I'm getting close to being able to use my reprap!
I have two tasks left;
adding a chopper/current limiter to the pic electronics and
getting filament.
I've been trying to literally roll my own from polymorph for a few evenings now and I don't seem to be very good at it ;-)
The diameter varies along the length of the filament normally by 0.1 mm but sometimes more. I've been putting them in piles based on their size and accuracy.
So far I have produced:
2.5 -> 2.7 mm 16% I expect these will have to be melted down for another try
2.7 -> 2.8 mm 26% probably too small but quite consistent
2.75 -> 2.9 mm 37% larger but less accurate
2.8 -> 2.9 mm 21% quite good, but with only 1 in 5 being in this spec it would be a pain if they all need to be this good.
so my first question is how accurate does the filaments diameter need to be?
My thought is that it will affect the amount out the nozzle as the screw feeds a consistent length, not volume. With the smaller diameters I wonder if molten plastic will come out around it.
I've been cutting the rods produced to use their best parts, most of them end up 150 mm but they vary from 70 mm up to 230 mm
So my second question is; am I going to drive my self insane using such short sections?
I tried joining two sections but it didn't go well, I only melted the ends that were to join. The joint, not surprisingly, started off larger than the rest of the rod but because of this it was being rolled while the rest of the rod was free. This caused the joint to twist its self and to pull away from the other parts thinning it's connection to the rods and ruining the resulting single rod.
My final Question is; can short sections be joined to create a continuos filament and if so what should I do differently?
