One step forwards

G'day all.

I've been quiet recently - I had packed everything away into the garage as we were planning to move. Plans change, we're now not moving so I unpacked the RepRap and fired it up.

From ResistorHeater

First problem : blocked nozzle, due to a broken thermistor - overheated - and set the ABS solid.
Cleared down and drilled it out.

I replaced the thermistor with a spare 100k makerbot one - my last spare.

Interestingly enough, I soldered in a 100k thermistor from Maplins into a spare circuit, connected it up, and the temp read about 20C at room temp, and 34C while holding it - pretty good without any change in configuration. It might be a suitable replacement for the 'official' ones.

Replacement thermistor in, I warmed up the heater and 'let rip'

From ResistorHeater

It works! Extrusion is pretty slow (232mm/sec) and wide (nearly 1mm diameter through a 0.8mm nozzle) but it comes out reliably and pretty consistently. Temp was about 225C and power (screw thread/servo) at 180/255.

Now I have something working, I can refine the nozzle size ( I should be able to get some 0.6mm B&Q nozzles) and the original BfB 0.4mm nozzle, plus I have some small drills.

I now need to get my settings and speeds right in the host software - my current version is months old, maybe I should update. I've been thinking about upgrading to version 3 electronics, too, but with the excellent Mendel design out with a much smaller footprint, I quite fancy that. It might be time to build a Mendel using my Darwin....
:-)