Monday 23 July 2007

Boring

Well turning, boring and tapping to be precise. I made the extruder nozzle and PTFE heat barrier this evening :-



I am making a mixture of an older RepRap design and the latest, mainly because I bought the parts before the design was changed. I made a small modification to the nozzle design. You are supposed to use a bottoming tap to thread the inside of the PTFE tube. As I don't have one of those, I drilled the hole 5mm deeper to accommodate the tapered end of the tap. I also turned the last 5mm of the nozzle down instead of threading it. I should have made the PTFE tube 5mm longer but I forgot so I have slightly less heat barrier.

I am not totally happy with the nozzle because I bent it while I was threading it with a die. I don't think it will affect the operation it just looks a bit scrappy. Here they are screwed together and inserted into the clamp :-



I need to add the heating element next.

2 comments:

  1. hiya,

    can i know the dimension of the extruder? I plan to build one.

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  2. This design is nearly five years old. More modern designs don't use PTFE as a structural element because it creeps when subjected to heat and pressure and eventually the thread gives way.

    Coincidentally I am just testing a new design now and will publish it soon.

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