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Today in RepRap land
Sep. 28th, 2011 10:54 pmDidn't do much. I found that my giving up with a failed print last night was premature - it wasn't failed, I just didn't realize that the edges are not SUPPOSED to be plumb. I started it over again tonight after rechecking everything and it's printed just fine. It should be done in another 20 minutes or so, but I'm going the heck to bed. Too little sleep lately.
I did some hotend research over lunch and decided that I'm going to try to build an all-metal hotend. Early ones used PTFE rod as a thermal barrier, but this is not good because PTFE (teflon) creeps under load and is not reliable as a structural component.
Several people have reported success by just boring a bolt out, narrowing the bit above the nozzle as a thermal barrier, putting a stack of washers above that as a heat sink and blowing a fan on it, then using a PTFE hat right at the top. It does need to be supported by threaded rod but that's not a big deal.
There's a pretty cool skull posted on Thingiverse that I think I may try to print soon, when I get white ABS loaded in the machine again.
I did some hotend research over lunch and decided that I'm going to try to build an all-metal hotend. Early ones used PTFE rod as a thermal barrier, but this is not good because PTFE (teflon) creeps under load and is not reliable as a structural component.
Several people have reported success by just boring a bolt out, narrowing the bit above the nozzle as a thermal barrier, putting a stack of washers above that as a heat sink and blowing a fan on it, then using a PTFE hat right at the top. It does need to be supported by threaded rod but that's not a big deal.
There's a pretty cool skull posted on Thingiverse that I think I may try to print soon, when I get white ABS loaded in the machine again.
