Hi All,
I made a prototype hot end using electroforming and casting. The main motivation behind the design is to reduce the number of different materials required, and to take a step toward a hot end that can be printed on a 3D printer.
The main tube is electroformed copper.
The insulating portion is cast plaster.
The heater coil is made of enamel insulated
copper wire.
Temperature feedback is accomplished by measuring the resistance of the copper heater coil.
It can extrude Polycaprolactone at 120C. The limiting factor is that the insulation on the copper wire fails at higher temperatures.
Orifice diameter is 1mm, which I realize is large, but future interations can reduce that.
This method might be useful for making other all-metal designs, and maybe even other metal components besides hot ends.
Writeup here: [
www.reprap.org]
Enjoy!
