My reelsmithing workshop went great today and now I have a few hours to play! First up is mounting the threaded thermistors in the hot ends. Here's some information and photos.
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A couple of tips. First, mark and center punch the location to drill to keep the bit from wandering. I choose the lower corner. Even if you drill a bit too deep, you will just graze the threads and these will be completely covered when the nozzle is installed. Drill 8mm deep with a 2.5mm bit then tap with an M3-.5 tap.
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A bottom tap will allow you to drill a shallower hole (6mm or so) and tap to the bottom but a standard tapered tap will be fine in an 8mm hole. Go slow and back out every couple of turns. There is nowhere for the cut aluminum to go, so remove the tap, clean, lubricate and continue. These small taps are easily broken, the trick is to not use excess force, frequently back off, remove clean and lubricate. (notice I said that THREE times!)
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Put a little thermal grease on the brass nipple's threads and screw it in with a 5mm wrench. In loping at these closely, the thermistor is mounted in a blind hole in the brass nipple. Also note that I placed my thermistors so I have mirror images on each side with the heat cartridge placed to the outside, this was just personal preference. I don't think it makes any difference how things are oriented since each hot end is pretty well isolated from the others.
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Now I can get the cartridges installed, wire in the connectors and mount it on the Rostock. Also need to plumb in the water cooling system. Should be ready to test 1 and then 2 hot ends soon!