Concerning water cooled and multi-nozzle hotends
Because there seems to be a bit of speculation/confusion surrounding this I am going to let the cat out of the bag.
We have on the way a small prototype run of a 4 nozzled, water cooled, bowden fed hotends.
We are calling this new hotend "Kraken" - A multi tentacled water borne monster!
The total footprint of the hotend is only 30*40mm in XY plane, the Z height from top to tip is under 40mm, and the 4 nozzles are arranged in a rectangle only 20mm*18mm apart. The weight without electronics looks to be around 110 grams, which is barely the weight of 2x E3Dv5 hotends. Each nozzle to have separate temperature control. Each nozzle can be individually levelled and adjusted in height to be planar with the bed in a very easy and quick way.Update:
The small size and weight despite 4 nozzles is due mainly to the high efficiency of water cooling, even with only a tiny amount of water flow and a small cooling channel we still have a massive excess of cooling capacity. The second reason is a new way of mounting/gripping bowden tubes which has all the convenience and grip of pneumatic push-fit couplers, but with significantly less bulk and weight.
We intend to keep the price reasonable, and below the price for buying the equivalent number of E3Dv5.
But to be clear - Kraken is not a replacement for the normal v5 hotend, which will remain our main product that suits most users. The Kraken is designed purely for multi-nozzle bowden feed applications. Futhermore it is not finished! We will be shipping the majority of our beta prototyping run to trusted testers. I expect problems to occur and tweaks to be necessary. I will start a separate thread once things are ready, and the final version of Kraken will be developed in a public/interactive manner so the community can input what it wants/needs so that we can give you guys what you want.
Kraken will be open-source when sold publicly.
Cheers,
Sanjay
Stampomatica is a mini series of analog micro-machines to print business cards and postcards. Stampomatica is a powerful expression of digital manufacturing that joined the memory of movable type printing with the DIY attitude; it’s the meeting point between past and future, vintage and innovation: a self-commissioned project that allows everyone to approach to traditional printing techniques rediscovering their charm and potential.
Low cost filament extruder made from 10 mm ID stainless steel tube, silver soldered inside an ordinary plumber 15 mm copper tube (melt zone) Auger is a 10 mm wood drill bit with the end cut off 5-10 mm in the melt zone. 1 mm hole in a brass endstop at the end of the copper pipe. Aluminium block with a 15 mm hole to fit around the copper pipe. Fixed to the outside of the aluminium two 220 volt 200 degree PTC heaters( I tried 12 volt 230 degrees but the temperature was to high) Insulated with glass fibre cloth. The ptc heaters are available on aliexpress for $1 each)
System driven with a car windscreen motor at the low speed (I have a 2 speed motor - salvaged from scrap yard)
I use the white plastic that is in the inside of the doors of scrap refrigerators. Cut it up with a circular saw and extrude that to a filament of 1.75 mm
I use this filament in my Delta printer on a daily basis.
The trick to have a nice filament is to let the filament run over a copper pipe that is suspended in front of the extruder and let natures G force take over. I fix a weight(clothes-peg) at the end of the filament as it comes out of the hole untill it reaches the floor and then move the end of the filament to the outside of a circle approximately 1 meter away.From then on the G force will take over and produce a nice circular movement of the filament to roll it on the floor .
The slightest air movement or other external force that you apply to the extruded filament will result in a kink in the filament - no fans required.
No fancy electronics involved.
Material cost to should be less than $100
This extruder was only tested with the white refrigerator plastic ( I think it is ABS because it will desolve in acetone ) - no ABS pellets or any other plastic tested.
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