I’m making the jump to from 3 mm to 1.75 mm filament, and I want to make sure that I won’t need a new cold end for my extruder setup. I feel kinda stupid asking this, but I just want to verify that there won’t be consequences if I keep my already functional setup.
I haven’t actually tried it but i think the liners are specific to the filament size.
I mean the extruder, like wades, airtripper, etc. I have a 1.75 mm J-head that I’m swapping for my 3 mm one.
That should be universal, but if using a boden setup then the tube would need to be changed. I would wait and see if more people chime in to make sure i am not completely off
Alright. Thanks for your input, I greatly appreciate it.
Depends on the depth of your hobbed bolt, which setup do you have? I’ve put a machine together with a 3mm wades, but inserted a 3mm OD/2mm ID teflon tube in the pathway so we could keep the filament from possibly buckling.
I did a bit of research and the consensus appears to be that they are indeed universal. I’ll still wait a bit to see if I’m wrong.
It’s a wades derivative, not sure which though, definitely not Greg’s. That’s a pretty good idea, I’ve never seen 3mm OD with a 2 mm ID tube though, where did you get it?
Ebay. Ultimaker users actually stick it inside their existing 3mm ID bowden setup in order to convert to 1.75 on the fly.
Coolio, I’ll pick one up if I have any buckling problems. Thanks!
I would recommend against it. There’s a 3x difference is speed and resolution (due to the 3x difference in cross-sectional area), and that’s enough to mean the difference between slowed prints due to maxing out your step rate while attempting to print high-speed with thick layers and rough surfaces due to insufficient resolution when attempting to print very fine layers. There are also differences in optimum torque (there is such a thing as too much), idler tension (same), extruder weight, etc. It will probably work, but it won’t be ideal. If you decide to try it, consider changing your microstepping ratio
@Whosa_whatsis I’ll take that into account. I don’t mind slow prints. The main reason I want to switch to 1.75 is due to it’s seemingly increasing standardization.
I plan on buying/building a better cold end in the near future, I imagine a direct drive extruder would relieve some of these problems, or am I mistaken?
Yes, for 1.75mm filament I prefer a direct drive extruder with either a .9 degree stepper instead of 1.8, 1/32 microstepping instead of 1/16, or a drive gear smaller than the average for direct-drives. Any of these changes from a “standard” direct drive setup will make the step rate and resolution pretty much ideal, though doing more than one of them will make the step rate too high.
@Whosa_whatsis what would the average size of the drive gear be?
I’d probably go for the microstepping adjustment, as it should be the easiest and most cost effective solution for me. I don’t really want to buy a singular stepper.
Typically, filament drive gears that mount on a stepper shaft have an effective diameter of about 10.5-11mm. There are a few smaller ones available, but of course your drive mechanism has to be designed to accommodate it.
Alright so a Mini hyena should work. Thanks for the info!