reorganize extruder information on the wiki?

I was editing the Glossary on the wikik, and noticed that the extgruders aren't arranged very well.

Right now, there isn't a clear definition of "extruder" There's "Wade's extruder" and "mendel extruder" etc. Then there's the syringe-based extruders, the paste extruder (operates by air pressure) and the wire extruder, amount others.

It might make more sense to split it up (and link it together) as follows:
Heated filament-based Thermoplastic Extrusion methods:
Polymer pumps (Wades, Adrians, Mendel, Etc)
Hot end designs, from Makerbots, to Adrians, wades, Darwins, Mendels, nophead's etc.
Everything else, including granule extruders, on a seperate page.

I think that the hot end nicely splits from the specific method used to shove filament into it, and both of those (which together comprise the standard) split nicely from all the other toolheads which can be mounted on a mendel, or whatever other CNC machine you happen to have handy.

I think that this would make it simpler for noobs to find the information they need, and to see what designs are standard, widely used, etc.

Is "polymer pump" the correct term? I'm using it to mean specifically "that which pushes the filament into the hot end" so perhaps "filament feeder" or something?

Hrm... "widely used" perhaps we should ask people to add their name to the end of the page describing the designs that they personally are using/have used? It's a simple edit, and would (sneakily) get people in the habit of editing pages. They'd find themselves making corrections or additions (small ones) to this or that "while I'm at it". It'd be fun!

---

--
I'm building it with Baling Wire

I think that is all fine for the general wiki layout, but the glossary should just be a list of words that people use on the forums and wiki. for example people say "i'm using a wade's"; if a noob sees this he/she doesn't have to know that Wade's refered to an extruder. he can type Wades into the search field and up pops the glossary, with a link to Geared NEMA 17 extruder in the wiki. So that should just be alphabetical, with each term separate.

However it would be useful to have 'Examples' where appropriate, and you could put a link to the wade's extruder glossary link under extruder examples. In this case, i think the example links should point to another glossary term (ie. Wade's) first, and then that term's link should point to the relevant wiki page (ie. Geared NEMA 17 extruder)

Also, i like "cold end" instead of polymer pump or extruder. it is easy to visualize, as it is opposed to the 'hot end' of the whole extruder assembly. or maybe "Feed mechanism"? I don't like 'pump' as it makes me think of moving liquid, and at the cold end it is still solid.

Quote

I was editing the Glossary on the wikik, and noticed that the extgruders aren't arranged very well.

Right now, there isn't a clear definition of "extruder" There's "Wade's extruder" and "mendel extruder" etc. Then there's the syringe-based extruders, the paste extruder (operates by air pressure) and the wire extruder, amount others.

Do you think creating a extruder specific infobox would help? It seems that everything on wikipedia has it's own category specific infobox these days. In most cases they seem to be very helpful. I've been working on my own custom infobox for my Gada Prize entry and wouldn't mind making one up for extruders. In fact I think I'll throw one together.

---

--Isaac

Yeah I think a Catagory:Extruder would be useful, since the extruder doesn't have to be machine-specific.

I like the "hot end" vs. "cold end" thing, so how about a "hot end" category and a "cold end" category?
And then a general "extruder" category that would catch everything that can't be broken up that way. Mostly non molten thermoplastic extrusion extruders, I think.

---

--
I'm building it with Baling Wire

Yeah i'll go through and add subcategories for those. need to figure out how to add subcategories, first :-)

Ok i've been going through all the dev't pages and cleaning up the categories, putting everything in a logical place. Many people don't know what to fill in in the template, so i'm thinking i should add all the available variables into the cut-n-paste template and just add instructions to delete what doesn't apply.

I'll think about it some more...