Is the Peak Fan Neccesary

[MARSTECH]

I just finished my rostock max v2 printed the peak fan shroud. I am happy to say the print came out great (thanks to everyone in the forums who helped me along during the build process). I managed to lose the small fan for the peek section. Am I able to still print in abs while I wait for the replacement? I thinking probably yes, but I don't want to damage my printer. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[TFMike]

Stock seemecnc hot end? Yes, goto radio shack and grab a 30 or 40 mm fan to replace it, the peek needs to be kept cool

Other hot ends like the e3dlite or the ubis, no.

[Nylocke]

I would argue the cold end fan (more broad term for hotends lacking PEEK) is necessary for really all hotends. The only hotends I've seen do alright without one are the Budashnozzle and the Ubis, and they really do work better with one.

[TFMike]

I would argue the cold end fan (more broad term for hotends lacking PEEK) is necessary for really all hotends. The only hotends I've seen do alright without one are the Budashnozzle and the Ubis, and they really do work better with one.

Do you have a printrbot?

[Nylocke]

No, but I've helped a friend with an old wood Simple, and another person with a 2UP with a Ubis. I never liked the design to be honest.

[bvandiepenbos]

no hot end should ever be ran without a peek/barrel fan.

[HumanLiberty]

Hey all - I'm a total noob - about to start building my Max v2 on Monday and trying to get prepped.
Any particular PEEK/Barrel fans you recommend? Would you pair them with a heatsink like this http://tinyurl.com/m9t2eoa" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or not necessary?
Also, what do you think of water cooling for T-Glase? Worth it or overkill?

I expect to be printing almost entirely with T-Glase, and eventually perhaps Polycarb/Tritan, etc. - basically clear stuff, ideally w available color. Thanks!

[Nylocke]

You shouldn't need to cool your motor, if you do you're probably using it wrong, so that heatsink is probably unnecessary. The fan you'll want depends on which hotend you have and which fan duct you're using. The E3D hotends come with a real nice 30mm fan and a duct that works awesomely with it. most others (especially the ones from RepRapDiscount) have 40mm fans that are okay, but you'll want a good duct for them.

Watercooling is cool and dandy, and really reliable. Again, what hotend are you planning on using? If its stock then the fan included should do just fine.

Polycarb is really hard to print (moisture sensitive, need 300C min hotend temp to print well, recommended 120+C bed temp, etc). Tritan is much more manageable, but you still need an all metal hotend to utilize it properly. Again, what hotend are you going to use? The stock hotend will not be able to print Tritan.

T-Glase (in my experience) is not a very friendly plastic to print. Most people have the best success with very large extrusion widths (large nozzle, Volcano might work well?), slow printing speeds, and single wall parts. Thats not to say you can't print solid parts, but thats what I've seen. I've seen better success with PETG or other filaments from other manufacturers. You can decide what works best for you though.

[Dale Eason]

no hot end should ever be ran without a peek/barrel fan.

So how does one ever complete the build which is to print the Peek fan without having one in the first place?

For the record I printed the peek fan part and then broke the fan trying to insert it into my misshapen print. So I printed a few other things with out it using ABS until I got the replacement fan and printed a good shroud. I decided at the time if you don't need the fan to print the shroud then you can probably live without when printing ABS. As long as you don't exceed the PEEK melting/damage temp. Don't think I hurt anything but don't really know. However I have been printing happily in ABS and PLA for a couple months now with the fan installed.

Dale

[Nylocke]

The fan pretty much completely necessary for PLA printing on the stock hotend, and it really extends the life of the PEEK section for everything else. Other hotend designs (especially the all metal ones) can be crippled without the fan, they are designed to be used with a fan. They will fail without the fan.

[Earthbound]

The purpose of a fan on the barrel is to reduce the length of the melting zone in the hot end. The heater is in close proximity to the nozzle so that the molten material volume is a low as possible. Since heat rises, the barrel will tend to "heat creep" and develop a long melt zone unless the area above the heater block is actively cooled. Longer melt zones increase the likelihood of a clogged barrel and generally decrease the precision of the extrusion process. One way manufacturers reduce heat creep is to use materials in the mid-section of the hot end that do not conduct heat efficiently (like PEEK). PEEK softens at a temperature only a few degrees above ABS printing range, so active cooling protects it. Even an all metal hot end will usually need a fan to keep the melt zone small.