PLA effector heat shield? Wondering what people think of this hackmod?
It is my MiltEffector design for MiniKossel and similar Deltas with the Mini Hotend, modified with a nylon wire spool that comes in many multi color wire sets, the one in the long box with like 5 colors of wire. This was 18awg stranded but I think anything around 22-18awg comes on the same spool. its 28.4mm OD center shaft, roughly.
The spool is cut in half and fits into the center with M3 set screws. Assembled unit is just nylon cable spool, the other unassembled unit has the nylon shield and a small section of aluminum bicycle handlebar. I can mount the cut off wire spool or the aluminum tube or both for a double walled heat shield. Both block heat from the heater to the effector to hopefully keep it from warping. They are both pretty light, spool is around 8gm with 12mm of center tube left, 5gm cut in half with about 6mm of center tube. Aluminum handlebar end cutting is 5gm.
How do you think this might work in the various configurations?
I’d still be worried about cooling fan failure.
@Ryan_Carlyle well without a fan failure can you imagine how it will perform?
Well… I’d be a little suspicious of using injection molded nylon for a heat shield, because it may warp from the heat itself. (Temperatures near the glass point will effectively anneal the nylon and the residual molding strain can relax the piece into a different shape.) If it warps up, no problem, but if it warps down, you’re going to crash into the print.
I can’t tell from the photos, but you’ll want to have enough vertical clearance from the nozzle tip to the heat shield to ensure curling corners don’t tag the shield.
If what you’ve done here doesn’t end up working for you, wrapping the effector in aluminum tape is another option. Various people have done that over the years. It’s reflective and conducts away any local heating over a larger area. Ugly though.
Thanks Ryan! It is clear of any curling corners. I had hoped the nylon would withstand PLA printing temps, I guess I will find out. By aluminum tape do you mean aluminum foil or muffler repair tape? I have seen pictures of the foil method, it is not so ugly to me I think the foil on satellites looks similar so it’s sort of cool if done ‘neatly at the edges’. I have not seen muffler repair aluminum tape used, but might consider it. I have used it in the past and it’s a strong easily applied metal tape, could be convenient.
If it fails rather quickly I am not bothered, I simply use the data to try something else. It’s a prototype for a metal effector so it’s going to go through changes before I produce a final version in metal, milling myself or paying for CNC.
Oh man… just had a thought, Apollo lander model… effector! would explain the aluminum foil…
Apollo effector sounds cool 
I was thinking HVAC tape, like they use to seal up ducts in attics. Doesn’t need insulation or anything. Lots of options though. Plain foil would work too.
