my latest project -
I needed to improve my extruders. I have been using the mk8 extruders in a bowden setup, but I had to push them so hard that the motors would heat up to the point of on long prints it would soften the filament at the drive gear and cause it to slip. I looked at a couple of geared printable extruders , but I’m not a fan of plastic bodies for mounting points, the treads tend to give out too quickly.
I’ve already got the mk8’s and like the all aluminum body, so lets just make a drive setup for them. I did barrow the gear set from the NSTT extruder on thingiverse, by Paciente8159. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2090259 . The body ended up being taller then I wanted, but the shafts on my motors are 30mm long, so I had to accommodate them.
I have about 5 hours on it and it works like a champ.
FYI, stepper motor temperature doesn’t depend on load, only the chosen drive current and average running speed. Higher speed = cooler running (but ungeared extruder motors never run fast enough for it to make a difference).
If your motors are running too hot, drop the drive current coming from the stepper drivers a little bit.
That was the issue, I had to run the current high or they would skip, and why I went to a geared setup. By pushing them hard, I meant running high current.
So what’s better in this than all the wades/gregs varients on Thingiverse? Why reinvent the wheel when so many options already exist?
Wades is big and heavy, originally designed for 3mm filament. There is no need for it with 1.75mm
I’m surprised that gold colored extruder even works. That’s got to be 6-10 mm of unsupported filament path. Just a little jam, the material buckles a bit and your filament goes out the side.
@Jeff_DeMaagd I have had that happen several times. I used a small piece of PTFE tubing on the output side to stop it.
That motor doesn’t show up on my search of Minebea’s site, which might mean it’s a custom motor. Plus 11v is pretty high to be driven by a 12v system. Sounds counterintuitive but steppers are driven at higher than design voltages to overcome their inductance with the ultimate current controlled by the driver. See http://geckodrive.com’s tech library if you want details.
TLDR, research steppers and replace the motor with something appropriate. I like Kysan 1124090s but there are other choices
@ekaggrat_singh_kalsi I agree, I wasn’t trying to reinvent anything, I just used the parts that were available to me. I won’t even aruge that it is not a good extruder, but it is a step better then have it direct drive.