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Alrighty second print is the instructed hollow cube. You can see a mistake in living color on this one. As an experienced cartesian printer operator I was comfortable flying through sli3er settings. I added the command "g0 z0" to the end g-code. Yeah.... don't do that. My brain was thinking go all the way up and up is home and home is 0. No, not so much. Anyhow, you can see the dents in the top of the cube and in the top of the first picture. Luckly, I was checking out the g-code while it was printing and realized my mistake. I had my finger on the mouse over e-stop and hit it as soon as it started own. No damage.

The lumps sticking out are the z lift points. I think I need to add a mm or two to my retract settings. I wish there were seperate settings for retract on travel and retract on z-lift. I don't think I'll need nearly as much on the lift. Bridging looks ok, not great, I will tweak it later.

[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8524/8672261454_a60082ab0f_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8406/8671160755_35d8c843db_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8522/8672263626_cd4a5f98c5_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

Having that second one along for the ride will upset the ionic balances present in the Hot End.
All sorts of bad things could happen like opening a dimensional rift to the 4th dimension allowing
all sorts of nasty creatures to infiltrate your Rostock Max. Have a good one, brother.

Carl

Eaglezsoar wrote:Having that second one along for the ride will upset the ionic balances present in the Hot End.
All sorts of bad things could happen like opening a dimensional rift to the 4th dimension allowing
all sorts of nasty creatures to infiltrate your Rostock Max. Have a good one, brother.

Carl

I guess that explains the low growling I hear from the office. Damn, know any good dimensional rift closers?

Call Ghost Busters.
1-800-busters

Here's my bowden setup, my dog ate/duaghter stole, my small Steve's extruder gear. I printed this setup to replace it.


[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8117/8672034447_bda65377c2_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

It's hard to see the top of your Rostock, what are you using for an extruder in place of the Steve's?

Carl

Eaglezsoar wrote:It's hard to see the top of your Rostock, what are you using for an extruder in place of the Steve's?

Carl

It's just a tilted Greg's. I am not currently enjoying the hobbed bolt on these retracts though. There seems to be a fine line between enough pressure on the filament to allow for moving through the bowden, and grinding my filament into a fine powder which I spend about 10 minutes cleaning out of the bolt.

Perhaps Seemecnc can supply just the small gear without having to buy the whole extruder?
The other option is one of the direct drive extruders like the airtripper V3. There is a modified one
on Thingiverse that accepts the PTC. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:44049

Eaglezsoar wrote:Perhaps Seemecnc can supply just the small gear without having to buy the whole extruder?
The other option is one of the direct drive extruders like the airtripper V3. There is a modified one
on Thingiverse that accepts the PTC. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:44049

I printed the airtripper as well, I couldn't find the small shaft support bearing in my pile 'o parts. I had the stuff to make the Greg's on hand. This is my first bowden setup. Right now I'm less then thrilled, but I think once I get the bugs sorted out I'll be happy with it.

foshon wrote:

Eaglezsoar wrote:It's hard to see the top of your Rostock, what are you using for an extruder in place of the Steve's?

Carl

It's just a tilted Greg's. I am not currently enjoying the hobbed bolt on these retracts though. There seems to be a fine line between enough pressure on the filament to allow for moving through the bowden, and grinding my filament into a fine powder which I spend about 10 minutes cleaning out of the bolt.

Greg's is not ideal for a bowden connection, most have very limited retract rates.
I've given up fighting my Steve's extruder, I've been trying to get the E3D hotend to behave and I'm now of the opinion that much of the issue is Steve's extruder, the E3D hotend seems to have a very large amount of back pressure at the start of an extrude and it causes the rollers in the Steve's to slip on the filament and eat it.
I'm just printing an air trippers right now, but I have a Nema17 with a 5:1 planetary reduction gear here and I'm going to make up a direct drive extruder for that long term.

Polygonhell wrote:

foshon wrote:

Eaglezsoar wrote:It's hard to see the top of your Rostock, what are you using for an extruder in place of the Steve's?

Carl

It's just a tilted Greg's. I am not currently enjoying the hobbed bolt on these retracts though. There seems to be a fine line between enough pressure on the filament to allow for moving through the bowden, and grinding my filament into a fine powder which I spend about 10 minutes cleaning out of the bolt.

Greg's is not ideal for a bowden connection, most have very limited retract rates.
I've given up fighting my Steve's extruder, I've been trying to get the E3D hotend to behave and I'm now of the opinion that much of the issue is Steve's extruder, the E3D hotend seems to have a very large amount of back pressure at the start of an extrude and it causes the rollers in the Steve's to slip on the filament and eat it.
I'm just printing an air trippers right now, but I have a Nema17 with a 5:1 planetary reduction gear here and I'm going to make up a direct drive extruder for that long term.

As much as I hate it, I ordered this unit earlier today, the bowden is just too much. No stringing, but retract speed is so slow it's almost unbearable. The way I see it what I lose in print speed due to moving mass, I will gain by not waiting so long on the retracts.

http://www.ultibots.com/micro-extruder- ... -filament/


That being said, I did get a six hour shake down print out of big brother today. The retract issues are quite apparent. A lot filament popping going here as well. I think the filament may be of questionable quality.

[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8388/8675235677_9eecb33454_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8676342428_98e793a654_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

Here is my Ultibots pg35l micro extruder hard at it. Also I included a picture of my very high tech wire support available for less than five dollars at any hardware store.

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7285/8724216216_b316b70d62_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7448/8724220030_3fe6dc0c18_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

OH FRACKING MY!!!! So the new EZstruder..... yeah, my like. My like ALOT!!!!! Here's some pics of it's first print. I am fairly sure I mounted it wrong. However, I mounted it the way I liked. I can rest my thumb on the top (bottom) of the extruder and use a finger to squeeze the counter-pressure bearing support, fairly ergonomic. The only mod I made to the bracket was to use a curved file to add a second curved cut to the mount plate, I'll get a picture of it.


[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7354/8730078600_8f6b0621c5_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7327/8730075684_e95f3de816_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7455/8730057264_4e2199f14d_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

Thanks for the pictures, they will help us to figure out how to mount it.
So tell us why you like it. Does it do retracts better? I'd like to find out
how you feel about every aspect of the extruder. We want more!

Here's the very first print, set retraction up at 2mm / 1mm pre-feed at 15mm/sec I believe, needs tweeked. First pic is the z-lift side.

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7283/8729046981_f7199cc4e4_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7287/8729048323_663fa4f710_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7408/8729049791_85fdd1b5a3_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

how did you like the pg35L extruder was it working for you?

I think I started the assembly/installation around 10am. Between mounting, fiddling, and spending some time cleaning my office looking for a push fit, I had the whole thing set up by 2:30pm. The looking for the fitting took longer then setting this up.

I was worried about retraction speed, becuase it does not seem like the spring is very stiff, it appears I was wrong, it is at least capable of more than my old Greg's. The feed rate is pretty slow, I worked out 92.68 s/p mm with 1/16 microstepping; but it is what it is right, any faster is to much flow, any slower is to little. I also have my digipot set very low right now, somewhere in the 125 range.


Edit: got the exact s/p mm

Whoop's I fibbed. That last block was actually printed with retract turned off. This one is 15 steps per speed, 2mm retract and 1mm back in.

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7388/8729147607_4fd670ed6d_n.jpg[/img]
Untitled by foshon, on Flickr

cambo3d wrote:how did you like the pg35L extruder was it working for you?

I did like it well enough, until it ate itself from the inside. I believe my gears are toast. It will "free air" extrude just fine, but fails repeatedly after the second or third layer.

im told some of them have plastic gears. which wear out quickly. the models with metals gears if you can find them seem to work better. I haven't opened mine to see if they are metal. most likely its plastic also.

cambo3d wrote:im told some of them have plastic gears. which wear out quickly. the models with metals gears if you can find them seem to work better. I haven't opened mine to see if they are metal. most likely its plastic also.

Honestly, I am a little peeved. I searched high and low for "safe" settings to start with and never deviated from those. A little disappointed really. On the plus side, the EZstruder appears to be kickin' arse and taking names!

One of the problems with these motors is that they run hot. You should have a fan made to fit on a heatsink for these
turned on all the time. The heatsink should be available on Thingiverse if not included. The second problem is the
factory is sparse on the grease when they make these. The gearbox should be removed and packed with white lithium
grease. Any geared stepper should be inspected and the gearbox should be packed with the proper grease. There are
small tabs that hold on the gearbox of these motors. Easy to inspect. If you don't have the fan you will not get much
life from this motor.

Eaglezsoar wrote:One of the problems with these motors is that they run hot. You should have a fan made to fit on a heatsink for these
turned on all the time. The heatsink should be available on Thingiverse if not included. The second problem is the
factory is sparse on the grease when they make these. The gearbox should be removed and packed with white lithium
grease. Any geared stepper should be inspected and the gearbox should be packed with the proper grease. There are
small tabs that hold on the gearbox of these motors. Easy to inspect. If you don't have the fan you will not get much
life from this motor.

Had the fan, heatsink and fan shroud surrounding the motor. First I've heard of the grease. I'm going to disassemble it and have a looksee. I'll post more when I know more.

foshon wrote:

cambo3d wrote:how did you like the pg35L extruder was it working for you?

I did like it well enough, until it ate itself from the inside. I believe my gears are toast. It will "free air" extrude just fine, but fails repeatedly after the second or third layer.

I wonder if that is what is happening to my stepper motor. The "slipping" is the gears starting to wear out inside it?

jetpad wrote:

foshon wrote:

cambo3d wrote:how did you like the pg35L extruder was it working for you?

I did like it well enough, until it ate itself from the inside. I believe my gears are toast. It will "free air" extrude just fine, but fails repeatedly after the second or third layer.

I wonder if that is what is happening to my stepper motor. The "slipping" is the gears starting to wear out inside it?

Conventional steppers don't have gears inside, the PG35L has an additional gearbox on the front of the motor with plastic gears in it.