Swung by Fastenal and picked up a couple of oversize 18-8 stainless bolts to fiddle with. Promptly broke a bit while drilling the hole for the filament. (that’s a bastard of a step. Itty bitty drillbit, 2" hole, and I suspect there are inclusions in the steel as it’s not exactly machinist quality billet.
Looking at the useless part, I figured I’d experiment before pitching it…
Good news: The hot end easily reached 245C
Bad news: The cold end reached 120c without cooling, 60c with.
So what’s a good temp range for the cold end to not exceed?
Drilling stainless is a pita. I lost 3 drill bits trying to do what you are doing.
Here is a tip: use cutting oil, back out frequently, and get Cobalt drill bits.
@ThantiK I’m looking at the second bolt and thinking: rather than cut the head off the bolt (and the bit you lose due to tool encroachment), I can turn the bolt down to the right diameter and keep that length. I’ll play with this for another week and either succeed, or get another paycheck and move on to the e3d.
