Wade's Extruder and J-head

HI! After receiving a Replicator 2 at work I couldn't help but feel that I missed out on the building part of making your own printer. At this point I have all the plastic parts printed, all the hardware should be here soon, picked up a J-head MKV and working on the electronics. While going through the manual and watching videos on YouTube, One thing pops up that is still a bit confusing to me. See below:

1. The Wade's extruder that was downloaded from Github.com with the Prusa parts doesn't seem to have a way to mount a J-head. I'm assuming it is like that because there should be a plate mounted under this part depending on the hot end that is being used. Is this correct?

2. Does anyone have a link to a good replacement extruder similar to the Wade's (maybe and updated one) that has the mounting bracket for a j-head integrated and would be good for 1.75mm filament? Any suggestions?

3. Since I'm using the Replicator 2 to print my parts everything is in PLA. I intend on using 1.75mm PLA instead of ABS because I already have quite a stock of this type of filament and can't see why I would want to start using a different size when I already have it. I am including a heated bed so if I ever choose to use ABS it would have to be 1.75mm filament. Will having the extruder printed in PLA cause any issues? I plan on having a Fan attached to cool the tube.

4. Any ideas if a Ramps 1.4 will have connections for fan control? If so how many can I connect? I want to have two, one for the tube and one as a plastic cooler.

Thanks!

Hot ends.com has an aluminum plate just for this purpose. I use this, plus I also have a wooden disk that came with my original maker gear hot end that I place in between. I guess the disk wouldn't be necessary if the hole in the bottom of the extruder was shallower.

Have you had any experience with the extruders that have a hot-end mount built in?
I'm looking at:

[www.thingiverse.com]

It has a J-head mount built in. Supposedly you can put the nozzle in the hole on the bottom and use two M3s to slide in the groove and hold it in place. My concern is whether or not the hot-end gets hot that far up. and if it does, I wonder if it will melt the plastic.

I use [www.thingiverse.com] works well

You don't have any problems with melting?

If you look at the side of the extruder by the hot end mount you'll see 2 - 3 mm holes just under the main gear. They might be covered in printing flash. Those can be used to mount the extruder by inserting 40 mm bolts and trimming the PEEK on the hot end. I would say the plate method listed above is the best method. When you say a Wade's, do you mean the original Wade's (4 bolts on extruder idler, no hinge) or a "Greg's- Wade's hinged accessible", or "Gregstruder"? I've found as many others have the tensioning on the hinged accessible model is easier to adjust and easier to load filament.

Print the extruder from ABS or buy an ABS extruder. My experience has been that printing for longer periods the PLA does become soft and will deform. I melted the bottom of my first extruder. I also directly mounted the J Head. Now I mount using a wooden groove mount of the same design as the aluminum mount mentioned in a previous post by jbernardis. I've got an i3 ready to replace one of my i2s and for that I'm trying both an E3D and Prusa's new all metal hot ends.

The fan connects to D9 on your RAMPS shield. Most people don't use 2 fans as one seems to be enough. I use Pronterface/Slic3r/Marlin and the control settings for the cooling are in Slic3r. I have a 40 mm fan that mounts to a shroud and the right side (x axis + travel direction) of the X carriage. It makes a difference for my PLA prints.

vegasloki Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you look at the side of the extruder by the hot
> end mount you'll see 2 - 3 mm holes just under the
> main gear. They might be covered in printing
> flash. Those can be used to mount the extruder by
> inserting 40 mm bolts and trimming the PEEK on the
> hot end. I would say the plate method listed
> above is the best method. When you say a Wade's,
> do you mean the original Wade's (4 bolts on
> extruder idler, no hinge) or a "Greg's- Wade's
> hinged accessible", or "Gregstruder"? I've found
> as many others have the tensioning on the hinged
> accessible model is easier to adjust and easier to
> load filament.

I understand how to mount it I was more curious about experience with this built in feature over using a plate (wood or otherwise) so thanks for that info!
Currently I'm just looking for the best extruder for 1.75mm filament. I don't want to have to buy additional filament just for this printer when I already have a box of it ready to be used from my other printer. I picked up a small kit from a friend that he got from Ultimachine. Supposedly it is the hardware for a Wade's Nema 17 extruder but witha hobbed bolt. Just trying to find the best solution for what I have. Thanks!

vegasloki Wrote:

"Print the extruder from ABS or buy an ABS extruder. My experience has been that printing for longer periods the PLA does become soft and will deform. I melted the bottom of my first extruder."

Seconded.

I have a J-Head placed directly into a self-printed Greg's Wade's Hinged, and I use four 15mm machine screws to hold the J-Head in place. Works great.

Thankfully, I was able to print my ABS extruder before I discovered how much I was melting my PLA extruder by having the J-Head right in it. I'd always have my bed level for the first print, and by the second the melting plastic would mean minor (but print-defeating) head crash.