Alright, lets talk long-term extruder life. My first hobbed bolt (purchased on ebay), Had kind of an odd double profile which wouldn’t at first seem to work, but did, for a good 8 months or so. The second one, I made myself, and it worked pretty well for 4 months or so…until it gradually stopped working well. I suspect it wasn’t completely concentric, which made the flow issues harder to troubleshoot.
@Brook_Drumm 's geared extruder looks appealing, with a bowden mod, @shauki 's flintwheel extruder is something I can pretty much make today. His current version would take a little research and money to purchase a geared motor. There’s no shortage of hobbed gear wheels for purchase on ebay, all with unknown provenance.
Is there, for ABS/PLA printing, a reason to stick with Wade style gear reduction, or will I be happy with direct drive (or will there be unexpected issues like motor cooling I’ll have to deal with.)
I guess the operating question is: If I jump from home-hobbed bolts on a Wade extruder, will I be exchanging one set of oddities for another? Can I honestly expect to find an extruder that works for years at a time, or is it something I should just expect is a consumable?
I’m still using the one that came with my mendel90 2 years ago with a wades geared extruder. The one that is showing flex filament printed insoles… Recreus I think is interesting - http://gyrobot.co.uk and the Flex3D drive where it will do both 3mm and 1.75 would be worth checking out.
So what I’ve found with 1.75mm direct drive, is that there’s a window to tune for in regards to power. You can’t be using a pancake motor, you’ll want something with some beef (a Kysan 72oz-in variety). You don’t want to be using a cheap-o A4988 driver either, the panucatt ones have enlarged that window for me quite broadly.
The gear reduction is fine, it’s plenty fast, it’s just that direct drive can be more compact. I still have my wades sitting on the desk next to me in black ABS. Haven’t had the heart to get rid of it.
I have tried many. Direct drive ez-struder by seemecnc. Bowden ez-struder, air tripper with standard nema17, planetcnc bowden with 5.18:1 gear reduced nema17, hercustruder with geared stepper, and bondtech with geared stepper.
The bondtech by @Martin_Bondeus is hands down the best I have ever used. Zero issues after months of high use. No sign of wear on the teeth after many spools. And that was an alpha prototype. To be honest I doubt I will ever look into another extruder.
@Mike_Miller I forget, are you in the states? He is sending me some soon since I have 3 extruders between my 2 printers. I can get one of mine to you to test. If you like it better than your current setup you can buy it from from Martin.
It seems from the video and description that the additional drive from squeezing the filament between those two belts allows the hobbed gear to be set for a more forgiving pressure on the filament, while still maintaining movement accuracy.
The downside is the extra cost and complexity of the belt’s gears and bearings.
I’ve been mostly using gear reduction, or later, belt reduction for lighter weight, to extremely reliable and smooth results. I’m using a stainless MK7 type hobbed pulley and screw-adjustable idler bearing tensioning.
