Please let me start by saying this may well be the case where I just have not found the right web link. Also, I am fairly certain the information in out there but in pieces in literally tens (hundreds?) of places.
Has one of the several experts in this forum ever put together a definitive guide on hot end architecture?
The more I am involved with building my custom 3d machine, the more it is clear that the essence is really in the "hot" components...the hot end and the bed. The XYZ movers are fun, challenging, but, I would offer, part of the science of XYZ mechanisms...science and engineering covered in many applications (milling machines, CNC routers, label cutters, etc..) and covered by a myriad of sources.
My vision for the hot end guide (of course, to be followed by a heated bed guide ;^)) is a comprehensive design guide to the requirements for a hot end and discussions on how to address them.
The most pressing need would seem to be related to thermal management and the barrel/nozzle design. Material choices, temperatures, how to measures these temperatures, heater choices, barrel geometry, liner material, fan(s), nozzle geometry, etc... but other components such as the hobbed/grooved drive, filament guides, bulk feed, etc.. would be great to have as well.
What this guide is *not* is a specific, well documented design for a hot end (there appear to several very good ones out there), but rather what to consider when approaching a design and a critique on what has been tried, what works, what needs to be explored.
Is one out there and I am missing it?
