Bowden attempt (Page 1 of 2)

There would definitely be value... I've been anxiously waiting to get to this mod. Can you show some more pictures. Like how do you have the hot end mounted?  How is the motor mounted?  Looks like you are using Lawsy/Jeffery's design?  Nice to see someone get the ball rolling on it.

What material is the tube? Did you have to change slic3r/skein forge settings?

How's it print? I really like that you've gone ahead to just try it.

I also am part of the many solidoodlers who have been contemplating it, but you just went ahead and did it .

Id like to try a remote motor with a flex shaft driving the gear on the carriage. There are a few low backlash possibilities

hahah this looks cool! keep us all updated

There's a lot of headroom to run higher current on the extruder stepper motor. You could try bumping that up a notch.

http://www.solidoodle.com/how-to-2/troubleshooting/

About halfway down.

I'd say you could take the extruder motor to 0.3v without thinking twice about it. Beyond that, I'd start wondering if there was a better way. Beyond 0.45v, you may begin to overheat the motor/windings.

Well I finally got to a point where I was able to print something out. With Elmoret's suggestion to turn up the trimpot the extruder motor is now turning well and not skipping. I ended up having to turn up the current to (.358); hopefully that's an okay number. I have not messed with anything in the firmware. All the parts are from existing solidoodlers' designs with exception to the fake peek which I'll post mine when I can get around to making the changes needed to the part design as I had modified the part with sawing and drilling after it had been printed. Unless you guys would prefer the unmodified part so that you can manually modify it yourself as needed for your own materials that you have on hand.

Now I can finally get back to printing and seeing if there are other issues I have not come across yet.

(update: After attempting to print another part the motor started to skip again. Back to playing with the trimpot).

Well I turned the trimpot for the extruder up to .417 which is the highest I'm comfortable with leaving it at until I hear back from the solidoodle guys. I was hoping they could tell me what the highest setting I could safely turn it up to. I know Elmoret said .45 would risk burning the windings, but I'm just hoping solidoodle will tell me that higher is okay. I would have thought that since the extruder motor is physically bigger than the x and y motors that the extruder motor should be able to go as high as those, but that's an assumption based on no knowledge of these things. I can't look up the info for the motor either as there is no sticker or markings on it for me to look up.

I have been playing around with the skeinforge setting and have gotten to print some test parts with out much issues. The only problem that still exists is the extruder motor still skips or gives out during the first initial layers it puts down with same results whether I use a raft or not. I have been trying to turn down the flow and feed rates so that the extruder isn't trying to push the filament through so fast as some other folks from another forum were saying the slower speed could help prevent the motor from giving out.

Jefferysanders tensioner arm seems to have helped a little, at least at first, but still having issues with the motor skipping or cutting out.

I also tried repositioning the extruder motor placement to decrease the amount of bends the filament has to take before reaching the hot end but still no luck.

I read that others have increased the nozzle temp to alleviate this issue, but I am reluctant to go any higher than 205 since solidoodle says not to go over 210. Has anyone attempted higher temps with the factory hot end and peek? Is 205 the highest I should take it to?

And while we're on the topic, I may as well ask as this has been bugging me... what is the purpose of the peek? Is it just to hold the brass barrel? Does it act as an insulator to prevent heat from spreading to the rest of the parts? Is there any reason why I can't just use something else that won't melt so that I can print at a higher temp?

Thanks

Thanks Ian. Ya I suppose I'll have to go ahead and order some of the proper tubing. This was suppose to be just a test I guess anyway to see if it was worth ordering the actual materials.

Thanks for pushing this forward!

No problem cmetzel, it's been fun trying to get this thing working; plus now I have a better understanding of what the settings do in skeinforge.

Elmoret, unfortunately there is no model number or sticker that I can see on the motor, but the motor doesn't seem to be getting too hot. I can keep my finger on the motor when it's running, and when it's not moving it feels like it's at room temp, like if I place the back of my finger on my wooden desk and then to the side of the motor casing they feel like the same temp, (I don't have an IR thermometer).

When you say, "keep pushing it," are you referring to the trimpot adjustment?