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32
General Discussion / Upper fan issue.
« on: June 03, 2016, 12:12:31 PM »
I just discovered a small, odd piece of plastic wedged in a side crevice of my M200's base. After a lot of looking I realized it's a chunk off a blade from Fan 1, the upper extruder fan. In fact, I now see that four blades are either partly or mostly missing. I can't find any Zortrax info regarding this fan's function but my guess is it cools the extruder above the hot end to prevent heat creep that could cause filament to be delivered to the hot end at too high a temp. Question for those more experienced than me: is that this fans function? And since this damage has obviously compromised fan performance, how would it have affected this newbie's printing to date?
Fortunately, I already ordered three Noctua 40 X 10 12v fans, two for a double print fan mod and one spare. Two have arrived so I could move the lower fan to the upper (Fan 1) position and use the new Noctua fans for the print fans. Zortrax's directions are clear up to a point but why cut off the connector on the old fan? Is that just to get the wires back out through that shrink tubing sleeving? If so, does that mean they intend me to also cut off the connectors the new fans then solder them back on after threading the wires? They never say anything about cutting off or reattaching new fan connectors. BTW, I realize the double fan mod requires me to make a parallel splice but thought I'd do that down near the fans.
Lastly, I'm wondering how this fan got damaged. I guess it could have come to me that way but in that case I've been printing like that since day 1. I use the OEM side covers and print in a 4th bedroom that only I use so misc stuff flying around is unlikely. The only thing I can think of is that during a filament change I let the tube droop down and get into that fan while waiting for the extruder to push out the old filament. I have that tube clipped to the flat cable so it doesn't want to do that but maybe I elbowed it clumsily or something. If so, the wire finger guard wouldn't have stopped it. Anyone else experience this?
Thanks in advance for any info on how to make this go easily and prevent it in the future.
Jeff
Fortunately, I already ordered three Noctua 40 X 10 12v fans, two for a double print fan mod and one spare. Two have arrived so I could move the lower fan to the upper (Fan 1) position and use the new Noctua fans for the print fans. Zortrax's directions are clear up to a point but why cut off the connector on the old fan? Is that just to get the wires back out through that shrink tubing sleeving? If so, does that mean they intend me to also cut off the connectors the new fans then solder them back on after threading the wires? They never say anything about cutting off or reattaching new fan connectors. BTW, I realize the double fan mod requires me to make a parallel splice but thought I'd do that down near the fans.
Lastly, I'm wondering how this fan got damaged. I guess it could have come to me that way but in that case I've been printing like that since day 1. I use the OEM side covers and print in a 4th bedroom that only I use so misc stuff flying around is unlikely. The only thing I can think of is that during a filament change I let the tube droop down and get into that fan while waiting for the extruder to push out the old filament. I have that tube clipped to the flat cable so it doesn't want to do that but maybe I elbowed it clumsily or something. If so, the wire finger guard wouldn't have stopped it. Anyone else experience this?
Thanks in advance for any info on how to make this go easily and prevent it in the future.
Jeff
33
Materials Compatibility / Re: Polywood wood imitating filament
« on: June 01, 2016, 08:17:59 AM »
I'm quite happy with how this first real print came out. Looks like wood w/o being wood - absolutely no extruding issues.
The raft required some edge cutting to get the "peeling" started but then it mostly came off cleanly. This material trims and sands fairly easily. The surface appears less glossy than the photo shows. The settings I used on my M200 with Z-Temp and ZT-HE hotend installed were: Z-ABS profile, 0.19mm layers, 190℃ (available in Mixed Range), 100% fan, bed heat off (position 0). I used a little Elmer's office glue stick on the perf plate. I probably should have been more careful applying it b/c one corner of the raft lifted slightly.
Overall, two thumbs up for PolyWood and three thumbs (my gene pool is only ankle deep) up for Z-Temp/ZT-HE combo.
The raft required some edge cutting to get the "peeling" started but then it mostly came off cleanly. This material trims and sands fairly easily. The surface appears less glossy than the photo shows. The settings I used on my M200 with Z-Temp and ZT-HE hotend installed were: Z-ABS profile, 0.19mm layers, 190℃ (available in Mixed Range), 100% fan, bed heat off (position 0). I used a little Elmer's office glue stick on the perf plate. I probably should have been more careful applying it b/c one corner of the raft lifted slightly.
Overall, two thumbs up for PolyWood and three thumbs (my gene pool is only ankle deep) up for Z-Temp/ZT-HE combo.
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News and Announcements / Re: Welcome to the new Z-Temp Forum!
« on: May 31, 2016, 09:58:14 PM »
Hi from NJ, Julia and thanks for the forum. Looking forward to sharing experiences with other Z-Temp users.
Jeff
Jeff
35
Materials Compatibility / Re: Polywood wood imitating filament
« on: May 31, 2016, 06:44:25 PM »
Newbie here - have had M200 for two months, Z-Temp and ZT-HE for only a few days.
Spent the day doing 20mm test cubes with this material. Best settings on cubes using Z-ABS profile: 190℃, 100%fan, no bed heat, .19 layers. Cubes look really good at low temp and full fan - anything hotter or lower fan degraded print quality and made rafts really hard to remove. However, I had this raft issue with two other materials I tried a few days ago so maybe my setup is "hot" for some reason. Just started a 9 hour print. Will report if it prints as well as the small cubes at these settings.
Jeff
Spent the day doing 20mm test cubes with this material. Best settings on cubes using Z-ABS profile: 190℃, 100%fan, no bed heat, .19 layers. Cubes look really good at low temp and full fan - anything hotter or lower fan degraded print quality and made rafts really hard to remove. However, I had this raft issue with two other materials I tried a few days ago so maybe my setup is "hot" for some reason. Just started a 9 hour print. Will report if it prints as well as the small cubes at these settings.
Jeff