Building anew

Hi, been catching parts and building a Mendel since some weeks.
The mouting seemed to go smoothly, i hope (have a gallery [picasaweb.google.com])
I've come to a tedius task and some doubts.

The task i've left behind is how to adapt a hot end v4 (form mendel-parts) to a wade extruder, or at least to fix it still enough. I fear the lateral screws in the upper portion (the one where the hot end gets inserted) would not hold it enough... even if I'm not really sure how much strong is the motor, tho.
Not to mention there isn't much plastic where to work on a wade (tried some drilling but... not ended very good) to make an attachment...

And one of my doubts regards the electronics (gen6, still from mendel-parts): i read in the wiki the board should not be powered down for any reason (and that lets me wonder how I'd power down the printer?), while, on the guide about calibrating, it's suggested to be ready to shut down the power supply in case motors wouldn't stop (like screwing with z axis)... quite a conflict. So how do the calibration go with gen6?

I have the endstops, but I also read around the ones for gen6 might have a reversed logic, and thus still risk on a motor screwing the printer?

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Other than that, i'm a Java developer (and android too), and once I'll make things work I'm curious in how to mess some things up with software... I saw in the wiki there was something moving in that side.

I think the warning regarding power to the board is to warn that you should not disconnect cables while the board is powered on. This is especially important with the stepper motors, as you can damage the drive circuitry by disconnecting a motor while it is being powered.

There's no problem with turning the Gen6 off at any stage. As jcabrer says, the warning is don't connect or disconnect anything from the board while it's on.

Best of luck with your build.
No.6

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[numbersixreprap.blogspot.com]

Hi Kiantis,
I'm using a v4 hotend on a Prusa with an Accessible Wade's so its a slightly different beast but what I've done is to attach the hotend to a 4 mm sheet of plywood using 2x50 mm M4 screws up from the PEEK block - kinda visible here: [amk355.files.wordpress.com]. This way heat from the screws doesn't conduct into the extruder PLA! I have the PTFE barrel poking up through the ply and against the Accessible Wade's but a second sheet on top the 1st with a 3mm hole for filament would improve things....but as it is it works well enough. Since the photo was taken I put two nuts above the peek block. Note: there are nuts/washers both sides of the ply so I've put clearance holes in the extruder to help everything sit a little more flush (its not perfect as you can see!). The screws attaching the extruder to the carriage go thru the ply too.
hope this helps,
AMK

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[amk355.wordpress.com]

Interesting, thanks.
I'm still scavenging for parts around (like the nichrome wire etc, small stuff) and not ready to build the extruder yet, but I will take that into consideration.
I've noticed the inferior part there is missing, though... I've made a quick test on mine and it seems the gray block (the one with the screws that goes in the hot end) touches quite into the plastic, which could mean melting... Maybe kapton can solve that? I suspect though that if the surfaces would be touching, heat would reach the plastic anyway.

Oh i was also wondering...
Could be enough to use silicon to attach the hot end?
Like in this one [www.reprap.org] ?
Or won't hold it enough when the motor will inject the filament?

Hi Kiantis,

I think they used epoxy to glue the PTFE cylinder to the extruder body. They put the rod down through it to avoid glue blocking the filament path. The silicone grease is to stop the rod also getting glued.

That page has been superseded by a later version. Also the nozzle: [www.reprap.org]. It seems the idea is that the peek block and screws take the forces instead of the PTFE thermal barrier.

In my limited experience the heat conducted from the brass to the peek, up through the screws and softened the pla extruder (abs is probably ok as has a higher melting temp) so i hacked together the plywood idea. So its pretty rigid now. I don't know how the epoxy approach works.