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donhuevo's E3D Bowden fed X-Carriage

Discussion in 'Show and Tell' started by donhuevo, May 26, 2014.

  1. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    The y-axis wiring harness was bending the wrong way and getting pinned in between the end-stop switch and the front of the bed. Some freshly printed conduit chain fixed that.

    conduit_chain.jpg chain link.jpg
     
  2. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    Doing a little printing at 200% with everything put back together.

     
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  3. Bob64

    Bob64 Member

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    Something I noticed given how hard-core your mods have been:
    Haven't designed a nice fan-duct yet? :p
     
  4. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    Hard-core... I like that! In all seriousness though, I went minimalist on purpose to keep the mass down.
     
  5. Galaxius

    Galaxius Well-Known Member

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    What hotend are you using?
     
  6. Bob64

    Bob64 Member

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    I'm using the stock hot end, but I am thinking of upgrading to a Hexagon/Prometheus hotend.

    Which cable chain is that? I'm considering doing the same. Also, won't it get hot and melt so close to the heating element?
     
  7. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    Yes, my hot end DID get a very nice fan duct...

    x-carriage top view.jpg
     
  8. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    The cable chain is my own. The barrel clamps I printed as much to test everything as I did because I need to hold round things in a vise. Even printing at 200%, it took almost 8 hours. I just pulled the bed off to look things over and no melting.

    Full disclosure... I had to build a longer wiring harness and relocate the end-stop switch and its wiring hole too.
     
    #88 donhuevo, Jun 29, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 29, 2014
  9. Bob64

    Bob64 Member

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    Oh wow. I didn't see the fan duct cooling the extruder, that's pretty impressive. What about cooling your parts (if your printing PLA?) or does that duct also cool it too?

    Also, I've managed to figure out the steppers and install this z-axis upgrade thanks to you. Not that hard once you know which wires energize the coils - thanks for that info. Was also able to verify that your colors had the same pinout as mine by using a multimeter and checking continuity. I did manage to reverse the coils when hooking the plug to the ramps board, but a simple flip of the connector solved that.

    It is a bit of a pity that the z-axis upgrade "nut" that came with it doesn't fit through the y-axis upgrade plate, so you'll need to take those off if you ever remove the steppers.
     
  10. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    I have a 40mm fan at each end of the carriage for parts. And congrats on the upgrade!!!
     
  11. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    Bob, have you printed anything yet with the new z steppers?
     
  12. Galaxius

    Galaxius Well-Known Member

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    @Bob64, I'm using a Hexagon and really like it. It's about 11mm short her than the stock hotend but it will fit the default x carriage and you can run dual print cooling fans, I'll take a pic of mine. One thing I have recently noticed is that with dual cooling fans the bed has to work much harder to maintain temp, even just 65C. I'm currently putting a fan i my RAMPS and will be replacing the Polyfuse and MOSFET. I'm assuming ducting the print cooling fans so the cool the part more directly will also ease the stain on the bed maintaining temp, looks like another project lol.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  13. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    It looks like your extruder has to work harder to hold temp too. All three of those, at least partially, seem to be pointed at the nozzle
     
  14. Galaxius

    Galaxius Well-Known Member

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    Probably a little but the insulating silicon sleeve on the heater block is amazingly good. When's the print fans kick in the nozzle temp graph doesn't even stutter.
     
  15. Bob64

    Bob64 Member

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    Yeah, I'm printing a sword blade. I just finished one segment yesterday. I think 90% of all z-ribbing has been eliminated. I'll take a picture later of some before/after shots. Minor wobble or some other variables are remaining messing up the layers here and there, but the layers are dead on most of the time. My PLA belt tensioner fell off since I'm printing ABS and the heat is warping all my PLA upgrades, so I'm re-printing those later. Also found out that my PLA z-axis smoothrod holders have cracked due to heat or something, so I've put the stock ones back on for now.
    I'm using the robo3d shipping box as a heat retention build chamber.
     
  16. Bob64

    Bob64 Member

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  17. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    About the ramps fan, I found some better brackets on Thingiverse... http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:166267. Prior to mounting to the RAMPS board, I put a piece of electrical tape on each of the 'legs'. Snug and quiet. I definitely want to see your before/after pics.
     
  18. Galaxius

    Galaxius Well-Known Member

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  19. Bob64

    Bob64 Member

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    hmm. I take back what I said about the z upgrade causing significantly improved print quality. I tried printing at .2 and it seems way worse. my previous .1 print failures below. However, this isn't apples to apples, I'm going to try printing in .1 and see if it improves.
    I, however, don't see any ribbing... as these ridges appear to be random.

    pictures to come.
     
  20. donhuevo

    donhuevo Active Member

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    No issues changing your Z steps in the firmware to 1600?
     

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