Wade extruder assembly help??

Ok I've been reading thru the PDF on assembling Wades Extruder, but theres useful information missing that i need to know..

I have a kit of all the hardware, nozzle, barrel, wire, and hapton tape... (oddly the grub screw for the motor pulley isn't part of it ;()

Anyways I'm stuck at the head of the extruder and the nichrome wire and the thermistor

I assume i need to screw the barrel into the PTFE rod but after that I'm lost

Thanks

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2011 05:03PM by shippo0708.

Where did you get your kit ? What kind of hot end is it ? If you don't know, do you have pictures ?

It's this kit from mixshop
[mixshop.com]

This hot end is an old design which won't last you very long. The problem is that the PTFE thread is not strong enough to hold the nozzle in place. The nozzle will eventually be pushed out and plastic will start leaking between the nozzle the the PTFE. You can make it work but I suggest getting another hot end to prepare for when it fails.

The PTFE rod inserts to the bottom of the Wade extruder body and then held in place by two wood screws. There should be two holes in the base of the extruder body for the screws going perpendicular to the rod.

well thats a bit annoying -_- and so is the hardware that came in the kit... i can't get the motor lined up cuz of the over-long screws -_-

i guess ill put the extruder on hold until i can find the right hardware

One of the difficulties with Wade's extruder body design is the lack of clearance underneath the motor for the bolts - Greg's redesign resolves that problem.

Personally, I'd hack up your extruder body in whatever way you need to in order to make it work, and once it's working, print a replacement for it. Although, I'm not sure I'm the best one for extruder body advise, since I've printed at least 5 of the damned things, and still don't have one that I really like.

the sad part is i kinda like the way the wades extruder looks lol

the material on my current body is PVC i think so i should be able to rough it up a bit after i find a screw good enough for the damned motor pulley

Nevermind it is ABS... I'm not sure how much damage i can do to it then

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2011 06:12PM by shippo0708.

raldrich Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One of the difficulties with Wade's extruder body
> design is the lack of clearance underneath the
> motor for the bolts - Greg's redesign resolves
> that problem.
>

I don't have a problem clearing a M3 socket head bolt there. The problem is that I have to remove the motor if I want to remove the extruder from the carriage. So it makes for a tedious procedure for changing the extruder since the gears need to be removed first before removing the motor. I think the Prusa version of Wade's extruder has captive nuts on the extruder so you would insert the M4 bolt from the bottom of the x-carriage. This makes it easier to remove the extruder without any disassembly.

I've printed Greg's extruder but I decided not to use it because the angled motor takes away some build height. Wade's extruder cut at the edge of the motor or Prusa's Wade extruder mounted so that the gears face forward gave me the tallest build height of about 100-110 mm before hitting the frame.