My primary #3Dprinter died in the middle of a big multi-print session. Had it all apart yesterday to see the remedial work I did on the hot end last year isn't cutting it anymore.
Part I need is a new PTFE heatsink throat liner, but it's an OD of about 3.5 - 3.8mm (depending on which calipers I believe) which doesn't seem to be sold anywhere. 3mm is prob too small and 4mm (of which I have plenty) is too big.
Ordered some 3mm overnight anyway. Will try it today.
@ottaross I bought some nozzles, filament dryer and some replacement Bowden tube some months back. They are pretty close to me (There is also Nita beer, purple cow and the buyapi shop on Colonnade. ;)
@ottaross They are very close so very handy for me! I was surprised to find them then find out they were so close. I prefer shopping local and it's handy for emergencies.
@Dianora That's a nice bonus, being close to you. Yes - I'd gladly pay a 10-20% premium to support local over online, and also for the convenience of ready access. Their filament prices though are actually as good or a little better than online.
Bought a spool, but haven't tried it yet. If it's any good, I'll aim to buy more there in future.
@ottaross Ditto on the premium! I looked at a few spools myself but I was fairly well stocked. It's nice to be able to see a spool up close before buying! Let me know how the spool works.
I was foiled in my repair parts-swap by connectors. Not enough standardization yet, so was at an impasse. Could've just cut and spliced wires, but instead ordered a few bits to see if I could preserve the modularity.
I realize as I type this I should've just cut/spliced, not wasted my time trying to keep my printer connectorized. Odds are it'll need at most what, maybe one more hot-end swap before it's replaced anyway? Oh well, old habits die hard.
@johnefrancis there's some degradation to the PTFE lining tube that provides heat isolation for the filament plus a frictionless feed path. In mine there are intersections between extruder nozzle and lining tube then a gap between lining tube and Bowden tube (inside the heatsink). All those points are opportunities for crud and degradation.
I received the connector bits I needed for the #3Dprinter repair over the weekend, and so connected my rebuilt hot-end this morning with good results.
Doing test prints now. Prob not a great idea to also be trying to dial in a new filament at the same time, but here we are. Assuming any probs are filament-based and not the new hardware.
Almost there. Had a sudden delamination in the middle of an otherwise pristine test piece. A try with a slightly hotter nozzle is underway.
The hotter print temp proved successful with the new reel of filament (PLA+). Seems to me I noticed that with an earlier PLA+ I bought a year or two ago too, that it needs a bit higher temperature.
That one was finicky. Needed a few days in the dry-out bag between prints it seemed.
Add comment