I decided to go ahead and get my feet wet with 3d printing.

3D Printing
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1

I decided to go ahead and get my feet wet with 3d printing. I’m currently building a prusa i3 and have a fan for the arduino mega and the RAMPS board. I’m going to start with PLA but I’ve seen people putting fans on their extruders, is this something I should take into consideration?

Also what are the advantages/disadvantages of using/not using a fan on the extruder?

2

Fans are there to cool the hot end to stop the heat creeping up the barell to the extruder. A cooling fan also helps with print quality with PLA especially on bridging.

3

You’ll want a fan if running pla, to prevent the filament from softening and eventually jamming.
What hot end are you planning on using? That can play into your decision as well.

4

Thanks for the input guys.

I will be using a j-head with 1.75 filament and a 0.4 extrusion nozzle

5

I use a 40mm fan that blows on to the PLA as it is printing. You need this with PLA and not ABS.

6

Thanks guys I appreciate it

7

The fan is necessary for pla but I’ve owned a 3d printer for a week now (been involved since the first reprap though) and all I use is ABS. Yes it is a little more finicky but they are stronger and more clean. I’m not fond of PLA.

8

Thanks Todd. I plan on starting out with the PLA to start out and then switching over to ABS to see how I like it.

9

If j head then yes.