Topsy's Printer! (Some pics NSFW-ish)

Hm. Well, I ordered the MEK but I guess I don't have to use it. Can always just have it on hand.

I'll give a go to oozing it out. Was also considering just taking the metal bits off and sticking them in my oven at around 250 to try to ooze/burn it out.

 

Well. I got it unclogged, by taking apart the metal bits while heated (silicone oven mitts are AWESOME for this, by the way) and gently drilling out (by hand, with a 1.5mm bit) the heat sink portion of the E3D. Was able to get it all back together, and extruding again, and then said to my husband, "Hah, now I just need to get it back together without breaking the thermistor."

GUESS WHAT I DID.

... guess I'm ordering -several- new thermistors. ffs.

 

Well hey at least you got it unclogged! I had the same misfortune one time when I had to take apart my E3D, was all ready to go just had to get the thermistor back and managed totally snap the lead. It's a good idea to have a few extra on hand but at least you don't have to replace any of the extruder.

 

The E3D can eat a thousand dicks. And so can the filament I'm using. And also the printer. I am so sick of this thing... I'm not giving up, because I can't, but I think I need to look up that thread where the guy went all Office Space on his printer and posted pics, cos... yeah. Argh.

I have broken down the E3D like four times, replaced the thermistor several times (as I've broken the thing, which is made of the breath of fairies, repeatedly), cooked out all the gunk in the nozzle, cleaned out the heat sink, glued the thermistor on with silicone only to have it break again in other fiddling... And I have also decided kapton tape is actually meant to be purchased as a gag gift for a 3D printing enthusiast that you hate, rather than actual use because it ceases to be any sort of tape at 200C and just sort of flaps apart and flings itself off in whatever direction the fan happens to be blowing, usually taking the thermistor with it.

Currently, the heat sink is clogged again, the thermistor has come off the heat block, and the kapton tape insulating it has come off again. I have to break it down -again-, try to clean out the heat sink -again- and then hope for the best.

I have not the foggiest clue why I am suddenly having such issues, besides getting new filament - same supplier, slightly different formulation. The actual cause of these issues (filament expanding inside the heat sink to fill it completely, then cooling enough in the upper part of the heat sink to stiffen and form a clog) sounds much like the issues Melody Bliss was having with the E3D and certain filament. I just need to get it to a point where I can actually try filament I know was fine before... and that's proving difficult.

 

You're close enough to the UK it might be worthwhile to stock up on replacement nozzles as well.

 

Topsy.. I've been there too, as you probably already know. I can field strip an e3d blindfolded. I think you will have better luck by drilling out the heat sink, stainless core and heater mount a full 2 mm. This is the actual spec on the unit and whenever I start having clogging or feed problems, I just sigh and strip, then drill. No, it isn't sexual At All. It is frustrating and annoying and those fairy wire thermistors don't help either. I buy them by the 5's now. At least they're cheap. I don't even use silicone gloves but you need to use heat to get things apart. I also assemble with a touch of anti-seize like that used on oxygen sensors in auto exhausts. Use sparingly, but it does seem to help in subsequent disassembly, i.e., the next time it clogs. And it does.
The other part of feed problems for me was the grooved hobbed bolt that came with ROBO. Replacing that made a big difference. I also changed to slightly stronger springs. My ROBO also always had a slight "catch" when feeding the filament past the extruder and into the e3d. I drilled that too. So, my feed problems have been pretty much solved, but I have resigned myself to periodically cleaning/drilling the hot end. There is another metal hot end that is coming soon called the Pica. It's on Kickstarter and claims to have better heat dissipation characteristics to diminish or eliminate the filament getting hot enough in the barrel of the heat sink to form a clog. I'm not investing yet, but if it works it will be an interesting potential choice in the future.

 

Yeah, I think I may end up ordering a few more nozzles (I do have some extras but not in the 0.4mm size) and maybe a spare heat sink. Shoulda just done it when I ordered 7 thermistors and a huge roll of kapton tape.

I will also try drilling out the heat sink as well (any tips on doing that? I have a dremel and a flex-shaft - do I need a drill press to ensure it's straight down? Because that does seem to be a lot of the issue - the hole is JUST big enough for the filament (which I measured - 1.74 to 1.75 pretty consistently along the length of it) and if there's the slightest bit of residue from melted filament up in there, it just will. not. move. And I know exactly that "catch" you mean, 1d1. God I'm just gonna end up drilling all the things. MOAR HOLES, BIGGER HOLES.

I do still have the MEK on hand that I could probably clean all the PLA out completely, but as I've been melting the PLA out on my stove top (putting them on my largest gas burner, on super low, and just letting it slowly heat up seems to work beautifully), I'd rather not heat any parts that had been bathed in MEK - I've not even opened the box and I look warily at it when I'm out in my studio. I hate resigning myself to breaking this stupid thing down constantly...

That Pico looks really interesting. Might grab a preorder as the no fairy farts thermistor alone looks like it'd be worth it.

 

Yeah... I'm kind of waiting to see if it is a "Pico-Boo" situation.. but it does look quite interesting.

 

Topsy, I'm so impressed by that doll you're making, it's excellent!

How did it turn out? or is it still a work in progress?

My wife and I are printing parts which we want to smooth and then cast multiples of with silicone molds, I've tried to use the blue spray putty, which I think you are using on the face? Are you having good results with smoothing parts with putty or solvents?

 

Thanks, Peter. It's still a work in progress. I sort of set it on a back burner temporarily to work on a toddler doll which I've got basically done in a month (where the lady one has taken me years!).

I'm not using any solvents. I'm using PLA and while I do have some MEK on hand to use as a solvent, I'm too chicken to pull it out unless I have to. I sand my parts using a Dremel with the flex shaft (mounted stone for rough sanding, those little wire brushes to remove the gunk left from rough sanding, hand sanding the rest of the way) and then just use auto primer/filler to surface them. These are just temporary parts though - I'll have to make sure the primer I'm using is sulfur-free when I'm actually using silicone, but it gives me a better idea of what I'm working with than the deceptive and somewhat reflective raw PLA.

 

AutopsyTurvy, is there a reason you are getting 0.4mm size instead of something smaller?

Is it easier to setup using the 0.4 since the settings are known. If I was to get a 0.1mm nozzle, would the settings need to be changed in the firmware and software end? And therefore I should get better resolution, smoother parts.

Wouldn't it be better to go to a smaller nozzle size?

I read how the software decides your layer height but then there has got to be a difference if using also a smaller nozzle hole.


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I tried to use a 0.25 nozzle and it was annoying. It wasn't just a matter of changing the nozzle, changing the setting for the nozzle size, and printing. The prints I tried with it came out really... holey and weak, like it wasn't extruding enough filament for the area it was trying to cover. I need to find time to do some more tests... just didn't have the patience to spend on it when I tried it before, knowing it was going to be a lot of "print this thing, change settings by 10%, print again, repeat eleventythousand times until it's 2 AM and you can't remember why you wanted to ever do 3D printing in the first place."

Good tip about the wood filament. I have a 0.6mm nozzle (somewhere...) that I was thinking of using for that. The specs on it I've seen say 0.35 or larger and my standard is 0.4 but I've had so many clogging issues, I'll go with the bigger nozzle.

 

Yeah, my midwives told me the same thing.