I finally got my tantillus printing.  The results are unbelievable.  Dimensions are perfect, layers are perfect, print quality is impeccable.  All I can say is wow …

Today I completed the mechanical assembly of the Tantillus.  It turns out that the normal nema17 kysan steppers are indeed too large.  I have some others on order which should hopefully be here tomorrow.  I’m going to use the ramps 1.2 that is currently on my prusa1.  That one already has an sdramps on it and the headers on it for the LCD.   The 1.75 bowden adapter looks like its going to work.  We’ll see once I get started.  I did need to reprint one part today, but that is pretty minor.  I’m currently debating on swapping the printed lm8uus out for real ones, but I’m still on the fence.  Tomorrow I’ll get the ramps 1.2 installed and the hot end wired up.

Tonight I managed to get the x/y-axis and the carriage for the tantillus assembled.  Next I’ll add the gears and the fishing line.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll make it to the extruder body.  I still need to adapt the bowden setup to 1.75, so it may take a few days.  If all goes well, the printer will be up and going by the weekend!!!!

I’ve always used tilted fans pointing at the extruder, but wanted to get more precise with my cooling.  This helps to improve the print quality because it can cool the PLA very quickly after it exits the nozzle.  For my QU-BD extruders, I designed my first duct which used a 40mm fan and a very narrow chamber.  Having the fan tilted at such an angle inhibited quite a bit of airflow.  To remedy the situation, I ordered a blower (squirrel cage) type fan. I picked 4 of these up off of ebay.  I’ve switched back to my MG nozzles because I have a lot of printing to get done for upcoming builds.  I built two fan ducts.  One of which blows directly on one side of the nozzle which is similar to what I have typically done, but a bit more focused.  The second picture has a circular fan duct that I just designed.  I still need to adapt the circular duct to the long duct, but that should not be much of an issue.  I did a rudimentary test and am very impressed with the result.  I can’t wait to try it out!

I’ve been tuning the QU-BD extruders to get them to be more reliable. What I’ve found is that they are extremely sensitive to temperature swings. I’ve made a temperature table for Marlin based on the supplied information by QU-BD. Here it is for reference.

#if (THERMISTORHEATER_0 == 61) || (THERMISTORHEATER_1 == 61) || (THERMISTORHEATER_2 == 61) || (THERMISTORBED == 61) // QU-BD
// Thermistor lookup table for Marlin
// ./createTemperatureLookup.py –rp=4700 –t1=25.0:100000.0 –t2=150.0:1783.0 –t3=250.0:232.0 –num-temps=36
const short temptable_61[][2] PROGMEM = {
{187, 350},
{212, 340},
{241, 330},
{275, 320},
{314, 310},
{361, 300},
{417, 290},
{483, 280},
{562, 270},
{657, 260},
{770, 250},
{907, 240},
{1073, 230},
{1275, 220},
{1519, 210},
{1816, 200},
{2177, 190},
{2613, 180},
{3138, 170},
{3766, 160},
{4506, 150},
{5364, 140},
{6339, 130},
{7416, 120},
{8567, 110},
{9751, 100},
{10918, 90},
{12016, 80},
{13002, 70},
{13845, 60},
{14536, 50},
{15078, 40},
{15487, 30},
{15784, 20},
{15994, 10},
{16137, 0}
};

#endif

The results of my current print at 212C are below.

I think the holiday make for a great time to tune a 3D printer. With kids running around and plenty of things to do around the house, it isn’t quite like watching grass grow. Now that I have my insulation back on and proper gears, I’m starting to turn up the speed and tweak the quality. Below you can see a cube printed at 100 micron as well as the fan duct I needed to design to help cool the PLA. This is getting very cool!

As if I needed another 3d printer, I’ve decided to start working on a Tantillus. A friend sent me the lasercut panels and I’ve gotten the rest of the vitamins from McMaster. Now I just need to print and assemble!

So the directions that come with the QU-BD nozzles are insufficient. Now I have a gooey mess and ruined insulation on two nozzles. Luckily I was able to readjust them how they should have been. This makes me really appreciate my MG hot ends.

Well, I can’t say its been a simple/quick/easy process with these extruders, but I’m finally getting my first multi-color prints. It a pain to ensure that the nozzles are equally spaced from the build platform and to tune their offset. Below you can see my tuning progression as well as my first really multi-color object, a die.

I’ve wanted to get to dual extruders for some time, but I just never got around to it on my prusa. There just didn’t seem to be any really good options. Recently QU-BD started selling a revision of the Makerbot MK7 extruder. I decided to get two of them and see what I could do. I had to build a mounting plate for the vertical rail car which seems to be working out well. I’m going to mill it out of aluminum once I get these nozzles working well.