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	<title type="html"><![CDATA[SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — DIY Portable struder case with integrated winder]]></title>
	<link rel="self" href="https://www.soliforum.com/feed/atom/topic/13425/" />
	<updated>2016-01-17T19:28:43Z</updated>
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	<id>https://www.soliforum.com/topic/13425/diy-portable-struder-case-with-integrated-winder/</id>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: DIY Portable struder case with integrated winder]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://www.soliforum.com/post/114332/#p114332" />
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Very cool!</p>]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[elmoret]]></name>
				<uri>https://www.soliforum.com/user/221/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2016-01-17T19:28:43Z</updated>
			<id>https://www.soliforum.com/post/114332/#p114332</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[DIY Portable struder case with integrated winder]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://www.soliforum.com/post/114330/#p114330" />
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>I&#039;m happy to now be able to use my Filastruder again! With the completion of a custom filament winder case,&nbsp; I now have a compact, convenient setup I can pull out only when necessary to quickly make filament and safely store when not in use.</p><p>Following Tim&#039;s advice, I now have a layout and functionality similar to a standard Filawinder, but I decided to make a simple CPU-less unit of my own design.&nbsp; While a simpler design could have arguable benefits, the truth is that I could scrounge up most of the parts from leftovers I had lying around (hence it would be cheap to make) and I thought it would be a fun challenge to do it myself.</p><p>Since I don&#039;t have any suitable wall space where I would be allowed to hang a winder, I came up with the idea of building it into a handy portable case that could house both itself and the Filastruder, keeping them free of dust and out of the way when not in use.</p><p><span class="postimg"><img src="http://soliforum.com/i/?ObvI1ci.jpg" alt="http://soliforum.com/i/?ObvI1ci.jpg" /></span></p><p>I made a simple plywood box, roughly 20 inches square and 6 inches thick.&nbsp; I stained it and added a leather handle and some brass hardware, fancying that this gave it the appearance of some bizarre 19th century science experiment or instrument of medical quackery.</p><p><span class="postimg"><img src="http://soliforum.com/i/?GE3XwYX.jpg" alt="http://soliforum.com/i/?GE3XwYX.jpg" /></span></p><p>The toughest part of the design (as I suspect is with any winder) was finding a way to sense slack in the filament without disturbing the path of the filament itself.&nbsp; I found that even the lightest micro-switch I could find would transmit too much force back up the filament and cause a kink near the nozzle opening. </p><p>I settled on a lightweight 3D-printed &quot;see-saw&quot; rocker that I weighted down slightly on one side.&nbsp; The filament moves in a loop down the left side of the box, across the bottom, and up the right side.&nbsp; When the filament develops too much slack, the bottom of the loop pushes down on a curved acetate sheet glued to one side of the rocker. This lifts up the other side, raising a shutter that exposes a CDS-cell light detector to a single LED light source.</p><p>The cell is connected to a solid state relay that drives a small gear motor and the take-up spool.&nbsp; I also added a cheap $5 PWM motor speed control board to allow fine-tuning of the motor speed.&nbsp; This would give only simple on/off control to the motor (no PID), but I found in testing that this was sufficient.</p><p><span class="postimg"><img src="http://soliforum.com/i/?7y4xtqQ.jpg" alt="http://soliforum.com/i/?7y4xtqQ.jpg" /></span></p><p>For a filament guide, I used a short length of tubing mounted onto a hinge.&nbsp; As the hinge moves, the filament comes out at a different place on the reel, keeping it from bunching up in one place.&nbsp; The looser white filament underneath was from before I added an additional tensioner.</p><p><span class="postimg"><img src="http://soliforum.com/i/?bpDTHqE.jpg" alt="http://soliforum.com/i/?bpDTHqE.jpg" /></span></p><p>The hinge, in turn, is linked to a printed carriage that moves up and down along a worm gear (reall just a 4-40 threaded rod) driven by a slow gear motor.&nbsp; Two momentary limit switches keep the carriage from moving too far in either direction. Keeping with the CPU-less design, they simply switch on and off a DPDT latching relay, wired in a way (one momentarily on, one momentarily off) so that the motor reverses direction when either switch is hit.</p><p>After my initial tests, I also added a small, spring loaded clamp to keep the filament under more tension.&nbsp; Unlike passing the filament through a restricted path, the clamp has a small benefit in that I can engage it later after initially threading the filament.</p><p><span class="postimg"><img src="http://soliforum.com/i/?wd4zhzZ.jpg" alt="http://soliforum.com/i/?wd4zhzZ.jpg" /></span></p><p>Here is the completed winder case.&nbsp; When in storage, the Filastruder fits neatly inside with extra hanging space for an empty or full filament spool.</p><p><span class="postimg"><img src="http://soliforum.com/i/?kbY7cVt.jpg" alt="http://soliforum.com/i/?kbY7cVt.jpg" /></span></p><p>When I&#039;m ready use it, I simply set the extruder on top of the case and pass the new filament down through a hole in the top and loop it round to the winder inside.</p><p>I was surprised how well it worked right off the bat.&nbsp; The rocker assembly tends to stay right on the edge between on and off, moving ever so slightly to periodically activate the take-up motor.&nbsp; The movements are so small that the filament path moves very little, leading to the most consistent filament than I&#039;ve ever made before.</p><p>I&#039;ve already successfully used it to create two one-pound (half-size) spools (one black one white) and will put it through more paces in the coming weeks.</p>]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[tealvince]]></name>
				<uri>https://www.soliforum.com/user/676/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2016-01-17T18:41:29Z</updated>
			<id>https://www.soliforum.com/post/114330/#p114330</id>
		</entry>
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