker 2 more or less has to look this way if you are not going to modify other components.

The pictures in this thread shows version 1.2 of my heater block by the way.

Since then there has been version 1.3, 1.4, a few more poorly documented iterations and then version 2.0 which is being manufactured right now.

It was not necessary for the discussion to publish drawings or photos of the later designs though, since the basic concept hasn't changed, so I haven't written about all the refinements of the design that I have made.

If I am giving you more details now, the guy who wants to manufacture and distribute these might not like me anymore though, so I am going to keep my mouth shut :smile:

 

[Labern 774]

Hey, Any news on when these nozzles will be ready. I would like 2 if possible.

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

The initial batch is almost ready, just some threading left to do :smile:

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

I got a bit worried today when checking the heater blocks. There has been a slight manufacturing mistake on all of them regarding the alignment of the holes with respect to the fixing screw:

(You can see that the holes are shifted slightly to the left)

Luckily, my tests confirms that this design with the countersunk screw and the toothed washer is quite tolerant to alignment errors. :smile:

So it will not affect the fixing of the sensors and the heater, you might just have to tighten the screw slightly more for the temperature sensor to stay in place.

The heater blocks will be ready on Monday, I will contact those of you who ordered the heater blocks so far.

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Ha. Imagine doing dozens of different parts... mistakes and suppliers are probably a big reason most 3d printer kickstarters have huge delays...

Thanks for your work. Looking forward to give them a try.

[pm_dude 27]

Cant wait! I dont kniw if Gr5 is back yet...

[gr5 2,172]

I'll take 2 for me. Do people still want me to order 10 and ship from usa? Or should I let anders take care of it?

[gr5 2,172]

I'm in Costa Rica but will be home Sunday night.

[ovidiu 0]

I'll take 2 for me. Do people still want me to order 10 and ship from usa? Or should I let anders take care of it?

 

I'll take 2 as well. I'm in California: to keep costs down I'd really appreciate if you could take care of it. Thanks!

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

It would be very helpful if gr5 can distribute the heater blocks in the US / North America.

I have a complete list of people who requested heater blocks so far, I will sort out the details with gr5 in that case.

Here is a teaser by the way: (0.8 mm nozzle / 12mm^3/s)

 

:smile:

 

[melkolo 5]

I'll take two....just let me know when they are available states side. I'm in Texas

Mel

 

[stu_le_brew 42]

Anders

I am late to this thread, but if possible I would love to get two to experiment with, can't find any mention of the cost I am happy to pay you of course

Stu

 

[rigs 735]

Anders

 

I am late to this thread, but if possible I would love to get two to experiment with, can't find any mention of the cost I am happy to pay you of course

 

Stu

 

Me too

[chrisr 18]

Put me down for two as well please :-)

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

I am kind of running out of heater blocks now, so further orders might not be available from the first batch.

You can still send me a PM if you want heater blocks and did not contact me yet. You might get one of the last few, if not, it makes a second batch more likely.

A second batch will be taken care of by another guy though, and sold through a web store. This first batch should be seen as a what it it: A test batch.

I have a list of people, in the order you first contacted me by PM or in the thread. (Several of you replied both by PM and in the tread :smile: )

The first heater block from this batch is happily printing here now by the way. It is actually printing a torque wrench for nozzle changes, but that is a different story :smile:

 

[mohissa 0]

Hi Anders,

I am very interested in getting a nozzle too, but i think its only fair for me to wait for the next batch as my printer has not arrived yet. But do sign me up for the second batch (if you get enough demand).

Thanks,

 

[DidierKlein 729]

I think a couple of guys from the french section (me included) would be interested in this (for the next Batch).

 

[Anders Olsson 136]

I had to realize that I am way too busy for this, so I will let "swordriff" do all the sales and shipping of the heater blocks.

He has my list of people who requested heater blocks (in order) and will contact you soon :smile:

 

[swordriff 119]

So.. the waiting is coming to an end.

Thank you all for the patience.

We are removing one of the most important deal-brakers for investing in an

UM2!

Many thanks to Mr Olsson for his engineering efforts over Christmas, and Godspeed to him on his way to a vacation back on his home planet.

The time taken has been due to a number of small engineering and manufacturing issues, which are now ironed out.

The Block will ship with a 0.40mm (exchangeable, of course) from E3D. E3D and another Swiss company manufacture fine nozzles compatible with the Block.

Meanwhile we have tried some Asian nozzles, and allthough they do work, the holes are not round, surfaces too rough, size not correct, incorrect markings .. we would happily save 6 USD to ship one of those, but it is not complimentary to such a fine printer you have, and the time put into each print. (Yes, we know you sit and nurse the print, making adjustments etc.. why waste the time on non optimal parts?)

Using quality parts is one way of ruling out equipment short-comings; you can then only blame yourself, and get better by learning and sharing!

There will be an additional nozzle package available at nominal pricing, 0.25, 0,40, 0,80 nozzles.

0.25 is used for VERY fine little prints. The difference between a 0.25 and 0.40 nozzle is best shown with the application of the formula for circle area (A); A= PI x r2.

For 0.25 the area of the opening is ca 0.049 mm2.

For 0.40 the area of the opening is ca 0.1256 mm2,

- 0.40 is ca 2.56 times bigger.

For 0.80 the area of the opening is ca 0.50 mm

- so ca 4 times more throughput with a 0.80 than using a 0.40 nozzle is possible.

The last thing Mr Olsson did (for now), was to construct a printable torque wrench. What it does is to ensure that you do not overtighten the nozzle when mounting.

The STL file is available for download, you only need a 7mm socket pipe with 1/4" attachment coupling (this is very standard and costs 2-4 USD).

Attention:

To some, it may be challenging to get the temp sensor out of the original block, the heater is usually easy to remove.

One tester destroyed his temp sensor when trying to pry it from the original heater. The best method to avoid this seems to be to bite with narrow flat, ribbed pliers (spitze, flache Zange) on the end of the steel tube (not grabbing the cables only), and carfully/firmly wriggle the thing out.

Be adviced that destroying the sensor may happen, requiring a new temp sensor. Chinese "replacements" as of 20th January do not work, we really would want them to!

The new Block is engineered so that the temp sensor will insert more lightly and then fasten with a special screw provided. A lot of consideration has gone into this procedure, and it works beautifully and simply.

You can now change nozzle whenever you want, print aggressive materials without having to change the whole heater block "every month".

You can print Woodfill (totally wonderful!!) using 0.8mm nozzle, and happily squeeze away at Bronze, Brass (soon!), Copper, Glowfill using 0.4mm without replacing expensive parts. With a properly tuned UM2, you can build ABS models at astonishing speed using the 0.8mm nozzle.

The kit is available for shipping in the last days of January.

To conserve shipping costs, this is the arrangement:

For USA and CANADA please PM gr5 on:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/user/1527-gr5/

The rest of the World (what is left of it) please PM swordriff on:

http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/user/26134-swordriff/

There is now yet one more reason to get an Ultimaker 2!

Ooops.. it works with UMO nozzles as well, of course!

Happy printing!

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

E3D and another Swiss company manufacture fine nozzles compatible with the Block.

 

Any chance you share the name of that Swiss company?

 

[swordriff 119]

Delta Tower has some fine, high-end stuff! (I am not affiliated with them).

Their nozzles will work very well indeed with the Block.

 

[rigs 735]

delta tower good choice.