Water Cooled Triple Headed Monster

[mikefazz]

Hi all,

Here is a water cooled triple extruder I have been working on for a while. I have it working on my RoStockMAX_v1 and recently on my SpiderBot. It is meant to be pretty 'simple' (if not time consuming) to make so long as you have a lathe for the hot ends. I have so far only used dual extrusion which works pretty well other than the cross contamination issue... Eventually I will get everything ready for triple extrusion.

Water Block:
https://www.youmagine.com/designs/triple-water-block" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hot Ends:
https://www.youmagine.com/designs/mikes-hot-end-v2-5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'll leave the water pump etc to your imagination.

Also some other 'accessories' that may be helpful.
NEMA23 Direct Drive Extruder
https://www.youmagine.com/designs/nema2 ... e-extruder" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Top Spool Holders
https://www.youmagine.com/designs/delta ... ool-holder" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Works better than my old attempt with 3mm filament:
http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php ... 957#p24957" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mhackney]

Looks great.

For Porsches, air cooled is the way to go.
For 3D printers it's water cooled all the way!

[Captain Starfish]

Looks good, Mike!

A few questions, if you don't mind...

- Did you play with alternatives for the water channeling that kept it all internal? Possibly chucking the block in a lathe and turning a channel the whole way around, then turning up a cap of some kind for the channel? The extra hoses from one section to the next just look like way too many potential failure points, especially when the thing is sitting directly above the electronics.
- In the plans for the hot end am I still seeing an internal PTFE liner tube? Any thoughts about reducing the bore to 1.8mm or so and eliminating that liner?
- What kind of pump/radiator arrangement are you using?

I really like a lot about this, the DIY approach appeals and the use of printed parts for drill guides is inspired!

[mikefazz]

Mhacknev yes I really like water cooled setups more complicated but more elegant in m opinion;)

Hi Cap'n,

- Did you play with alternatives for the water channeling that kept it all internal? Possibly chucking the block in a lathe and turning a channel the whole way around, then turning up a cap of some kind for the channel? The extra hoses from one section to the next just look like way too many potential failure points, especially when the thing is sitting directly above the electronics.

I have tried a few different designs trying to keep the aluminum block tight and small. An outer groove sounds interesting but I think it would make the block pretty big. I haven't had any leaking problems with this design, old designs used small tubing (1/8" ID) which created a lot of restriction and was hard to get PTFE tape on properly. With smaller tubing I had a design with the in/out lines come out the top but there isn't really enough room with the bigger tubes. The lines are pretty big and can hit the belts on the largest of prints so if there is a good way to keep it all better contained that would be good.

- In the plans for the hot end am I still seeing an internal PTFE liner tube? Any thoughts about reducing the bore to 1.8mm or so and eliminating that liner?

Yeah PTFE is soo 2012 but they still work for me especially for PLA. I have tried making all metal hot ends long ago but never got reliable success. For the high temp plastics I am working on a ceramic liner option. I found one that has very similar dimensions to the liner. I have only tried it a little so can't say if it will work or not yet. Maybe time to see if I can get the kracken hot ends (w/o their block) to fit in mine.

- What kind of pump/radiator arrangement are you using?

Well I would recommend using a computer water cooler setup since they use the same size tubes are made for this. I went with my own setup which is more complicated and difficult to make but probably a little cheaper (especially using the random stuff I had lying around). If you want to make it more piece meal like me I recommend a good reliable pump this is the one I use now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130888164181?ss ... 1497.l2649" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
much better than the ones I was using from battery powered roundup spray units;) and about 5 other types.

[Captain Starfish]

Thanks for the detailed responses, Mike.

Once I get this thermocouple changeout sorted I will have another look