E3D Titan Extruder

I noticed I am going to have a small issue with me end stop switch with the render I posted. Thought of it about 2 minutes after shutting my eyes last night. The wire connections are going to interfere with the motor. So I might have enough room to bend the contacts to the side and solder the wires and insulate. They're cheap and I have a few spares. So I will play with that once I get everything. In fact, I might be able to lower the switch to mount right on the carriage and forget about the little mount extension for it. I would just need to do a quick redesign of the plastic stop on the other side. Hmmm. Luckily I can still mount the motor so that the wires go out to the left side (looking at it from the front of the Robo). That will help with wire management.

 

I get the titan and my new nema 17 thursday. My design should be up and running by Saturday. I don't want to be influenced by design by others so I have not looked if anyone else has already designed something in previous posts.

 

The suspense...it's killing me. haha. Mine shipped yesterday late because my order was also waiting for a new XXL LCD to replace my current one. So I hope I still get it Friday. The V6 is all new to me as well. So not sure if I will have it all up by the end of the weekend. I really want to see what it would take to get the hex to work. I have some design ideas for the titan case that might make that work, but will have to wait and see. That would make it live up to its "Universal" claim more than being universal IF you use all E3d products.

Yeah the 20mm stepper depth is definitely needed when orienting the motor to face the side of the plate. I played with that a bit, but I really wanted to design something that would be using as many stock parts as possible. Can't wait to see your design for it. Once mounted...then I have to figure out what the parts cooling fan(s) options there are since it will pull the V6 up a few mm. Hopefully the current fans for the V6 have that clearance to spare. There are going to be several approaches to mounts. I can't wait to see the other designs. I'm sure there will be some meshing/remixing going on to blend the best of all designs. Open source...it's a beautiful thing.

 

I look forward to your design, my Titan is on the way ...

 

What are the issues with the current extruder this is meant to address?

Differences I can see
1) Fully supported filament path (important for flexible filaments)
2) Possibly better gear mesh (the stock one has some serious backlash on mine)
3) Smaller gearing ratio (I think the stock is 5 something to 1 and this claims 3 to 1)

 

The weight and bulk of the x carriage will be reduced as well. It can handle smaller NEMA 17 motors. So potentially you could reduce the motor weight by over half on top of the weight loss of the extruder. I haven't heard of any tests with the smaller motor yet. Less mass is a good thing when dealing with print quality and speed. You might also be able to gain a little Z height since this will be shorter than the greg's wade assembly. I get mine in tomorrow. I know others get theirs today. So we should start seeing more feedback on the results of running with this new extruder pretty soon.

 

Ya you should gain a little more z-height I am noticing mocking it up. but its not a whole lot, depending on how you design the new mount. The whole carriage will look super bare compare to the current design. There was a lot of weight and just overall clutter shed in the new mount design.

I have to print some parts out for clients that need large parts so unfortunately I wont be able to tear down and rebuild until late this weekend. But I will still mock up my new design for Titan+v6....using the stock hexagon will have to have a different mount and setup due to the fact the v6 goes directly inside the Titan, where as the stock hex will not fit and will have to sit below the Titan.

 

Keeping an eye on this upgrade. Looks interesting.

I'll probably just print some herringbone gears to hopefully address the backlash issues I see on mine.

At least until all you smart folks get this worked out to be a print/plug/pray installation.

 

And that is something I see as unfortunate. They market this as a universal extruder, but yet don't have a way to handle the top groove dimensions/profile of other hotends. Just looking at the pics, I see where that could have been doable with a swappable insert. Like I've said before, that is a side project I would like to have a go at to see if the case can be redesigned to accept and adapter for other hotends. Seems likely, but will need to have it in hand to know for sure without the cad files being available. Though the V6 is a great hotend I have heard, it is just not leaps over the Hex. Why make someone go to the expense of upgrading both if they don't need to?

 

Having it not accept the Hexagon is just an excuse to mod to a bowden-style clamp for the Hex and mount the Titan outside the printer build area.

 

Haha! Yes that is a good point. That would be a cheaper way to go since I think the PTFE tubing and adapter would be like $10 and it would really reduce the x carriage mass/clutter.. I know that Marquis is setting his Titans up for dual Bowden with the V6. Hopefully he will make his videos for the Titan public again soon. I would like to see his progress.

 

Pft, just print a 1.5mm thick C-shaped shim piece to put in the Titan and you'll be good to go.

Nevermind, got the spacings backwards.

Use a dremel tool!

 

there are a couple ways around this though. 1 you can buy a bowden adapter to fit into the hotend and titan, 2. you can file down the mount on the titan so it does fit, the only part that is actually different is the spacing between the first large diameter and the second large diameter. 3. you could just 3d print and adapter to funnel it from the titan into the hotend that fits in the titan.

 

That is my point. They could have designed it for a smaller slot and just provided a spacer like that to fit the V6. Then it would be universal.

 

Daniel already mentioned number 1. That is a good option. I don't want to start carving off material of the Titan out of the box. But could break out the old Dremel for sure. I am not sure 3 is a great option. It would make the path of the filament after the gear longer and not as guided. So maybe...just need to make sure it is supported properly so you don't loose any benefit of the Titan design. Especially considering wanting to use it for flexible filament.

 

ideally your best bet is to just go get a v6, but if you really want to make it work you can.

 

You could also roll the dice on the knock-off $20 v6s on Amazon.

Like this one, just watch out for the thermistor they use (#11 in Marlin vs. the #1 or #5 we're all used to).

http://www.amazon.com/3D-CAM-Printer-Filament-Extruder/dp/B010MZ8RKW