Something to give, some eye candy, something to ask about hot end mounting

Hi everyone

Recently we ran a survey about the use of filament sizes and we would like to give you the results [zesty.tech]

Of course, one of the design criteria we defined in the beginning of developing the Nimble Extruder was that it should work with as many printers/mounting options as possible.

To achieve this level of flexibility, rather than make a custom nimble for every mount type, we decided to make a small adapter for each mounting option that works with a single nimble design.

These adapters serve a dual function:

• ensure a tight connection to the mounted device
• Constrain filament all the way to the hot end (flexible filaments)

We currently have:

• Groove mount
• M6 nut
• Flat adapter
• Chimera adapter for a custom Chimera mount plate
• Diamond hot end housing (in development)

Most of these can be used on a Reprap plate or an delta effector.

Of course we will publish the designs of the adapters. And make them available in CAD formats so you can design your own, or if you want we can help with that.

Some eye candy!



A survey for hotends and mounting options would be extremely complex due to how many there are. Not to mention time consuming to fill out.. and we don’t want to subject people to that.

We’d love to hear from everybody to see if there are any mounting options that we haven’t thought of yet?

Cheers
Lykle and Brian

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2016 04:14AM by zestytechnology.

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Developer of the Zesty Nimble Extruder
[zesty.tech]

I'd be interested in how you are going to do the Diamond mount. As I see it, the biggest problem is how the heat sinks stick out at an angle. This means that the hot end takes up a circle roughly 60mm diameter at the top of the heat sinks, which is 60mm of the potential X and Y travel without any extruders fitted. So, if you fit extruders directly on to the heat sinks, it's going to make the entire assembly very wide. On the printer I've just built and am in the process of commissioning, I've done a sort of flying arrangement with 3off E3d Titans suspended above the centre of the bed on a pulley/counter balance arrangement. Here is a picture.

It's not ideal but the best I've been able to come up with so far. If you came up with a mount which had say very short Bowden tubes (around 50mm or so), and which was really light weight, I could put that on top of the Diamond and ditch the pulley/counter balance arrangement.

Hi,

yes that is an issue.
In my personal case it is not so much of an issue. My effector is fairly wide already. The whole thing fits inside a 90mm circle.
The Nimbles do not stick outside of the heat sinks, I can tuck them inside. They are small enough.

Only issue I have and why it is not still done, is that the fan I can fit, is not big enough for the requirements of the Diamond.
It requires 16cfm at least.

Lykle

May I ask how many respondents did you have for your filament survey? It's an interesting result but I'm interested in how representative it is?

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

Hi,

Off course! The survey ran for a few days and we received about 100 answers.
So yes it was a small survey

One more note that I just realised is relevant in this case, most of the respondents came from the Google Delta group. Perhaps the Delta group leans more towards the 1.75?
I saw in another post that the industry has the ratio more like 70:30. That got me thinking about this.

Lykle

It's just I'm working with another forum member on a filament group buy from china and we're thinking about what to stock. In another thread we sort of settled on 65:35, your result was much more towards 1.75mm but then with delta/corexy printers 1.75mm seems much more sensible. Food for thought.

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

Thank you for the info.

Group buy? Sounds like a great idea. Good luck with that.

Lykle

Yeah we're trying to get together as many people that want excelvan filament and get a load over. Starting off with maybe 3-4 people who want a big order then after that sending it out mail order to those who want lower quantities. Its not going to make money but I'll have plenty of filament and we won't be struggling to get it when we need it from ebay/Amazon.

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

That is the one thing I do not like living in Cyprus, the difficulty of getting stuff.
From filament to parts, everything takes time and money.

Had a look at Hobbyking, 18 euro worth of stuff, shipping cost 44 euro.
Ah well, Cyprus does have some benefits though.

Lykle

I like the extruder, I signed up for more info/buy one when crowd funded. I'm using a flex3drive and for me the concept is sound, I like your easy load breech that's a nice touch. I've got deltas and a corexy so it's all about lightweight extruders.

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Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

Thank you.
More to come....
:-)

Back to hot ends.

For the Diamond nozzle, what I have at the moment is attached as an image.

Light blue is the coolant shroud, red is the effector I use for my BI, but this one is modified for the Diamond.
Dark blue are the Nimbles.
Dark grey is the fan, but this one is not good enough. It needs to produce 16cfm and this one doesn't.

The arm centers are 64mm apart on my effector. As a size comparison, I added the Kossel effector next to it.

I am thinking of making it into several parts. One part the shroud, one part the frame that holds the shroud and the mounting for the effector, or for a side mount. The final part will be the lid and will hold the fan, and the Nimbles. This way it is nice and modular and the frame can be easily adapted for different mounting methods or effectors.


Comments? Other than, Wow, ginormous!

Lykle

I wonder if printed angled mounting brackets that have a curved channel that holds a small section of PTFE tube might make things easier as far as arm clearance, bringing the Zesty Nimble to a vertical alignment and only bending the filament slightly. Some minor added friction but it's stable quantity of friction and can be tuned for like a direct extruder as the curved section would a constant curvature not dynamic like a bowden.curvature of the filaments coil might change the amount of friction slightly but I suspect not enough to matter to a good drive gear pushing so close to only a modest bend.

Angled vertical 90 might help prevent lateral shifting as the drive rotational torque from the flexible drive axle won't be off axis as it meets the drive gear shaft. Not sure that's an issue though as it would be dependent on how easily filament is drawn and extruding (physical path of filament to extruder and temperature/Esteps), probably at higher print speeds if at all.

Hmm, interesting idea. Will make it a bit taller as the Nimble then needs to move up, away from the Hot end opening. I will have a look at that.
Thanks Milton.

That would work for me too. I have plenty of height clearance but I'm reluctant to lose much more in X and Y. You do need to sort out the fan though - a high flow rate fan is very important on the Diamond.

Hi Deckingman,
Yeah I understood that. 16cfm is quite a large number.
I am considering to reverse the design process. Find the correct fan and then build the rest around that.

Lykle

Hi Lykle

That might be the way to go. I use a square 50mm fan, similar to what RepRap.me recommend but now that I've switch to 24v electronics I've found one with an even higher flow rate.

BTW, now that I know you live in Cyprus, your company name "zestytechnology" makes sense - very appropriate for dealing with hot ends. (I speak a bit of Greek). Are you Northern Cyprus or Southern?

Hey,
Nice to see when somebody gets it! Ah South, near Limassol.

Link to the fan with a higher rate? Hopefully?

I would like to use a radial one, as they are easier to position and give the Nimbles more space. But if axial is the only way to go, so be it.

Lykle

Here is a link to the fan that I'm currently using [www.mouser.co.uk]. It's 20.3 cfm. The one that reprap.me link to in their wiki is 18.6.

Edit. The smallest blower type with a flow rate of 18cfm that I can find on that site is 97mm x 97mm x 33mm. The one I linked to is 50 x 50 x 20.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2016 04:01AM by deckingman.