Posts Tagged ‘ 3d printing

Designing an extruder cooler for my Replicator 1

I purchased my Makerbot Replicator 1 nearly three years ago.  I don’t think at that point it was wide-spread knowledge that PLA likes to be cooled as it extrudes and  thus, no extruder cooler.  Most modern PLA printers have these standard.  Up until now, I’ve pointed a desk fan at my prints to provide cooling.

This weekend I decided to model up (in Maya) a fan mount to use as an extruder cooler:  Works great, uses the stock hardware so nothing new (other than the fan) is needed.  I use a removable glass build plate affixed with springy metal clips. These clips stick up off the build platform and will hit anything slightly lower than the gantry. Because of this, I designed this to shoot a jet of air just below the tip of the nozzle, but keeping the whole apparatus above the base of the gantry.

Download the model and get install directions over on Thingiverse.

[sketchfab id=”9e317b81ac7342dea61df0332dad8a28″]

3D Printer Surgery: Replacing my Makerbot Replicator 1’s Voltage Regulator

I purchased my Makerbot Replicator (1) when they were first released, nearly 3 years ago now.  Other than a few hiccups (HBP cable failing repeatedly, and a dead botstep needing replaced) it’s ran like a champ.  Reading the forums like I do, I’ve seen a number of people talk about their voltage regulators dying (the LM1084), and killing the whole board in the process.  I don’t know when I’m going to upgrade, and I’d like to keep this machine running as long as possible, so an update was in order.

Makerbot users are always a super-helpful bunch, and the folks over at the Makerbot Users Google Group are no exception.  I’d seen a lot of posts on the subject, but none that really broke down specifically what needed to be done, and what parts needed to be sourced.  So I asked, and they answered.  Armed with that knowledge (and this great photoset by JetGuy) I ordered from Digikey a “Recom Power R-78E5.0-0.5” voltage regulator (the 5v version, not 3.3v) based on user tramalot’s recommendation.  Below are the overall steps I took to install it.  It’s not hard once you grasp what needs done, and my hope is this breakdown can help others in the same situation.


First I sketched out the old and new wiring on paper:  The new regulator has a different pinout:  Everything has been shifted one pin left.

Next I snapped a pic of the Mightyboard pre-removal as a sanity check:

board_before

I made sure to ground myself with a wrist-strap just to be safe.

I then labeled all the wires with little stickies, unhooked everything…

spaghetti(note, this is actually the board on reinstall, but it’s all the same)

…and removed the board.  Here’s a shot of the bare board, and the new voltage regulator:

board_and_reg

Like discussed in the forums, I used snips to cut the leads from the old voltage regulator.  I then took my soldering iron (the big, red, hand-held kind), and pressing it against the back of the reg, waited for it to desolder from the Mightyboard.  I lightly twisted the reg back and forth with a pair of pliers at the same time since I had no idea if just the pressure from the iron would move it.  It took a lot longer than I expected, and at one point I thought it wouldn’t work at all.  I’m guessing I had to hold it from 5+ minutes.

desolder

From there I desoldered the old remaining leads, and soldered in the new voltage regulator using wires to aid in the pintout offset.    I liked what JetGuy had done in his Flickr post, so I hot-glued it to the power receptacle for extra stability:

newInstall(Note the brown/orange cruft is just left-over flux)

Put it all back together, and I was relieved when it turned on, and printed successfully.

I figured while I had it apart I should provide for some extra cooling, so I drilled out a 1.5″ hole right by the Mightyboard fan.  However, after I did this I had more conversation on the above forum linked above, and learned that the Mightyboard really needs no fan cooling at all.  But… having it there should’t hurt.

newVent

Hope this gives my rep1 many more years of good printing :)

My thanks again goes out to the Makerbot Users Google Group users JetGuy, tramalot, and Joseph Chiu for their helpful advice!

New 3D Print: Squishball

Since I recently got Ninjaflex printing successfully, I wanted to come up with a print to test its physical/print properties.  “Squishball” was the result.  Get more info and download the file over on Thingiverse.

[sketchfab id=”e8e27744ae9e4895bc1dba1e2757448e”]

NinjaFlex!

A number of months ago I picked up some Fenner Drives NinjaFlex (via ToyBuilder Labs):  I was really excited to give it a shot, but was unable to get it to load into my Makerbot Replicator (1) :  I’d done the drive-block upgrade long time back that should enable me to successfully extrude it.  After disassembling the extruder I’d watch as the filament would enter the thermal tube, then after some time bulge out the (really, really small) gap between the thermal tube and drive block.  I figured the extruder wasn’t getting hot enough, but the onboard firmware didn’t let me adjust the filament load temp, only the pre-heat temp:  I could pre-heat plenty hot, but it would cool back down (to an unknown temp) before doing the filament load.  Frustrating, and I had to abandon it.

Back in December I upgraded my firmware to Sailfish.  And today it dawned on me that Sailfish lets you adjust the pre-heat temperature.  Armed with this knowledge, I cranked it up to 240c, and it loaded without a hitch.  The resultant is this magnificently squishy 2x2x1 cm half-cube:

ninjaFlex

It was sliced in Simplify3D and printed with these settings:

  • Extruded at 240 deg onto an unheated build platform covered in blue painters tape.
  • 2 shells, 4 floor, 4 roof, 20% infill, 200 micron layer height.
  • 30mm/sec extrusion (per all the online specs I’ve read), 120mm/sec travel.

New 3D Print : HexVase 04

This vase was created entirely to test Simplify3D‘s “vase mode” feature: It prints the walls as one contiguous corkscrew spiral. Turned out great.
Modeled in Maya.  Printed on my Makerbot Replicator (1).

Download the files for print and get more info over on Thingiverse.

[sketchfab id=”15be6cd9211c49c1aface6807498c7ce”]