Topic: New Vertical Hopper
I updated my vertical hopper/funnel to have a 2-piece hopper, a sliding trap door to dump pellets, and a window in the funnel.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:277996
- techbuilder2175
- Member
- Offline
Re: New Vertical Hopper
Nice update Ian!
I'll be printing this out 
Powder coated steel enclosure, 1/4" Surface grounded hardened aluminum plate, MK2A Heat bed, .200 Polished fused quartz plate, Machined quick change hot bed mount, E3D hot end, Ramps 1.4, DRV8825 stepper motor drivers
- CraigRK
- Member
- Offline
Re: New Vertical Hopper
Hi Ian,
Nice one, but the Thingiverse item only seems to have the funnel and lid STL not the actual hopper STL.
Have you provided that somewhere else?
I have been tweaking my own design, and was thinking of a trap door of some kind, your's seems to do it very elegantly.
Craig
Masterbatch, ABS and PLA Pellets available for UK and Europe.
http://www.emakershop.com/Seller=1324
http://www.emakershop.com/Seller=1324
Re: New Vertical Hopper
It's fixed, I actually forgot 3 files. I oriented the hopper straight up, which will need support, and laying down flat which will get the best results on the track for the sliding door. It also means all the round openings get printed at an angle. I did mine straight up with supports, so I don't know how the other version would turn out.
I'm really happy with the pellet drain. I've had to take the Filstruder off the wall and turn it upside down too many times.
- CraigRK
- Member
- Offline
Re: New Vertical Hopper
Perfect, thanks.
I'll have a go and see how it works.
Masterbatch, ABS and PLA Pellets available for UK and Europe.
http://www.emakershop.com/Seller=1324
http://www.emakershop.com/Seller=1324
Re: New Vertical Hopper
Printed it laying down and it worked great with .2 mm layers. It did not like .3 mm layers though. Also I had to rotate it .1 degree to get it actually flat on the surface.
Re: New Vertical Hopper
This is the vertical hopper I am testing. I am getting huge increases in throughput with this feed system.
Still testing....
Re: New Vertical Hopper
ian I'm in the middle of printing the funnel and it appears to be cracking on the walls. My printer is fully enclosed. Did you print yours with abs or pla? How many perimeters and what layer heights did you use.
Re: New Vertical Hopper
I used PLA without enclosure, 10% fill and 4 perimeters. With 4 perimeters, the walls come out solid since there isn't space for fill.
Re: New Vertical Hopper
Nice design Ian! I am using one now on my wall mounted setup and it works great. You can see pellet level without taking the cover off, easily dump it with sliding door and remove the whole hopper without taking the extruder apart. A pleasure to use now.
Re: New Vertical Hopper
I have a revision 3 extruder and the opening in the nipple is towards the end, in the threads a bit. I had to cut off a bit of the flange on the top of the bit that goes around the nipple. The cut out for the window made me think I could mount it fairly high, but when I put a window in, I had to mount it a bit lower. With the high placement I had to chisel a bit of the case away to let the neck pass, or else I'd have to mount the neck even lower.
Got that settled and now when I try to mount the hopper, the 'top' plate of the case is in the way. I have to remove the 'top' to get it to fit, leaving the insides exposed.. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.