1. Got a question or need help troubleshooting? Post to the troubleshooting forum or Search the forums!

Modding the Lulzbot Flexystruder for the robo3d

Discussion in 'Projects' started by KTMDirtFace, Mar 26, 2016.

  1. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    I'll keep messing around with the settings, but the thing feeds ninja flex so I'm happy about that.
     
  2. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    I'll post my source files with a few versions with different offsets soon. Still you may have to just modify the files yourself and print a few till you get it right. Its pretty picky about how it all fits together.

    For instance I'm using 4.2mm hole so that my PTFE tube goes in but is snug. This may be different for others.
    And I think i'm using 3.5mm offset over from the center line of the hobbed bolt to where my tube hole goes through.

    I got tired of trying to figure out offsets from the Lulzbots original PTFE hole, so I filled the holes found the center myself and did my offsets from there. Mine may be a tad too tight now. I was trying to compensate for my uneven robo3d hobbed bolt.. Now that I have that hobbgoblin bolt in there its good.
     
    #42 KTMDirtFace, Apr 1, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2016
  3. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    Ok waldo I'm follwing your advice now and working on settings for this.

    I changed the ext multiplier down to 1.0 ( simplify3d always defaults its to 0.9 for PLA and ABS too I think ) What do you use for Ninja Flex?

    I measured the ninja flex with my calipers in various places, which is a little hard to do because its easy to accidentally smush it, but it seems to be about 1.72 on average instead of 1.75 so I have plugged that in.

    Then I printed this in vase mode, looks to be about 0.43 when I measure it. So should I plug that in? its set to 0.40 in simplify3d. I would think if i change it to 0.43 im going to get lines even further apart?

    My Y axis has a bit of a bind/vibe going on ( my fault I need to fix it just having done it yet ). I wonder if ninja flex benefits from an oiler ( I was not using one )

    [​IMG]

    Also I think it quit extruding on the last layer.. doh! not sure what happend there..looking into it
    [​IMG]
     
    #43 KTMDirtFace, Apr 1, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2016
  4. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    Hmm I think it might be slipping again..going to have to pull the extruder and look. Bummer!

    Hopefully things just shifted around because of how crappy i printed this test version. ( hardly any infill )
     
  5. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2015
    Messages:
    5,905
    Likes Received:
    3,593
    Plug in the numbers you measure, in the long run it will make things easier. For instance the next roll if it measures 1.76 or 1.68 then you won't have to mess with a bunch of parameters to get good prints right from the start.
     
  6. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    I printed with PLA last night and the PLA is still pretty hard to initially feed into it. After its started its money. So if the ninja flex is slipping there isn't much I can do..other than come up with some spring loaded contraption, but at that point i might as well go back to the stock gregs wade.

    I'm going to try an oiler see if it helps at all.
     
  7. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2015
    Messages:
    6,757
    Likes Received:
    2,339
    I have no issues with the E3dV6 and ninjaflex. Used a new tube and cut a notch. Installed the tube in the hotend fed through the greg wade with the thingiverse quick release slot and use the feed gear to pull the tube into place as I'm installing the hotend. I leave the tube in for all filaments with no issues yet though I did make and test 3 spare tubes just in case. I ran ninjaflex last night at 40mm/s. Tension screws as tight as I can get them with the stock hobbled bolt.
     
  8. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    I tried the tube/notch before a few times and never had much luck.

    FYI My replicator 2 will feed ninja flex at normal print speeds ( 50-60mm/s) with no issue.
     
  9. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2015
    Messages:
    6,757
    Likes Received:
    2,339
    really????? I "carved" a rather large notch that basically is the entire size of the hobbled bolt(if measuring OD top tooth to bottom tooth) because the "slit" didn't work well for me (I'm sure it was a user issue related to where the slit was)
     
  10. Mike Kelly

    Mike Kelly Volunteer

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2013
    Messages:
    6,967
    Likes Received:
    2,276
    Bitchin!
     
  11. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    Unfortunately its slipping again with NinjaFlex and my cleaning filament, like i can hold the filament and turn the extruder by hand and feel it slip. My Esun PLA is super tight with no chance of slipping though.

    I'm going to try tightening up the offset/tolerances again..see how it goes.

    But i'm leaning towards this being possibly an impossible task for 1.75 filament anyway its just so small no room for error.. I have an idea to chop a chunk out of the back of the extruder, and put the stock screws/springs on it...but at that point I may as well use the stock extruder. Gonna try it anyway I have the technology lol
     
    #51 KTMDirtFace, Apr 2, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2016
  12. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,322
    Likes Received:
    510
    What about just printing a 1/16" hole and drilling it out to 2mm with a high surface finish/sharp bit fed to produce a smooth finish & forgoing the PTFE altogether?
     
  13. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    In my tests that actually worked a bit better. I didn't drill though I just printed a 2.2mm hole and it worked pretty good.

    I will try again now that I have the new hobbed bolt.
     
  14. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    Moved my offset over another .2 mm. Doing a test print now, but its real tight now hopeful it will work, when i extruded into the air it was a solid fat stream of ninjaflex as opposed to thin spotty mess that curled onto itself.. Getting the filament started requires me to really press it in by hand while turning the gear by hand. Not a big deal for ninjaflex, but with normal PLA its real tough to get the filament started.
     
    daniel871 likes this.
  15. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,322
    Likes Received:
    510
    Could you send me a STEP file of your current design? I'd like to try some prototypes of my own since I've got my Robo halfway running now.
     
  16. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    Yea one sec i'll zip them all up.
     
  17. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/91imc25xxgeh8pe/FlexyStruderKTMDirtFace.zip?dl=0

    Zip file there. it includes my Moment of inspiration file , and some stp files.

    Main3_3mm offset is what I am currently using.

    Main_3_5mm offset is what I was using the other day.

    MainNoHolesAndPlugged, and MainNoHolesWithGuidelines is essentially the stock file with the holes plugged up and the nut holes shrunk a bit for m4 nuts.,

    The one with guidelines has a guideline from the center of the hobbed bolt hole that I used for my offsets.

    The original file has built in support. I thought about removing it but it comes off pretty well, I use the robo 3d Chisel and jam it in there and the whole support usually goes flying off. I printed in PLA.

    Also I shoved some PTFE tube through and used a drill bit to cut the moon shape. then cleaned it up with an exacto and some other smaller drill bits. I then cut the PTFE tube so that the E3D had a bit coming up to the bottom before the hobbed bolt. this way I can drop the hotend without dismantling the entire thing.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    FYI, if you want to punch your own holes in the bottom for the E3DV6, I used
    18mm Diameter circle
    Extruded 4.75mm up and cut it out. ( this is the same as lulzbot, the lulzbot uses the hexagon hotend )

    Then after that to account for the black holder deal that holds the PTFE tube in the top of the E3D..
    I used 7.3MM Diameter hole punched up 2.5mm.
     
    #57 KTMDirtFace, Apr 3, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2016
  18. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    Additionally this is the original Lulzbot File for 3mm filament, in iges format. I had to do some trickery to get it to not have errors in it. other than that its unchanged. ( I had to export it a couple times from different programs or it has some crazy verts in it )
     

    Attached Files:

  19. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,247
    Likes Received:
    461
    Ugg It still seems to be having extrusion problems...and I don't know why. it pretty much cannot slip at all now. Ninja flex is annoying! Its printing but its not super consistent.

    I'll try a fresh nozzle here in a bit. And actually I might try ramping the speed up, it seems to extrude better when going faster for whatever reason.

    EDIT: after the first layer went down it seems to have recovered and is looking great so far. First layer looked kinda spotty like it wasn't extruding properly...but after that it looks spot on like PLA.


    EDIT 2: Seems to be extruding decently now. I'm going to try a 2 hour print of an 8bit nintendo drink coaster now...made some tweaks to the first layer and a couple other things hopefully it works out.

    Currently using the 3.3mm offset file that I posted above.

    And I only have Pink ESUN pla left. so thats what its in.
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Test Turned out pretty good, sorry its hard for me to get a good picture with my phone...its camera sucks..and my real camera's battery is dead right now. Still seems like it may be unde-extruding a tad. my Ext multiplier is set to 1.0 right now, and no retraction.
    [​IMG]
     
    #59 KTMDirtFace, Apr 3, 2016
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2016
  20. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2015
    Messages:
    1,322
    Likes Received:
    510
    I'm going to use my i3 to print this and let everyone know how it goes.

    This is basically the 3mm offset but with the hole just for the filament path itself (that I'll drill out after printing to make sure the filament slides smoothly thru before mounting up).

    Put it in a ZIP file as the actual STL is rejected by the forum software.
     

    Attached Files:

Share This Page