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New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 6th, 2017, 11:34 am
by Anders Olsson
So, a few months ago I realized that I need the dual printing technology of the Ultimaker 3 to print very abrasive materials, and that I can't wait for Ultimaker to release a good enough solution (if they ever do).
At first I thought making new ruby nozzles for the Ultimaker 3 would be the best option (which it might be in the long run), but after some thinking I realized making an "Olsson block" to fit UM2 nozzles in the UM3 is actually easier.

In fact, one can fit the UM2 Olsson block on the UM3, but the heater/sensor-cables will suffer and the heat break is likely to be destroyed when tightening the nozzle.

So I made a new block with a special feature to handle the torque without interfering with the lifting or aligning mechanism and which does not require any modification to the rest of the parts of the print core.

I did not really intend to make this into a product, since there are other issues with the concept, like that the nozzle size is programmed into the EPROM of the print core (so changing size of the nozzle might require additional hacking) and that standard UM2 brass nozzles might ooze too much for dual printing.
One might also need to hack the automated bed leveling on the last firmware since the nozzle sits about 2.5 mm lower with the new block.

Automated bed leveling works fine with the older firmware that I use and the ruby nozzles though.

In case someone is in desperate need of this kind of solution, I might be able to provide a few more blocks for testing/evaluation.
Note though that this is a very early prototype which needs additional testing, there might be issues with it that are yet to be found.
One thing that might need consideration is some kind of protective silicone rubber thing to protect the nozzles, as an example.

I will not share photos on the actual design of the block right now since I don't want people to copy it. (Partly because I am not sure it works properly yet)
2016-12-02-9713.jpg
Printing with ABS with dual ruby nozzles, without priming tower:
2016-11-27-9663.jpg
(I forgot to tighten the right nozzle, so it is a bit dirty due to the plastic that leaked the first hours before I noticed it)
2016-11-28-9664.jpg
The ruby nozzles actually appeared to ooze slightly less that the UM3 nozzles in my initial tests.

Here is another interesting one, the white is TPU95A and the red ABS, no priming tower here as well:
2016-11-30-9684.jpg
There were some strings on the upper right corner that I removed, but apart from that I was amazed how well the TPU95A prints on the UM3.

TPU and ABS does not bind together that well by the way, so one should either design interlocking structures (like I did) or possibly increase the overlap.

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 6th, 2017, 3:32 pm
by Neotko
Any plan to make the tfm liner easy to swap? It could be nice to make a hybrid Core that could allow the user to change it for a cheap part like a tfm coupler?

Also the eprom prt isn't much important since changing the 'Line width' in cura is just the same as changing the nozzle size.

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 6th, 2017, 4:16 pm
by Anders Olsson
Neotko wrote:Any plan to make the tfm liner easy to swap? It could be nice to make a hybrid Core that could allow the user to change it for a cheap part like a tfm coupler?
No plans for that right now. As I understood it, the TFM liner should have "infinite life" in the print core thanks to the improved cooling and fixing.
I suppose it might not have infinite life if I start feeding boron carbide filament through it though :-?
Neotko wrote:Also the eprom prt isn't much important since changing the 'Line width' in cura is just the same as changing the nozzle size.
So one can just change line width in Cura to match for example a 0.8 nozzle and the UM3 wont complain?
I should have tested that of course, but I did not expect that to work. (I think you might even have told me that it should work, now when I think about it)

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 6th, 2017, 4:36 pm
by Neotko
Indeed it works yeah. Cura control everything even the filament. The inly part that is really on the machine part is the gcode that makes the x/y calibration. And that's easy to avoid (to have problems) changing the flow %. For example for 1.75mm I change the flow to 160% and the calibration works (print looks good). For a 0.8 nozzle it would be just double flow.

This kind of tweaks should be easy to explain since a user that wants this kind of core would want something experimental (from the point of view that it doesn't have the UM profiles to click/print).

Indeed I thought easy to change liner for abrasives. The teflons suffer more. Also Nallath on a post csaid something around 2000h theorical life time, but I don't think anyone has damages a core yet from just use.

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 6th, 2017, 4:41 pm
by Meduza
Yes, the nozzle size selector is mostly a way to load the correct profile.

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 6th, 2017, 5:45 pm
by Anders Olsson
Interesting, I have to try with larger nozzles!

I just realized by the way that the new auto bed leveling that starts closer to the buildplate might not be a problem.
At least not if ut uses the initial manual leveling position as a reference, which I suppose it does?

(I am currently not at the same continent as my UM3, otherwise I could of course test these things myself easily :-) )

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 9th, 2017, 3:07 pm
by gr5
Are you in USA Anders?

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 9th, 2017, 3:08 pm
by gr5
>For a 0.8 nozzle it would be just double flow.
4X the flow. But we know what you mean.

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 9th, 2017, 4:02 pm
by Anders Olsson
gr5 wrote:Are you in USA Anders?
Nope, I am roughly at the opposite side of the planet this time.

I could ask the guy who has my UM3 to test things though, if there is something in particular that you are curious about?

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 10th, 2017, 2:55 am
by reibuehl
I expected you to have a babysitter soon, Anders, but an Ultimaker-sitter? :-D

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 10th, 2017, 4:03 am
by Anders Olsson
I think it is better to lend my printers to people who like to use them when I am traveling, rather than having them just sitting at home collecting dust.

So, I lent my UM2 to a friend who builds Warhammer style models, my UM2E is at my brothers place and the UM3 is with a colleague at work :-)

My UM2Go attracts a lot of interest from our daughter by the way, so it could almost work as a babysitter, even though we have a human babysitter for the moment :-)

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 10th, 2017, 8:44 am
by LePaul
I need neighbors like you....who have great toys to lend for weeks!

Has Ultimaker released larger UM3 nozzles yet?

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 10th, 2017, 12:29 pm
by Anders Olsson
No, no larger nozzles yet as far as I know.
It feels like it might take some time of they are going to test and optimize them with all possible combinations of materials that they sell now days.

I am actually not even sure if it is possible to reduce oozing enough to get acceptable quality for dual printing when using larger nozzles?
Has anyone tried dual printing with 0.8 mm nozzles on other machines?

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 10th, 2017, 1:06 pm
by LePaul
My UM2+ is committed to some large nGen prints as of late. Each takes 16 hours and I am really tempted to bump it up to the 0.8 nozzle. I'm just not sure what that will do to my settings (temp, retraction, etc)

Re: New heater block to fit standard nozzles on Ultimaker 3

Posted: January 10th, 2017, 1:21 pm
by Neotko
For me the dual system is just a big meh. There's much that needs improvement to be any use for me. When I had it working on 1.75mm, thanks to Gudo, I started to enjoy it because I was able to push 60mm/s at 0.2 layer at just 205C. Also I had to change to bondtech to start to use an unlimited number of retractions.

I say all this because as soon as you go beyond 210C on pla, the dripping from the unused core becomes a problem, I had one old ruby on one core and it clearly stops the dripping better than the brass one, so it could be a good idea to make a 0.6-0.8 ruby nozzle for um3 to have a more controlled dripping at high speeds (to use the secondary core for stronger infills?

Anyway I don't see much uses beyond pva for dual atm. Making stuff with two colors is quite silly, and without a direct drive I don't see realworld printing speeds (10mm/s to print flexibles (not that tpu semiflex stuff) could allow to use dual to actually make interesting objects.

So, going back to Anders question, I don't think dual 0.8 is even practical with 2.85mm because the huge drip, but with 1.75mm that becomes less and less an isue. And if you could add direct drive intothemix then um3 could really open a lot of interesting new stuff to make (apart from the boring (and SUPER slow) pva/dual color)