GearHeads Corner

I am looking for some idea of which 3D print head to buy or build.
Drawings of a proven design would be awesome since I have the machines to make one from scratch.
If not drawings then a link to a head that works well and is durable would be appreciated.


Mike

Cant help much there, I have an UP! mini, so it came complete.. happy to say its a
great working 3d printer..

  Id just ebay it and look to reviews on the ones on offer, extruders have come a long way
and there seems to be a few types nowdays..
Art

Take a look at the E3D.  I have one on one of my 3D printers, and have had a couple different versions of Printrbot's derivative.  One of Printrbot's had a marginal heater, the others have had melt rates in the 20s (as in cubic mm per second).

There's a large number of copies from the usual sources, of varying quality.  I believe you can find blueprints online, if not you should be able to copy it from pictures, etc.  The clones often have a rough internal finish that makes them more prone to jamming, so if you roll your own then do a good job of polishing the innards. I'm not a big fan of PTFE liners as that'll limit your max temp and ability to use some of the higher temp filiments.  I've polished mine with yarn and buffing compound, but it's time consuming and boring...

If you do go the roll your own route (of course, that'll end up costing you at least 3 times as much as buying one) then thread the heater block to take standard E3D nozzles, M6x1.0 iirc.  I've made my own in the past (my first extruder had a 1/4-20 male thread so brass acorn nuts made good blanks) but they're cheap and easy to find.  Heat breaks (the section between the fins and the heat block) are critical, you want the temperature to drop as quick as possible to avoid early melting and jamming, as is how fast you shed heat in the heatsink area.  Some use fans to help, the cheap ones are whiny and annoying so don't get your fan out of the bargain bin.

Kirk

Hi Kirk,
Thanks for the information. I am going to pursue the DIY version for now because I like making things. If I fail miserably then I will take your advice and purchase the E3D.

Hopefully I will make enough progress on the rest of the machine to worry about the print head in earnest.

One thing to watch out for is that E3D uses a different thermistor than just about everybody else.  My advice would be to use the "standard" thermistor (don't have the # handy but pretty easy to find) and save yourself some firmware rebuilding headaches, plus make spare parts easier

Kirk

TOTALLYRC wrote: I am looking for some idea of which 3D print head to buy or build.
Drawings of a proven design would be awesome since I have the machines to make one from scratch.
If not drawings then a link to a head that works well and is durable would be appreciated.

I have a Prusa I3 Mk2 which works pretty well.

Here's an assembly drawing from Prusa:

http://manual.prusa3d.com/Guide/5.+Extr ... sembly/114

Here's someone building & documenting a clone:

https://toms3d.org/2017/02/23/building- ... sa-i3-mk2/

Depending on your application this may not be appropriate, so YMMV and all that.

Nate wrote: I have a Prusa I3 Mk2 which works pretty well.

And it helps support the guy that's behind a good part of the hobby 3D printer industry.  In the beginning he was supported by a university, but today he's running his own company after his designs made several other people rich, and a lot of people well off.

Never used, or even seen, that extruder but it seems to review well.

Kirk

Doesn't look like the extruder head is available from the Prusa website.


Mike.