Makergear X-Carriage with built-in fan mount and duct for cooling nozzle.
Description
I didn't find one that I liked so I put this together to direct a nice cool flow of air to the upper portion of the hot-end. It takes a common 40 mm cpu/gpu fan and is a really clean method to attach a fan.
I hope it is useful for everyone needing better cooliing for the hotend.
I've uploaded the final V4 STL called "xcarriagev4done_fixed.stl". It has been passed through Netfabb and is only 2.6 megs compared to 12.3 megs for V3. It prints nicely without requiring any support. The fan mount clears the diagonals nicely and the bushings fit well, too.
I should have a V5 with linear slides and a raised hotend but can't promise when it will arrive.
Enjoy!
Instructions
> edit < I used a heat gun to warm up the four corners where the bronze bushes press in. With a little heat they slid in smoothly. > /edit <
I'm using my first version today and the little fan and duct does an awesome job. The MakerGear hotend can maintain 180 for PLA, but struggles for go any higher than maybe 185 C. I hope the plugged nozzles are a thing of the past with this upgrade.
Good luck everyone and please let me know how it works out.
I have uploaded V4. I just received my new hotends from hotends.com they look awesome btw :). The cooling fins were a few mms higher than I had expected so I re-contoured the air ramp and outlet to allow a better air flow a little higher up on the nozzle. The new fan bracket is thinner. It's just as strong but uses less plastic. Use the V4 x-carriage for both the Makergear hotend and for the hotend.com finned power resistor hotend.
Talk about the "evolution of a design"! I wonder how many more changes I'll have to the idea! :)
I've just uploaded new photos showing the new X-Carriage with the Birdnose extruder. They go very well together!
I'm also working on a new x-carriage that raises the hotend 3 cm so the total Z travel on the MakerGear Prusa should be at or over 11 cm and it will use linear slides for near zero friction.
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Printed and installed.. then realised there are no belt clamps? Slots for them, yes, but not included or linked to... just sayin.. Otherwise it seems pretty solid!
No I didn't include the clamp bars as I assumed that as people were printing this out as a replacement they would re-use their old ones- I used the same dimensions that MakerGear uses so my old ones could be re-used.
I have a new fan-ducted x-carriage in prototype that is installed and working. It uses linear glides and raises the extruder body 3 full cm. :-D
I'll have it out next week. :)
Which bushings are these designed for?
Hello again. Are you having troubles? My bushings push in snugly with the bores @ 16mm. That is what they were drawn at in Pro/E. If you're having trouble pressing them in a hot air gun works wonders.
I am using the stock MakerGear Prusa bushings. They are listed as "self-aligning, bronze, 5/16 for Hybrid".
Nice design and speaking of airflow, I just finished fitting a relatively powerful
Sanyo 40mm ballbearing fan to Pomalins cone design that fits with clamps around
the cylinders of the x carriage. It works, but you lose pressure from squeezing the
air mass through a small hole. Hopefully enough to cool the nozzle effectively
when building small parts. Sfact (Skeinforge) has a feature called cool where you
can activate the fan depending on how long it takes to print one layer. Very cool!
Very nice design! If you have Replicatorg, you can re-orient it with that quite easily.
Hello. Thanks. :) I printed the x-carriage in my classroom but uploaded it to TV later from home... The last thing I do to check it out is use Replicatorg religiously before skeining it. Life got a lot easier when some kind sole suggest it!
You know, I think balancing the airflow between the nozzle duct and the e-motor duct will be difficult... Do you think a 40 mm fan has enough flow for the job??
License
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What was this designed in? we might like to make a few tweaks if you'd be okay with that? Post up the design files for whichever platform you're using and we'll do the rest. We completely understand if you'd prefer not to as well.
Hello. Sorry it took so long for me to answer. Volunteer work for a week or so... I used Pro/E Student Edition at my school for the design. I'm sorry, but it won't save to too many other file types. Not even dxf. They want the work to remain in their product family and I can't blame them. Pro/E student version does save to slt, step, and iges so it is still awesomely useful for 3D printing.
What changes would you like? A student and I are redesigning the x-carraige right now with a raised extruder platform (3 cm) and including linear bearings and a repositioned ducted fan housing.
The goal is to allow an 11 cm print height using the hotend.com hotend.
Thanks, Jim