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Pico - kickstarter all metal hot end

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by scotta, Mar 23, 2014.

  1. scotta

    scotta Active Member

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  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I started to, but already invested in an E3D so opted not to (well, just a few bucks).
    Let me know how it works.
     
  3. Enrico

    Enrico New Member

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    i buy
     
  4. shaggy2629

    shaggy2629 New Member

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    Yeah I backed it too
     
  5. scotta

    scotta Active Member

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  6. slider

    slider New Member

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    My Pico arrived earlier this week. They've certainly put some time and effort into the packaging and documentation. I need to print a fan shroud/deflector before installing it.
     
  7. cmanou

    cmanou New Member

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    mine should hopefully be arriving soon, what deflector are you going to print?
     
  8. CAMBO3D

    CAMBO3D New Member

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    can't wait to get mine too.. do yo have some close up photos of the quality??
     
  9. slider

    slider New Member

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    I will probably have to design something - which given my meagre design skills may take me a while!
     
  10. slider

    slider New Member

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    Not at the moment. I'll see if I can get something taken later. I've got a few 'domestic' chores to get out of the way first.
     
  11. Leon Grossman

    Leon Grossman Active Member

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    I've had mine for a couple of weeks. I finally installed it this weekend. It prints fine with ABS but I haven't had enough time to get it working with PLA yet. FWIW, I already have a carriage/fan/hot end mount designed but you'll need an EZStruder to use it if you go that route.
     
  12. Leon Grossman

    Leon Grossman Active Member

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    OK, I'm finally doing some PLA printing and I was about to throw the hot end against the wall earlier tonight. ABS was fine PLA was jamming constantly. The trick turned out to be that I had to dramatically lower the temperature.

    A key unknown piece of information is that the B3 operates at a higher backpressure than most hot ends. As a result, I picked 230C because that was the temperature at which I could push the material through by hand. That temperature was much too high and at 0.1mm layer heights, the filament was heat soaking too much and jamming in the hot end.

    I absolutely love the structural stability of this hot end. If the print quality continues to match, I'll recommend it to anyone.
     
  13. scotta

    scotta Active Member

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    How much did you lower the temp down?
    Did you have to make any changes when you are printing at 0.2mm?
     
  14. Leon Grossman

    Leon Grossman Active Member

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    I was extruding at 205C. The hot end jammed at 11mm. Far better than when I was at the higher temperatures. My next step is to design a fan duct as the B3 guys think that will help dramatically. After that, I'm looking at going from a direct extrusion to bowden with a higher torque motor solution.

    Other than the temperature change, I didn't have to do anything for the 0.2mm layer height.
     
  15. Enrico

    Enrico New Member

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    very super WP_20140515_17_59_28_Pro.jpg
     
  16. Leon Grossman

    Leon Grossman Active Member

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    I've never been a big PLA printer so it's never been a big deal that I couldn't print below 0.2mm with the E3D hot end. When I got the Pico, I was having a heck of a time getting good results. Most of that was my stupidity.

    Step 1: Get good cooling. Get a fan duct that directly outlets to the heat sink like the one I designed (mine relies on having some form of mounting point. I don't like designs that mount to the hot end due to cantilevered load.

    Step 2: Follow these instructions and season the hot end with cooking oil. I went from almost being able to reliably print 0.2mm PLA to being able to print 0.1 on a 6 hour print with no problems.

    http://blog.reprap-india.com/2014/0...in-all-metal-hotends-e3d-v5-all-metal-hotend/

    At this point, I can safely say that I'm 100% behind the Pico hot end.

    I can't wait to hear everyone else's experience.
     
  17. Savan12986

    Savan12986 Member

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    any new impressions on the Pico?
     
  18. Leon Grossman

    Leon Grossman Active Member

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    I'm still a huge fan. No problems once I started using a bit of oil on my pla and my print quality is better than it's ever been. That may be in part due to the Y axis upgrade.
     
  19. Savan12986

    Savan12986 Member

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    have you tried it with anything other than PLA yet? I use ABS mostly, but am interested in nylon and other more exotic materials
     
  20. Heath Rust

    Heath Rust New Member

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    Can someone give me some help? I got the pico hotend installed and now the board glows red and not green. I had to cut, solder, and heat-wrap the pico wires to the existing ones to allow enough wire length. Anyone that has installed theirs had this issue? I can connect to it in repetier-host but it is not showing the extruder temperature.

    Also to note that the extruder does get somewhat hot after turning on without turning on with repetier-host
     
    #20 Heath Rust, Jul 15, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 15, 2014

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