Topic: Extrude into a bucket?
Does anyone think this will work? You will guide the filament with tubing into a bucket.
Re: Extrude into a bucket?
Not a chance. It'd be like trying to push a wet rope. Hot filament has approximately zero stiffness. If you size your tube such that there is no clearance (ID = 1.75mm), it will jam and stall the extruder. I visited this idea early on as a hope, but it was a no go in my experience.
- dubbsd
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Re: Extrude into a bucket?
What about a Venturi system at the
End of the tube
Ultimaker S3.
4 2013-11-05 17:27:47 (edited by notstarman 2013-11-05 17:49:26)
Re: Extrude into a bucket?
I tried this with Teflon tubing. Except I had feed the tubing through the nozzle so the extruder extruded directly into the tube. It "worked" until the peft tube clogged and the whole thing inflated like a balloon.
I did get some perfect looking filament but it wasn't worth the trouble.
What the filstruder needs is some mechanism to isolate the hot filament mechanically from filament on the floor. I have been thinking of a stepper motor based pinch wheel puller that would adjust the its feed rate to keep the diameter constant. Idealy with a measuring point and some kind of feed back mechanism based on the filament diameter. However my PHD dissertation is due a the end of November so basically this is low on my priorities.
Re: Extrude into a bucket?
notstarman wrote:
What the filstruder needs is some mechanism to isolate the hot filament mechanically from filament on the floor. I have been thinking of a stepper motor based pinch wheel puller that would adjust the its feed rate to keep the diameter constant. Idealy with a measuring point and some kind of feed back mechanism based on the filament diameter. However my PHD dissertation is due a the end of November so basically this is low on my priorities.
Ian's working on this, it's in beta.
You can still hold +/-0.05mm tolerances without it, though.
Re: Extrude into a bucket?
I bought a large metal tub from Home Depot and put cardboard around the sides so that the filament can't flop over the edge and it seems to work pretty well
Re: Extrude into a bucket?
Obfuscated wrote:
I bought a large metal tub from Home Depot and put cardboard around the sides so that the filament can't flop over the edge and it seems to work pretty well
Can you post a photo of how it works?
I keep having problems with the extruded filament hitting the floor causing the hot end of the filament to twist around (e.g. pulls up or to the side) and stretching the filament at right angles, which creates a "stair step" that then hits the guide and introduces another "wiggle", etc. So I have lots of 4' straight segments, that then "stair steps" until I cut the filament to let it run straight for another 4'.
My next attempt will be to have the unit vertical about 6 feet off the floor. Hopefully the filament won't weigh too much and pull itself apart (at the nozzle), then will feed into a roll. And I'll switch from 3mm to 1.75mm filament extrusion, which should be lighter and more flexible, which I hope helps.
Re: Extrude into a bucket?
How about copper tubing instead of PVC and a fish tank air pump for active cooling?
Re: Extrude into a bucket?
parker wrote:
How about copper tubing instead of PVC and a fish tank air pump for active cooling?
This idea would only work if the coil was turning around.. once several the filament had maybe wrapped once with a static coil it's going to pushed back up the stream and cause the filament to corkscrew as it comes out of the nozzle.
Re: Extrude into a bucket?
laird wrote:
Obfuscated wrote:I bought a large metal tub from Home Depot and put cardboard around the sides so that the filament can't flop over the edge and it seems to work pretty well
Can you post a photo of how it works?
I keep having problems with the extruded filament hitting the floor causing the hot end of the filament to twist around (e.g. pulls up or to the side) and stretching the filament at right angles, which creates a "stair step" that then hits the guide and introduces another "wiggle", etc. So I have lots of 4' straight segments, that then "stair steps" until I cut the filament to let it run straight for another 4'.
My next attempt will be to have the unit vertical about 6 feet off the floor. Hopefully the filament won't weigh too much and pull itself apart (at the nozzle), then will feed into a roll. And I'll switch from 3mm to 1.75mm filament extrusion, which should be lighter and more flexible, which I hope helps.
Sorry I forget to take a pic of my setup. I have the extruder on a tripod and the extruder is at maybe a 30 angle pointed down. I'd guess that it's about 4' above the bucket. The filament wants to coil on it's own but it needs at least a 24" area to coil into. However since it can flex quite a bit more you need some walls to contain it. I went looking for a kiddy pool but I guess they are out of season so the best I could was this steel bucket. I extended the sides of the bucket simply by taping cardboard around the edges. I thought about using a large trash can but they usually have a ridge about 6 inches from the top (I guess for stacking purposes or to make it more rigid) and the filament will get hung up ridges.
Anyway all this is temporary because I fully intend to use an automatic spooler when a kit is available. It'll take up less space and save me the trouble of then having to spool the stuff.