The requirement for a very sharp temperature gradient and effective heat break is a real breakthrough in this sort of material printing! I’ve never seen anything like it. Most direct granular printing I’ve seen is treating the extrusion like injection molding, I think your strategy is really smart! The only drawback I can imagine is probably delayed reaction for retracts.
Retract is always delayed. The trick is to reduce that delay as much as possible and that's what I am currently working on by shrinking the extruder, which also addresses other issues I will talk about. Stay tuned!
your early there , i watched this project evolve and its seriously impressive. i think the next prototype should rotate the motor 180 degrees and put it between the X axis rails , that was you wont have significant weight in an undesirable location , it might cause the X axis to wobble when stopping , also i dont think its a retraction issue , i think its a pressure issue , the blob at the end of travel is the excess pressure on the nozzle driping out ,maybe calibrate pressure advance in marlin ? i think the screw is not garbing enough material to relive the pressure near the nozzle , thats why you have that extra blob also you can enable wiping in prusha slicer where it will wipe the nozzle into the part to prevent blobs from forming . but your smart boy ,you probably figured all of this out already
Thanks! The ideas that evolved in my head over the past months are materializing. The overall design of the extruder is anything but perfect. Quick & dirty, but working. Yes, flipping the motor for 180 degrees is one of the ideas in my head. Not only for a more compact design, but for additional ideas as well (more on that in one of the coming videos). It would mean an extra pair of gears or pulleys if a direct drive works. Future will tell. More on that when I will start converting a more modern printer than my good old Zonestar that went out of production over a decade ago. Yes, it's pressure that makes the plastic exit the nozzle. To avoid talking about that in detail, I simply refer to all of the processes as "retract". Bad hardware engineers always say: "The software guys will fix that!" ;-)
Linear Advance should help with some of that ooze, and then you can reduce retraction to a minimum. This is very exciting, as we all need some way to reuse our leftover filament and reduce waste.
Thanks! Bad hardware engineers always say "The software guys must fix that!" ;-) As stated in the video, there are still core improvements to be made. I am confident that I can improve the retract clearly. The next video will show progress on that.. ...and you will be able to print materials that simply can't be processed as filament: ua-cam.com/video/ea2dfdTszqM/v-deo.html
I think you would be better served by aiming for larger nozzles, as 0.8mm or even larger. That way impurities will be a much smaller concern, and your raw material can be more inconsistent.
Yes, that's obvious, but my aim is to replace standard filament extruders and these work with 0.4mm nozzles. I will talk about that in a future video and also show solutions for that issue.
For sponsoring there is a "Donate" Button on my pages. Just make use of it. In the coming video I will show that you don't need fancy CNC machines to make a copy of my extruder. Stay tuned!
@@HomoFaciens I’m looking forward to it! But if you ever want to, you might get sponsored if you reach out! I’m a maker too and I know how hard it can get to afford projects :P
interesting! I always wondered... what if the assumption would be to accept a continuous extrusion (no retraction at all)? How would a robotic design and G code look like that accumulates the extruded material? Could it "accumulate" unused material in little beads that are fed back into the hopper? Would it be feasible to design a cooled gutter that clips off the extrusion and actively sucks on the nozzle? Or is a rotating disk an option?
Faszinierend wie gut der Drucker funktioniert trotz der nicht wirklich qualitqtiven Komponenten. Das soll keine Beleidigung sondernd eher ein Kompliment sein.
Ist ja vollkimmen wuppe, das mit dem Aussehen der Komponenten. Sind auf die Schnelle "zusammengeklöppelt". Die nächste Version wird bezüglich der Optik nur marginal, in Sachen Druckqualität aber hoffendlich deutlich besser werden. Bleib mir gewogen!
Looking very nice! Have you looked at something like the Hulk frame brace for the Anet A8? I'm not sure what it would take to adapt, but it made a huge difference in my printer quality. Second, klipper might help because of pressure advance. I would be curious to see how it treats the little bit of extrusion during a retract. There's also someone else designing a large pellet extruder. Have you seen that one?
Thanks! I won't start improving this printer mechanics, simply because it went out of production a decade ago. Instead I will start transforming a modern printer into a granules printer in the not so far future. At this stage of development it would not make sense, if the software would trick me to think the extruder it better than it actually is. I am working on a constant extrusion hardware wise. If software can make this even better after the hardware is optimized, that will be okay. Who is the someone you are talking about? Because there is more than just one "someone else" that has or is mounting a more or less conventional pellet extruder on a 3D printer frame with more or less the same outcome: They can print large structures more or less,. If you want to print small structures, shrinking the extruder isn't enough, you must also shrink the raw material, something I am working on with my series on grinders / blenders..
@@HomoFaciens makes sense. It's nice to see you trying to make the issues clear so you can fix them. I'm excited to see the new one when it comes! Here's the guy with the other pellet extruder: ua-cam.com/video/f0rVNFXp9IA/v-deo.htmlsi=1M2YG1tRGKg3-acq It's still mostly diy, but he designed a custom screw so I expect it to cost more than this. I love seeing them both!
Another one that only shrinks the length of an extruder design that is meant for injection molding. Which has been done before with more or less the same outcome: You can print large structures, more or less. I guess there is a reason why he printed a Benchy much larger than a normal one? Also, more than half an hour of talking, but no more than 10 seconds showing his printer in action. As I have told multiple times: You must shrink the granules as well to be able to print small structures as is the aim for my design.
@@HomoFaciens I think the more important parts of his video are the little tricks he's come up with, like the clever way to empty the plastic out, and the plastic delivery system. Obviously it's at a larger scale, but might be useful on this more accurate system.
Well, cutting the hopper into halves to empty out the plastic is something I did with my very first prototype years ago (okay, I used screws, not a slide in mechanism). Also using a big reservoir on top of the frame is what has been done from the beginning of pellet printing. I feel like having switched to a sales channel when watching his video(s). Printing a benchy bigger than usual without even mentioning that is was printed bigger isn't what I call openess. If you buy a printer, you want to see the printer in action, not hear someone talking about what all "could eventually be done". He never tried printing chocolate as he says would be possible. If so he would know that chocolate grains stick together in the hopper, preventing extrusion) and that chocolate needs ages to solidify after extrusion. His extruder isn't scam, but far from delivering all the promises he makes. As told before: He isn't the first one who has bolted a more or less conventional extruder to a 3D printer, with more or less the same outcome..
you sure you cant increase the acceleration on the extruder? it looks like your settings are too conservative, you should reduce the microstepping to x2 or x4 and increase the jerk and acceleration till it starts skipping steps. Also if you use helicoidal gears instead (make them right angled) it should help with the noise and backlash. (though you can fix that on the extrusion after retraction setting on prusa slicer)
It is more the top speed for retract. I have of course tuned that parameter (as well as acceleration) to the highest possible. With the high overall reduction (gears + screw pitch) you need a long travel to retract efficiently. As told in the video, I will address that in the coning video(s). Stay tuned!
How difficult would it be to make the printer to print upside down? Print bed at the top and extruder at the bottom. Could this work? Bit unconventional but an idea. The heat would rise to the print bed and not to the extruder.
Well, that's what you can try out yourself after replicating one of my extruder designs ;-) Printing upside down has been done with filament printers, but the success wasn't overwhelming, or was it?
The requirement for a very sharp temperature gradient and effective heat break is a real breakthrough in this sort of material printing!
I’ve never seen anything like it. Most direct granular printing I’ve seen is treating the extrusion like injection molding, I think your strategy is really smart! The only drawback I can imagine is probably delayed reaction for retracts.
Retract is always delayed. The trick is to reduce that delay as much as possible and that's what I am currently working on by shrinking the extruder, which also addresses other issues I will talk about. Stay tuned!
Loving this series. Exceptional work! 👏👏👏
your early there , i watched this project evolve and its seriously impressive.
i think the next prototype should rotate the motor 180 degrees and put it between the X axis rails , that was you wont have significant weight in an undesirable location , it might cause the X axis to wobble when stopping ,
also i dont think its a retraction issue , i think its a pressure issue , the blob at the end of travel is the excess pressure on the nozzle driping out ,maybe calibrate pressure advance in marlin ?
i think the screw is not garbing enough material to relive the pressure near the nozzle , thats why you have that extra blob
also you can enable wiping in prusha slicer where it will wipe the nozzle into the part to prevent blobs from forming .
but your smart boy ,you probably figured all of this out already
Thanks! The ideas that evolved in my head over the past months are materializing.
The overall design of the extruder is anything but perfect. Quick & dirty, but working. Yes, flipping the motor for 180 degrees is one of the ideas in my head. Not only for a more compact design, but for additional ideas as well (more on that in one of the coming videos). It would mean an extra pair of gears or pulleys if a direct drive works. Future will tell. More on that when I will start converting a more modern printer than my good old Zonestar that went out of production over a decade ago.
Yes, it's pressure that makes the plastic exit the nozzle. To avoid talking about that in detail, I simply refer to all of the processes as "retract".
Bad hardware engineers always say: "The software guys will fix that!" ;-)
Very good! I have an old ender3 that I use a 1mm nozzle on to build high mass parts, this would be ideal to run with recycled grains.
You earn a new subscriber. Great pedagogy and explanation about your technical choices. You sound like WWII-BBC... Stimmt!
Danke, Ja!
Good luck. Much needed machine
Linear Advance should help with some of that ooze, and then you can reduce retraction to a minimum. This is very exciting, as we all need some way to reuse our leftover filament and reduce waste.
Thanks!
Bad hardware engineers always say "The software guys must fix that!" ;-)
As stated in the video, there are still core improvements to be made. I am confident that I can improve the retract clearly. The next video will show progress on that..
...and you will be able to print materials that simply can't be processed as filament: ua-cam.com/video/ea2dfdTszqM/v-deo.html
I think you would be better served by aiming for larger nozzles, as 0.8mm or even larger.
That way impurities will be a much smaller concern, and your raw material can be more inconsistent.
Yes, that's obvious, but my aim is to replace standard filament extruders and these work with 0.4mm nozzles. I will talk about that in a future video and also show solutions for that issue.
@@HomoFaciens cool :)
I wish somebody sponsored your project! You could have CNC parts etc when you get it working great it could be mass produced!
For sponsoring there is a "Donate" Button on my pages. Just make use of it.
In the coming video I will show that you don't need fancy CNC machines to make a copy of my extruder. Stay tuned!
@@HomoFaciens I’m looking forward to it! But if you ever want to, you might get sponsored if you reach out! I’m a maker too and I know how hard it can get to afford projects :P
Well, if you have a leftover sponsor, point him/her to my pages ;-)
very cool project
Great work!
interesting! I always wondered... what if the assumption would be to accept a continuous extrusion (no retraction at all)? How would a robotic design and G code look like that accumulates the extruded material? Could it "accumulate" unused material in little beads that are fed back into the hopper? Would it be feasible to design a cooled gutter that clips off the extrusion and actively sucks on the nozzle? Or is a rotating disk an option?
Well, looks like you are keen to add complexity to this project. I won't try something like that ;-)
Faszinierend wie gut der Drucker funktioniert trotz der nicht wirklich qualitqtiven Komponenten. Das soll keine Beleidigung sondernd eher ein Kompliment sein.
Ist ja vollkimmen wuppe, das mit dem Aussehen der Komponenten. Sind auf die Schnelle "zusammengeklöppelt". Die nächste Version wird bezüglich der Optik nur marginal, in Sachen Druckqualität aber hoffendlich deutlich besser werden. Bleib mir gewogen!
@@HomoFaciens Ich bin gespannt. Weiter so👍
Working quite well
Looking very nice! Have you looked at something like the Hulk frame brace for the Anet A8? I'm not sure what it would take to adapt, but it made a huge difference in my printer quality.
Second, klipper might help because of pressure advance. I would be curious to see how it treats the little bit of extrusion during a retract.
There's also someone else designing a large pellet extruder. Have you seen that one?
Thanks! I won't start improving this printer mechanics, simply because it went out of production a decade ago. Instead I will start transforming a modern printer into a granules printer in the not so far future.
At this stage of development it would not make sense, if the software would trick me to think the extruder it better than it actually is. I am working on a constant extrusion hardware wise. If software can make this even better after the hardware is optimized, that will be okay.
Who is the someone you are talking about? Because there is more than just one "someone else" that has or is mounting a more or less conventional pellet extruder on a 3D printer frame with more or less the same outcome: They can print large structures more or less,. If you want to print small structures, shrinking the extruder isn't enough, you must also shrink the raw material, something I am working on with my series on grinders / blenders..
@@HomoFaciens makes sense. It's nice to see you trying to make the issues clear so you can fix them. I'm excited to see the new one when it comes!
Here's the guy with the other pellet extruder: ua-cam.com/video/f0rVNFXp9IA/v-deo.htmlsi=1M2YG1tRGKg3-acq
It's still mostly diy, but he designed a custom screw so I expect it to cost more than this. I love seeing them both!
Another one that only shrinks the length of an extruder design that is meant for injection molding. Which has been done before with more or less the same outcome: You can print large structures, more or less. I guess there is a reason why he printed a Benchy much larger than a normal one? Also, more than half an hour of talking, but no more than 10 seconds showing his printer in action.
As I have told multiple times: You must shrink the granules as well to be able to print small structures as is the aim for my design.
@@HomoFaciens I think the more important parts of his video are the little tricks he's come up with, like the clever way to empty the plastic out, and the plastic delivery system. Obviously it's at a larger scale, but might be useful on this more accurate system.
Well, cutting the hopper into halves to empty out the plastic is something I did with my very first prototype years ago (okay, I used screws, not a slide in mechanism). Also using a big reservoir on top of the frame is what has been done from the beginning of pellet printing. I feel like having switched to a sales channel when watching his video(s).
Printing a benchy bigger than usual without even mentioning that is was printed bigger isn't what I call openess. If you buy a printer, you want to see the printer in action, not hear someone talking about what all "could eventually be done". He never tried printing chocolate as he says would be possible. If so he would know that chocolate grains stick together in the hopper, preventing extrusion) and that chocolate needs ages to solidify after extrusion.
His extruder isn't scam, but far from delivering all the promises he makes. As told before: He isn't the first one who has bolted a more or less conventional extruder to a 3D printer, with more or less the same outcome..
you sure you cant increase the acceleration on the extruder? it looks like your settings are too conservative, you should reduce the microstepping to x2 or x4 and increase the jerk and acceleration till it starts skipping steps. Also if you use helicoidal gears instead (make them right angled) it should help with the noise and backlash. (though you can fix that on the extrusion after retraction setting on prusa slicer)
It is more the top speed for retract. I have of course tuned that parameter (as well as acceleration) to the highest possible. With the high overall reduction (gears + screw pitch) you need a long travel to retract efficiently. As told in the video, I will address that in the coning video(s). Stay tuned!
👏👏👏👏👏
How difficult would it be to make the printer to print upside down? Print bed at the top and extruder at the bottom. Could this work? Bit unconventional but an idea. The heat would rise to the print bed and not to the extruder.
Well, that's what you can try out yourself after replicating one of my extruder designs ;-)
Printing upside down has been done with filament printers, but the success wasn't overwhelming, or was it?
mmm, walnuts.
...not really :))
But sugar is an option: ua-cam.com/video/ea2dfdTszqM/v-deo.html