Green: The first print of a brand new extruder on a Makerbot 5th generation.
Red: A handful of prints later on the very same extruder on a Makerbot 5th generation.
Clear: The first print of a brand new Printrbot Simple Metal without tuning.
I have since gotten better results both on layers and rafts for my Printrbot Simple Metal. The Printrbot Simple Metal is $600. The Makerbot is $2900. The only thing you gain with the extra $2300 spent is the headaches.
Should have bought that three-pack of SmartExtruders to Triple your savings and minimize critical downtime! Remember, only Makerbot extruders have natural wear!
Funny you said that since my company almost bought the pack after our single one keeps clogging and requires sending it back for services. Our printer is only for morale purpose and not related to our business.
Indeed - I’ve not had any real problems with my recent printrbot simple metal other than an uneven bed, which they promptly replaced (even with holiday backlog)
In my case, I noticed that during a print, a certain region in X would extrude fine, which on either side of it, it would spread thinner as the tip was closer to the bed. If you have a 6" straightedge, you can test the region in the middle of the bed along the x, y and diagonals to see if it’s flat. The auto-leveling is only 3 point, so it only corrects for a flat bed that might be tilted, not a bed with a slight bow.
Once I upgrade to the heated bed, this will not be a problem anymore, since that one is on a milled piece of aluminum, guaranteed flat.
What are you doing to your extruder that you need a new one monthly? I may need to do a cold pull cleaning on my hot end monthly-ish (depending on what I manage to do to my printer), but I’ve never needed to replace the hot end or actual extruder due to damage or fault… And I’ve been printing for a couple years now.
Nozzle is not the problem, I have plenty of them and keep rotating them while I clean the clogged ones. Hot end is the problem, near it’s end of life a pieces of a teflon tape start oozing from the nozzle.
Kapton tape, given it’s a composite material (glue, plastic, etc), also has around 20~30 ppm/degC thermal expansion around hotend temperatures (meaning it’ll work it’s way loose after a while). Silicon Gasket does not have nearly as much expansion and will pretty much stay in place (used in engines to seal components where a leak means a lot worse than a failed print).
Once the kapton starts to ooze for mine, I’ll clean it up with some isopropyl/naptha, and rebuild with the silicon gasket, using stainless steel zip ties from Homedepot to secure the insulating sleeve.
You generally don’t want to use teflon in your hot end… teflon’s pyrolosis temperature is low enough that you can start getting unpleasant gases being given off at temperatures you’ll hit while printing.
The simple solution is to use an all-metal hot end. Printrbot makes one now, and E3D has been the go-to manufacturer for quite a while too.
I was wrong that I had never had to replace a hot end, I killed my original hot end which used a PEEK heatbreak when it got over temperature and the threads in the PEEK softened enough to deform. I bought an E3D as a replacement and haven’t had to replace it since, even though their newer designs are very tempting. The only way you’ll kill an all-metal hot end is by bending it.
Basically, the silicone gasket acts as an ‘adhesive’ where kapton is used to tape sensors or thermal elements in place. For wrapping the hot sleeve, I’d use it to tack in a couple places, but then use the steel zip ties to hold it in place.
I’d insert the thermister and cartridge, and tack them in place with a dab of the silicone. Let it cure for at least 4 hours. Then I’d use the provided thermal sock and stainless steel zipties to direct the wires, being sure not to let the zipties cross thermal zones.
+Stephen Baird
Yeah, teflon is bad in the hot zone of a hotend. The thermal resistance for the high temp silicone includes that factor, so the copper gasket material will not decompose during normal temps.
I’ve definitely been eyeballing the E3D v6 all metal hotend, as well as the volcano hotend. I’d have already ordered a pair if there was an US distributor. I’ve been more patient as I save for shipping.
Then I have good and bad news for your wallet… E3D does have at least one US distributor (http://www.filastruder.com/products/all-metal-e3d-v6-hotend - they also have the volcano, and all other currently manufactured E3D hot ends). But in the end it’s only ~$2 cheaper, although shipping should be quicker.
In truth, I’ve been waiting until I design a secondary Z stage to toss some hot ends on my Shapeoko 2, so I can get a larger foot print and potential for combined additive and subtractive machining (such as mill a substrate, then print along 3d tool paths).
