Saturday, September 18, 2010

Printing Wade's Extruder without a heated bed

It's been bothering me that I can't print a Wade's extruder block in ABS. Every one I've tried to print was badly warped. I've been using an extruder I bought from Rusty Spoon, but it's in poor shape from all the drilling and cutting I've done to make it work with my quick-change nozzles. I really need a new customized one. I made one out of PLA, but it failed in less than an hour of use; the stepper melted its way out of alignment. I've been too lazy to build a heated bed, so I've been keeping an eye out for another solution.

Nophead found the solution and posted it last week. His solution improved prints with a heated bed; I decided to try it with an unheated one:



Bam! Still fully attached to the bed!



No heated bed! No raft!

I still heard the occasional loud crackling sound while it printed, but at least it stayed fully attached to the bed. Unfortunately it acted like a spring once I started pulling it up; it wanted to get off the bed ASAP. After springing, it gained a slight warp, but not nearly as much as before. Since it stayed attached while printing, its tendancy to warp didn't interfere with the upper layers. Unlike my previous attempts, this part seems usable; this is the real win.

1 comment:

  1. So it's just a thin wall of material 1mm away from the corners?

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