E3D V6

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Toby
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Re: E3D V6

Post by Toby » Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:58 am

The people I bought the flexible filament from recommended using a small section of ptfe tube from just below the gear into the filament drive and up to the hot end. The reason they gave was friction since that's the most vulnerable place for the filament to buckle.

Given the v6 comes with the tubing to go all the way into the heat break, it seems natural to extend it the entire length through the housing up to the gear. Problem is, how are you going to get the hot end in and out of the drive housing with the tubing like that? Seems like you'd have to cut the tubing at the entrance to the hot end. Might still be worth it but I thought I'd try it without first.

Tim- a BOM would be great. Molex is still greek to me. And any clues about the wiring- though given you're 12/19 v and I'm 24 v there's probably differences there.

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Tim
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Re: E3D V6

Post by Tim » Mon Jun 23, 2014 2:36 pm

You're right about the problem of getting the hot end in and out of the filament drive. It could be done with a different approach to the filament drive; instead of snap-fitting the hot end into the mount, you could push the hot end up vertically into the drive and secure it in place by snap-fitting a collar around it, like a cotter pin.

As for the BOM: I think the only people who are truly comfortable with Molex connectors are those who purchase them regularly. I'm doing a little guesswork here, and I may make changes after the parts actually arrive. Getting housings to match the connectors on the M2 is the easier part. The inserts need to be purchased separately and should be matched to the wire gauge they connect to. A crimping tool is recommended for the inserts, but I regularly use a pair of pliers and with a bit of care, it works okay. Noting that the heater has large wires and the thermistor has tiny wires, I'd estimate that the heater wire is about 20 gauge, and the thermistor wire 32. I intend to splice the thermistor wire to something a bit larger, though. If you look on the E3D website, that's what they did, covering the splice with a bit of shrink tubing so that no bare wire is exposed. I got an assortment of shrink tubing and an assortment of cable ties from amazon.com.

For the BOM, I'll provide the Digi-key part number. It's easy to go to Digi-key and get additional information such as the manufacturer's part number, though. Digi-key is great for getting tiny parts in small quantities, and they can ship by U.S. Postal Service 1st class mail, which is good for keeping the shipping costs low for orders that weigh practically nothing. However, Mouser, Newark, and Jameco are also good general-purpose electronics suppliers.

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Description                        Digi-Key part #    Mfgr part #     Comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Molex 2-pin female                  WM1845-ND      0436450200        This connects to the thermistor wires
Molex 2-pin male                    WM1855-ND      0436400201        This connects to the heater wires

Insert, female, 26-30 gauge         WM2261CT-ND    0462355004        Insert for thermistor wires
Insert, male, 20-24 gauge           WM2777CT-ND    0430310003        Insert for heater wires

2-pin header male                   3M9447-ND      961102-6404-AR    For fans---solder wires to one end and
                                                                     cover with shrink tubing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the record, parts for the filament drive are not listed in the MakerGear bill of materials because the filament drive comes pre-assembled. The best place to get socket screws and other hardware is McMaster-Carr.

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Description                    McMaster part #      Comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shoulder screw                 90263A242          M4, 5mm shoulder diameter, 14mm shoulder length, 19mm overall length,
                                                  tight tolerance (+0mm diameter)
625 Bearing                    6153K15            Double-shielded stainless steel ball bearing, 5mm inner diameter,
                                                  16mm outer diameter, 5mm width
The remaining parts are all pedestrian socket screws, nuts, and washers. For the tensioner, use an M4 x 16, plus nut and washer. The mounting screws will probably be re-used, but they are M3 x 24, plus washers.

I think that covers everything. Let me know if I'm missing any information.

Toby
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Re: E3D V6

Post by Toby » Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:35 pm

Thanks, Tim. That's a huge help.

Another approach for the tubing might be a two-piece unit where the bottom part has the the normal snap fit for the hot end but where the ptfe can still be inserted from above. That is then bolted to the top part that houses the gear, with the ptfe tubing already in place.

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jimc
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Re: E3D V6

Post by jimc » Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:04 pm

Well when you get it all set up toby try your flexible poly and let is know if its any better. Might not even need to worry about that little piece of teflon. May not need it. I have 2 flexible filaments here, one is really soft and both extrude through the stock makergear drive and hot end fine. Let us know how it works out. If we need to do some mods to the v6 drive then we can.

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Tim
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Re: E3D V6

Post by Tim » Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:01 pm

From amazon.com I ordered a length of PTFE tubing, inner diameter 2mm, outer diameter 4mm, that is advertised especially for 3D printers (there's also an inner diameter 1.8mm advertised, but that seems a bit too marginal to me). So I can afford to try some different arrangements and see how they work, without worrying about cutting up my only piece of PTFE tubing. Since I have the existing drive already printed and mounted, of course I will use that to begin with, and see how it goes.

I should also mention, however, that I printed my filament drive with opaque PET+ from MadeSolid. I would expect that the type of material makes a difference for how well filament threads through it, although I can't say exactly how it compares to ABS or nylon.

Toby
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Re: E3D V6

Post by Toby » Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:15 pm

I got some ptfe tubing from amazon a while back:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C45 ... UTF8&psc=1
It works great. Very slippery.

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j-rod
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Re: E3D V6

Post by j-rod » Tue Jun 24, 2014 3:55 am

so you're supposed to run that tube down into the hotend? the instructions don't mention it, nor do any videos i can find of assembling it. i've been printing makergear abs without it and it has jammed once or twice, but i believe that was due to me still needing to tweek my extrusion multiplier and temp settings, as my last few prints have been fine. should we be using the same temps we use for the v3b hotend or something different?

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jimc
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Re: E3D V6

Post by jimc » Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:19 am

j, on the e3dv6 the tube runs all the way down the hot end and sits into the heat break. its pretty much all over their website as its the main new feature of the v6. from rick's description it sounds like the new makergear v4 will do the same thing or similar.

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j-rod
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Re: E3D V6

Post by j-rod » Tue Jun 24, 2014 5:47 am

so i watched their introductory video and saw the mention of it. then i re-read their assembly instructions and there is zero mention of it.

well i suppose i will go take it off and assemble it the proper way. thanks!

edit: oh man, extrusion consistency is SO much better now. imagine that! ;)

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Tim
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Re: E3D V6

Post by Tim » Tue Jun 24, 2014 1:29 pm

Make sure that you read the "E3Dv6 Release Announcement & Design Details"

http://e3d-online.com/index.php?route=e ... blog_id=21

This has a lot of useful information that does not necessarily appear in the written instructions (though I have not exactly cross-correlated the two). About halfway down the page there is a nice cut-away view of the heatbreak (they sawed a heatbreak in half, I suppose for the purpose of inspecting the quality of the bore and counterbore, although it was thoughtful of them to stage it with the tubing for a picture and then post it on the website). It shows how the tubing fits into the counterbore at the top of the heatbreak. Also there are good pictures of how the thermistor is screwed in, how they do the wiring up the side, and other useful tidbits.

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