Hmmm, I think I have to finally stop referring to my printer as a Mendelmax. Last night I got rid of the apex frame and repurposed the Alu extrusions to make it bit more lulzbot taz like, it’s now almost entirely bespoke. Changes include:
-A cnc linear rail and carriage for the X axis,
-12mm shafts and acetyl bearings on the Y
-All printed frame joints replaced with aluminium.
The wiring is a mess as ive yet to print a case for the RUMBA.
Nice what extruder is it?
super top
@Stephen_Jensen ultibots microextruder v4 with a pg35l. Nice and light but th pgs only last so long before the internal gearing wears out. E3d hot end underneath.
Something is totally screwing with me in that picture. That thing looks all sorts of uneven/skewed/tilted.
@ThantiK yeah, I noticed that too. Something going on with the photo.
You probably took the picture close up and not perfectly centered, the perspective is playing brain games. I gotta give you credit though, making terrific progress on 2 printers!
I finally started modeling my new printer ideas into solid works, but so far I just have the x and y rails and linear bearings floating in space. I guess it what you call a busman’s holiday. After I get home from work, I’ve been subconsciously avoiding design :o/
Thanks for letting me know. I have seen the popularity with the PG35L and I don’t quite get it. If there are such problems with the gears melting, why isn’t there a version like it where the gears are instead made out of metal? I can’t imagine that it would add that much weight.
@Stephen_Jensen I currently have a pg35l, but am intending to replace with a plain nema 17 with a minimalist extruder. I think people just latched onto the now discontinued pg35l because that’s what the Mendel had on its bom. I don’t think you really need the gearhead if you use a strong enough nema 17
Cool so you are going to replace it with the mk7, maker bot style extruder? I heard that they have troubles with 3mm filament and lack the torque sometimes, is that true?
@Stephen_Jensen this is what I’m going to use
I have a Bowden tube for use with 1.75mm filament. I know people with my same printer, eventorbot, that have used it with 3mm, I’m not sure what torque of stepper they used, but from what I remember, it was a cheap aliexpress motor. The 3mm and 1.75mm filament should require similar torque, as the same amount of filament is coming out of the nozzle, so the same amount of work is being performed. There are differing losses, but I’m not positive of what they are.
I just do know that my pg35l will not be repurposed once I switch my extruder, it’s going straight to the dump, as it gives me so much trouble. The axle on the drive shaft is not very rigid, and it trends to select with radial force. And you can fry an egg on the thing if you’re not careful with the motor current
I’ve had no problems with mine apart from them wearing out… Won’t replace this one as I’m going Bowden. Incidentally they are still being made in small u batches for ultibots http://www.ultibots.com/pg35l-geared-stepper-motor/p
I’ve had no problems with mine apart from them wearing out… Won’t replace this one as I’m going Bowden. Incidentally they are still being made in small u batches for ultibots http://www.ultibots.com/pg35l-geared-stepper-motor/p
@Tim_Rastall that link looks like it’s dead now.
Thanks for the link but it details modifying an mk7 extruder. Are you going to buy one from makerbot or is there a cheaper alternative? It seems like the heat sink is custom. I heard qu-bd is so-so but people have had luck swapping out the gear.
Were you saying that you would use the mk7 in a Bowden configuration? Why not just use wades at that point? Thanks for the input!
Sorry for being so vague. I currently have a Bowden tube attached to a simple one piece similar to
It’s driven by an mk7 gear attached to a pg35l. In going to reuse the mk7 gear but mount it onto a NEMA 17 motor and fabricate a bracket to hold the Bowden hose fitting. Here’s the design from a fellow Kickstarter backer of the same printer I have.
http://www.eventorbot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=651
That forum community is great, when I was first building (my initial build of my printer that is, since I never actual stopped building my millennium falcon of a printer) those guys totally got me through some insanely frustrating predicaments. My username on that forum is moyboyufl. You can see my build blog, but I was too lazy to post pictures.
Are these X-ends are available anywhere?
@Jarek_Szczepanski Not at present but they can be. They are rather bespoke: Using press fit bushings, cnc linear rail and 1/4" acme lead screw. You want me to put them on Gdrive or something? Filetype of choice?
I can buy good linear rail in very good price (used but mint condition). I thought about similar modification for my MendelMax (only for X axis). If you can share STL with me it will be awesome