I must admit, I do not like retracts very much. Retracts slow down the printing significantly. Sometimes it seems to me that a lot of people need fast printers just to compensate for the time they lose on retracts.
So I began to try out a different method. It is very simple: Just set the travelling speed at least 3 times faster than the printing speed. The intention is to be that quick so there is simply no time for oozing.
Theoretically a travelling speed close to light speed would be ideal for this, hence the name light speed method. ;)
It is important that any G-code belonging to retract is omitted, as it slows down the printer even if there is no movement resulting from it. To achieve this, in skeinforge I set retraction speed to 0.
Results look promising.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Current Projects
During the last weeks I worked on my new hotend which I called the organ pipe hotend. Actually I only wanted to reconstruct my repstrap, but then I broke up my hotend. As I didn't want to buy a new one, I decided to build one myself.
The aim was to keep it cheap. As I do not have a lathe, it had to be simple.
My first attempt was the Longsword Hotend, but I had difficulties with the PTFE liner. So I decided to omit the liner in favour of a stainless steel tube. That turned out to be a wise decision, as I soldered the nozzle and the tube together to what I call the pipe.
Now I can switch from PLA to ABS and vice versa without having to clean the barrel each time. None of the hotends one can buy has this feature yet. Most people have a second hotend and even extruder for this. Quite an expensive solution, I must say ...
All I have to do now is to build a second pipe. That's all.
The BOM for a new pipe shows, how cheap this method is: 7cm stainless steel tube, 1 cm threaded brass rod. 1 M4 brass acorn nut. And a little bit of solder paste. Together less than 1€.
This makes it affordable to try out a lot of different materials. And so are my plans on the long run. But first my new printer has to be completed.
As my old repstrap was built of T-Slot aluminium profiles, I decided to adapt nophead's Mendel90 to fit onto T-Slot. So my "Mendel90T" was born. Unfortunatly I broke my hotend in the last days of my repstrap, when the nozzle went into the building plate, because the Z-endstop failed. At first glance, the hotend seemed to have survived, but afterwards it became clear that something must have gone wrong with it. So the completion of my Mendel90T had to be postponed until the hotend got ready.
The aim was to keep it cheap. As I do not have a lathe, it had to be simple.
My first attempt was the Longsword Hotend, but I had difficulties with the PTFE liner. So I decided to omit the liner in favour of a stainless steel tube. That turned out to be a wise decision, as I soldered the nozzle and the tube together to what I call the pipe.
Now I can switch from PLA to ABS and vice versa without having to clean the barrel each time. None of the hotends one can buy has this feature yet. Most people have a second hotend and even extruder for this. Quite an expensive solution, I must say ...
All I have to do now is to build a second pipe. That's all.
The BOM for a new pipe shows, how cheap this method is: 7cm stainless steel tube, 1 cm threaded brass rod. 1 M4 brass acorn nut. And a little bit of solder paste. Together less than 1€.
This makes it affordable to try out a lot of different materials. And so are my plans on the long run. But first my new printer has to be completed.
As my old repstrap was built of T-Slot aluminium profiles, I decided to adapt nophead's Mendel90 to fit onto T-Slot. So my "Mendel90T" was born. Unfortunatly I broke my hotend in the last days of my repstrap, when the nozzle went into the building plate, because the Z-endstop failed. At first glance, the hotend seemed to have survived, but afterwards it became clear that something must have gone wrong with it. So the completion of my Mendel90T had to be postponed until the hotend got ready.
Opened
Well, looks like the first step is accomplished.
I plan to use this blog to report on my activities concerning the reprap project. Please, have mercy as English isn't my mother tongue. Sometimes I will write in German.
I plan to use this blog to report on my activities concerning the reprap project. Please, have mercy as English isn't my mother tongue. Sometimes I will write in German.
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