donhuevo's E3D Bowden fed X-Carriage

In preparation for faster printing, I updated the x-carriage with a second cooling fan mount and an easier-to-print grill.


A final note on the Neopixel... The buck converter arrived and I'm now pulling 5V from the power supply and not the RAMPS board. No more random blinking on and off. It is fully functional and in no way does it interfere with printing. If/when I really get bored, I'm going to add a second LED to display the bed temp. If you're interested in adding Neopixels to your printer, let me know. I'd be glad to help.

 

With active cooling on the extruder motor, I'm printing at 200% and maintaining 33C. Without the fan, motor temps were exceeding 50C

 

Wow, that's really awesome. Converting to bowden is on my to do list. A modded version of your x carriage for the Hexagon would be great. Something else for the to do list, though Mike is modding his dual head x carriage design to fit the Hex. So many great options. Have to upgrade my Y carriage to smooth rods first though.

 

I just took a quick look at the hexagon and it wouldn't take much to change up the drawing for it. I wouldn't know for sure until I had the machined aluminum part all measured up.

 

I just realized during this print that my firmware X & Y acceleration is still at 500 from the good old days when I was getting horrible shaking during thin wall infill. Even though I set repetier to print at 250%, all these direction changes aren't allowing it to move as fast as I think it could. I'm going to up my acceleration values to maybe 2500 and try again at 250% and see what happens. Either way, it's moving pretty quick and remaining very accurate.



Because it's printing so well right now, I'm not going to buy a Hexagon and you can't make me. If someone wants to measure up their cold end (the machined aluminum part), I can work something up. I would need a diameter at each section and height of each section. Also the widths of the hexagon section at it's widest and narrowest. Millimeters would be preferred. I already have a honeycomb grill in mind.

 

Lol. I was going to measure mine up for you but I didn't particularly want to pull the hotend out when I've finally got the Z height right. Having said that I will be making some upgrades so that will throw it all out anyway and I'll measure it then though I need to compare my vernier calipers inner measurement against a known source as I know mine are incorrect by 0.1 - 0.5mm under. Once I know what they're out by I can compensate for it.

Actually Mike might already have the measurements as he was going to modify his dual head X carriage for the Hex.

Print speed is awesome too btw.

 

Man that is fast. I may have to look into upgrading mine to a bowden feed with the e3d v6

 

I just tried the same silly vase at 300% and it finished in exactly the same time. I must have hit some other limit. I was wrong about my acceleration values too. X & Y are both at 9000 and must have been since I upgraded the firmware. That still may be the limit I'm hitting on this particular print though. I'll find something with nice long rectilinear fill lines and see what happens. Stay tuned...

 

This is the cover for the reprapdiscount LCD display printing @ 200%. I think the acceleration limit was definitely holding it back on the vase with all its direction changes.

 

I so need to go bowden.

 

This weekend's upgrades include the 2nd cooling fan, a temp indicator LED for the bed and an LED work light. Also some new end g-code which positions the x-carriage roughly in the center and up 5mm with the cooling fans at 100%.

Code:

G28 X0 Y0
G0 X114.000 Y117.000
G91
G1 Z5
M84
M106 S255

 

How do you mount the heat sink to the extruder motor? Can you show with a picture?

 

Bowden feed has the extruder stepper and feed mechanism separate from the carriage and hot end (extruder)

 

@Invertmast, thanks for the reply. I'm interested in how he mounted the heat sink to the bowden cold end on the planetary geared motor to keep the motor running cool.

 

Here are a couple pics. The heat sink didn't cut it. I ended up designing a box/ductwork around the motor so a 40mm fan would constantly move air over it. Printing at full speed, or printing with lots of retractions, it never gets over 36C.

 

Thanks for the photos. I like your set up. Do you mind sharing the box/ductwork? I would like to print it out for my bowden upgrade.

 

I put it on Thingiverse here... http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:358872. I designed it around this particular geared stepper... http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/ge...ox-for-nema-17-geared-stepper-motor-p-40.html. The motor is pressure fit. I also stole one of the 4 case screws and captive nuts to attach it to the factory spool holder.

 

Thank you very much for sharing!

 

Officially coupler-free!!! http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/th...ody-300mm-lead-screw-t635mm-2mmrev-p-225.html



And my first test print (10mm test cube @ .2mm layer height) with the new z steppers...

 

congrats on getting that working looks great