Mhackney's Rostock Max

[mhackney]

Just that it is awesome! It really is a much nicer unit. I haven't done a lot of printing with it yet, that's why I haven't updated. This is a busy time of year with high school graduations, Confirmations, recitals, graduation parties, etc, etc, etc. So I don't have a lot of free time right now!

[mhackney]

Hey guys and gals, just an update to get back into things! Most of you know that my main "thing" is my fly fishing reel kit business and angle book publishing. This takes most of my summer through the Christmas shopping season. That really only leaves me January to about June for fun stuff like 3D printing. So, I'll be back here posting and contributing again now!

I did get my machine re-configured with the new EZ Struder and a two extruder setup. I'm still working on the software chain for 2 extruders. I have a number of updates I want to finish off and post here too, including an adjustable cooling fan for the printed object and complete my 2 extruder setup. I'm very tempted to move my extruders to the top like the new Rostock kits to keep everything more compact in the horizontal plane. That would give me more workbench area.

Anyway, I have a lot of posts to catch up on. Happy New Years all.

cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

As I am ramping back up for my "printing season" I got my machine cleaned up and operational. Last May I had done a few upgrades including swapping over to an EZStruder. I did a number of prints in ABS and I thought I had done a few in PLA since it was loaded on the machine. I spent a good part of the day yesterday chasing down a problem that now appears to be a plugging issue. I do have a 25mm fan squeezed between the nozzle mounts which you can see in this photo:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v75 ... 2480-2.jpg[/img]

This setup was working great all of last year with PLA. 100s of prints with no clogs. Now I am getting clogs up in the PTFE tube. You can see it here:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v96 ... 2931-3.jpg[/img]

It took me a few trials and errors to capture this clog in tact in a way that I could disassemble the hot end to see where it occurred. When I align the nozzle with the barrel so I can map where the clog is occurring it is exactly aligned with the short section of PEEK that is exposed between the mounting plates - you can see it here:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v85 ... 0634-2.jpg[/img]

Note that this is the earlier "new" style of nozzle. The new SeeMeCNC nozzles are designed to reduce heat transfer up the barrel.

Has anyone else run into this clogging issue? If so, any "fixes" that I can try? I am going to modify the threaded area to mimic the new design - it has a shorter length of thread (I have a metal lathe).

One thought did just cross my mind - at about the same time I upgraded to the EZstruder I also upgraded to a cartridge heating element. I only use one element. Given that there is a feedback loop with the thermister to control the hot end temp I would suspect that this cartridge would heat any hotter or transmit heat up the barrel more than the resistors did. I am using the exact same thermister so "calibration" should be the same.

Cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

An observation: if you look closely at the filament to the left of the blue arrows, it is thinner diameter than the 1.75mm source material. I think it probably reduced in diameter as it stretched when I pulled the hot end apart. In other words, the plug was likely lower down in the PTFE tubing.

In looking at the new nozzle design and the overall geometry and heat transfer paths, it seems like a few tweaks on the hot end could help isolate the melt zone from the upper barrel. The J-Head hot end has a very short brass threaded section extending into the PEEK barrel. I have a few extra hot ends laying around to experiment with. I am thinking about shortening the thread length like the new SeeMeCNC design but then also shortening the length of the untreated section. I would replace the outer PTFE tube to fill in the space. This would remove about 6mm of heated brass that extends up into the PEEK.

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v79 ... 8267-3.jpg[/img]

Another modification to the hot end itself is to shorten the length of the aluminum threaded section and replace it with an insulting material.

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s5/v12 ... 5271-3.jpg[/img]

This would also eliminate about 5mm of conductive aluminum.

I'm going to dig out one of my hot ends and give this a shot.

Cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

I can't help you with the problem you're having but have you considered the E3D hotend? Now that filastruder.com is selling them here in the States, they are a little less
costly then buying them from England.

[mhackney]

You're already killing me! I wasn't aware of this hot end. I do have a J-Head here I could install. It, like the E3D, needs some sort of a mount for the Rostock and a bowden quick connect fitting attachment. I see the E3D has a Bowden feed option but they don't seem to show photos of it.

Wow, that's a great deal on the kit - it includes a cartridge heater and thermistor, axial fan and shroud, wire, Kapton, and two pneumatic couplings and 750 mm of PTFE for $83.99! That is just incredible, I have mine ordered, I'll figure out mounting later!

cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

You're already killing me! I wasn't aware of this hot end. I do have a J-Head here I could install. It, like the E3D, needs some sort of a mount for the Rostock and a bowden quick connect fitting attachment. I see the E3D has a Bowden feed option but they don't seem to show photos of it.

Wow, that's a great deal on the kit - it includes a cartridge heater and thermistor, axial fan and shroud, wire, Kapton, and two pneumatic couplings and 750 mm of PTFE for $83.99! That is just incredible, I have mine ordered, I'll figure out mounting later!

cheers,
Michael

Use this as the mounting, it was created by one of our users, 626pilot and works great for the E3D bowden.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:137140

[mhackney]

That looks good. It also triggered my memory that I had actually designed a J-Head mount myself! Not sure which I'll use or maybe machine something in aluminum. At least the hard part is done!

Cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

That looks good. It also triggered my memory that I had actually designed a J-Head mount myself! Not sure which I'll use or maybe machine something in aluminum. At least the hard part is done!

Cheers,
Michael

The E3d groove mount is ever so slightly different than the j-head. I think the thickness of the groove is slightly different.
The one made be 626pilot fits the E3D perfectly and I recommend you print it out and then think about redoing it in aluminum if that is your desire.
Damn it's good to have you back on the board.

[mhackney]

Good advice. I'll switch over to ABS to print it tonight. The head is on backorder until 1/5 so I have a little time. I don't know if I described my "quick switch" print head upgrade? I'll look back at earlier posts in my thread and if not I'll post some photos and a description. It allows me to swap out heads without tools in about 1 minute. Great for repairs, unplugging clogs and swapping heads. I have an attachment for an engraver to engrave metal plates and a two head adapter.

cheers,
Michael

[dpmacri]

Good advice. I'll switch over to ABS to print it tonight. The head is on backorder until 1/5 so I have a little time. I don't know if I described my "quick switch" print head upgrade? I'll look back at earlier posts in my thread and if not I'll post some photos and a description. It allows me to swap out heads without tools in about 1 minute. Great for repairs, unplugging clogs and swapping heads. I have an attachment for an engraver to engrave metal plates and a two head adapter.

cheers,
Michael

I would love to see those. I now have 2 E3D hot-ends and 2 SeeMeCNC hot-ends and it's a pain switching things when I do

[geneb]

When I get a chance, I'll get mine added as well. It uses the same four pin locking connectors that the stepper motors use and a tweaked hot end mount that's got strain relief notches in it. I use thumb screws to hold it in place - I changed out the 1" standoffs for 1" hex F-F #6 threaded spacers. Works great.

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

Good advice. I'll switch over to ABS to print it tonight. The head is on backorder until 1/5 so I have a little time. I don't know if I described my "quick switch" print head upgrade? I'll look back at earlier posts in my thread and if not I'll post some photos and a description. It allows me to swap out heads without tools in about 1 minute. Great for repairs, unplugging clogs and swapping heads. I have an attachment for an engraver to engrave metal plates and a two head adapter.

cheers,
Michael

I would love to see the "quick switch" print head upgrade. In the past the only quick switch would be the Xnarron Magnetic arms.

[Eaglezsoar]

When I get a chance, I'll get mine added as well. It uses the same four pin locking connectors that the stepper motors use and a tweaked hot end mount that's got strain relief notches in it. I use thumb screws to hold it in place - I changed out the 1" standoffs for 1" hex F-F #6 threaded spacers. Works great.

g.

That sounds cool also, would love to see it.

[mhackney]

Well, I couldn't wait to print the adapter for the new head. Here is a photo:

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v16 ... 7109-3.jpg[/img]

This also shows the quick switch setup. Basically, I swapped the 3 posts with hexagonal standoffs. They have a male 8-32 threaded section at one end and an 8-32 female at the other. The male part is attached to the lower delta head with nuts. That leaves the upper threaded holes for attaching the upper head mount with 3 knurled 8-32 screws (the black acetal screws you see in the photo). The wiring all goes to a quick disconnect right above the mount plate (just off the top of the photo). So, simply disconnect the Bowden, the wiring connector and unscrew the 3 screws and the entire hot end assembly pops off.

Note, I have two 1/2" hexagonal "stand off" sections and they are different sizes. This is just because I was experimenting with different nozzle extensions. They are different sizes since that is what I had available. I have some 1" hex male-female standoffs that I'll swap out now that I have things the way I want - but will probably hold off until I install the new head as it seems it might need longer spacers.

Cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

I measure the J-Head groove at 4.6mm, the adapter for the E3D is 5.5mm thick. I'm going to scale the thickness on this model to make another for the J-Head just for grins.

I just read Gene's post above - basically, a F-F standoff is perfect. I just happened to have the M-F laying around. But the idea is that you attach the standoffs to the delta plate "permanently" so that you only have to remove the head mount from them. My screws are simply acetal thumbscrews too. Great minds think alike!

cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

The way I calculate it Eaglezsoar is I need to post 2-3 posts for every 1 of yours to catch up to be the highest poster again!

cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

While I'm waiting for the scaled J-Head adapter to print I thought I'd share a little trick I discovered that I have not seen mentioned before. I like to use Herbal Essence hair spray on my borosilicate build surface. I heat the bed to temperature and then spray a light coating. Once it is completely dry, I use a very fine scotch bright pad and lightly scuff the surface of the spray. The prints adhere so well that they come off with an audible "pop". I've not had any problems with getting the first layer to stick with PLA, ABS and Taulman Nylon doing this (but I usually use a different surface for the Nylon without hair spray).

cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

Simple, yet effective. Thanks for showing us.

[Eaglezsoar]

The way I calculate it Eaglezsoar is I need to post 2-3 posts for every 1 of yours to catch up to be the highest poster again!

cheers,
Michael

Lots of luck, I spend a lot of time on this board because I am disabled and sometimes cannot do anything but use a computer so I am on this board a lot.
I have learned and amazing amount by reading every post that comes in and I leave a lot of message because I like to talk to people and I like to help people.
There are many times that I can't sleep because of the pain in my back so I am on the board reading old posts, etc.
GeneB keeps me under control when my advise isn't the best but I am learning. It's not to be the highest poster it's to help all I can and I have a big yapper.
I finally got those 5/16" plates working on my heatbed and I run the onyx at 24V through an SSR. Works great! I have 2 Rostock Max's that still are not complete
because this bad back limits the time I can work on them to only a small part of the day. I do have two of the bowden version of the E3D. Once I get these working
I would like to make them dual extruders if time permits. I'm 61 now and not getting any younger. I said it before and I'll say it again, I truly missed you on here
and I'm glad you're back. Forgot - I use an M2 printer to print out stuff I need for the Rostock Max and I am looking at an effector mounted layer fan that does not
cover my LED lights I have on the bottom of the hotend.

[mhackney]

Since I've been away for a bit, it seems there have been some changes in the slicer world. I had switched to KISSlicer from Slic3r because it really did a nice job. But, I see that the developer seems to have disappeared (I tried emailing him last week) and Slic3r is in 1.0.0 R2 release. It has some new capabilities that might put it back on top plus it is integrated into Repetier host. I just installed R2 and testing some prints myself but what's the general consensus on slicers now?

Cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

Since I've been away for a bit, it seems there have been some changes in the slicer world. I had switched to KISSlicer from Slic3r because it really did a nice job. But, I see that the developer seems to have disappeared (I tried emailing him last week) and Slic3r is in 1.0.0 R2 release. It has some new capabilities that might put it back on top plus it is integrated into Repetier host. I just installed R2 and testing some prints myself but what's the general consensus on slicers now?

Cheers,
Michael

You are not the first to notice that the developer for KissSlicer has disappeared. Other users have reported the same thing but I still feel that he has not abandoned it. It could be he
is having problems in his life that he needs to take care of. There has been others that have reported that the new Slic3r has some problems with support and infill.

[mhackney]

Hopefully all is ok with him. It is a nice slicer.

I've made 3 prints this morning with the R2 slicer and it has been working quite well. Haven't tried supports yet.

Cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

Hopefully all is ok with him. It is a nice slicer.

I've made 3 prints this morning with the R2 slicer and it has been working quite well. Haven't tried supports yet.

Cheers,
Michael

You have a lot more knowledge than most so it could be that user inexperience caused the reports of Slic3r problems.

[Polygonhell]

I did some recent tests with the latest Slicer and Cura, the first issue I hit was that both generated GCode that exposed a bug in 0.83 of repetier, causing the prints to freeze about 2 hours in, so I pulled the latest repetier and tried again.
Generally I thought both were good and Slicer in particular generated better support with PLA than I've seen previously, it can get very slow though.
I'm still using KissSlicer for day to day stuff, but anyone of them is good at this point.