1 Topic by FordGalaxie (edited by FordGalaxie 2014-09-07 04:41:17)

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Topic: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

Okay so its a relatively simple issue.  I printed Lawsy's replacement Solidoodle Carriage. The new_carriage_left.stl as seen here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:104059/#files
But the problem is the extreme heat from the motor is melting it and bending it.  Its getting worse and im trying to find a material that I already own that has a high enough melting temp, but Im failing.

Can anyone suggest a material that I can get cheap as hell or possibly even send me the part? 

Im recently unemployed and cant be shoving money into more filament at the moment.  Im running out of time!  Any suggestions for strengthening, etc is welcome!  Thanks!

Part at fault is shown in attached picture

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2 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

Far better to cool the motor rather than try a higher temp material.

What did you print that in?

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3 Reply by FordGalaxie (edited by FordGalaxie 2014-09-07 05:35:40)

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

PLA is the main material I use.  I cant get the temps high enough for ABS anymore since its the E3d and all that.  Flourescant blue PLA I believe was the color.  I think im going to print just a small reinforcement plate out of white (i believe white technically resists heat more correct?) and Resin glue that in place on the existing one.  AFter of course melting the original back into shape.

Does anyone know of a bracket I can zip tie or someting to the bottom of the motor that I can attach a fan to?  Or have something similar?

4 Reply by wardjr

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

Cool that motor and wrap a zip tie up over the rods and down under the motor.  Then print one using ABS.  PLA  has a lower melting point and I didn't follow what you were saying about temps and the E3D.

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5 Reply by slimstar2 (edited by slimstar2 2014-09-07 10:46:51)

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

I had a similar problem with my left side carriage . Mine was made of ABS but I think my problem was caused by keeping my belt very tight ( tight is right). So I reprinted a new one and took a scrape piece of PC board drilled it to match the stepper motor mount and super  glued it in place then sandwiched it between stepper and carriage using original screws. No more bending . Cost $ 0.00 Time 30 minutes . I also have a fan mount that just slips on the stepper got stl on Thinkiverse. Fan is wired directly to power supply

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6 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

FordGalaxie wrote:

PLA is the main material I use.

There's your problem.

I cant get the temps high enough for ABS anymore since its the E3d and all that.  Flourescant blue PLA

What? The E3D can do 300C.

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7 Reply by FordGalaxie (edited by FordGalaxie 2014-09-07 15:52:42)

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

What I meant is, when you install en E3d you are supposed to change those few lines of code correct?  The thermistor type and MAx temp.  For some reason I could never quite get that to work.  Whenever I tried to compile the code I got errors within the code.  Even when following the directions to the letter.  So my maximum temperature is still 230C.  And I read somewhere that the original extruders thermistor was never very accurate, so now, Im printing PLA at 210-215C instead of the original 170-180C.  So now, I cant get my extruder hot enough to make the layers connect with ABS.

8 Reply by elmoret

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

Well, that would be a good thing to figure out. Wrong thermistor setting is a problem, even if you don't want to raise the max temp.

Also both thermistors are accurate, they just measure different things. SD measures nozzle temp, E3D measures heater temp.

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9 Reply by knowack

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

There's also a 40mm fan mount that literally slips onto the bottom of the motor.  Mount up an extra fan, wire it into fan power, and no more heat worries.

I think I got it off Thingiverse, then modified it slightly so it fight tighter.

10 Reply by grob

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Re: Carriage Motor is melting my carriage! Help!

I also use a variation on a theme of lawsy's carriage - printed in ABS. It's been fine, but my motor runs pretty cool. I have linear bearings and ball bearings on the x idler pulley to try and minimise friction, so I'm pretty sure I run my motor at lower current than it came with.

If I was you Ford, I'd do slimstar's PCB thing to get it working again, I'd have another crack at fixing that firmware so you can print some ABS, I'd tune the vref lower (even if I had to loosen the x belt a touch) and I'd then try printing a new carriage in ABS with some airflow over the motor (even temporary).

The long game would be putting a fan on the x motor, and then considering ways to reduce friction in the x axis so I could run the motor cooler (by tuning v-ref down; less friction = lower skipping threshold!).

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