Hello everyone!

So, widening the groove on the new direct drive extruder didn’t turn out well. Even with a larger cut-off disc, it was difficult to widen the hot end groove. I ended up cutting too deep and exposing some infill – not good, that would allow more heat to creep into the body of the extruder, probably eventually resulting in a meltdown.

With that failure, I pulled the trigger and ordered a fully assembled E3D Titan Prusa i3 Upgrade Kit, which can be found here: http://e3d-online.com/Prusa-i3-Upgrade-Kit

At the same time, I had located a Canadian vendor (Makerparts) that supplied PEI and the 3M 468MP transfer tape at affordable prices. I didn’t end up getting the PEI from them as we had opened up an Amazon Prime account and ordered a .03″ (theirs was .04″) 12×12″ sheet of it for only $25 as it was on sale (I’m all about deals, coupons, etc. now since we’re trying to save up a deposit on a house in a few years). I did, however, order the 3M adhesive and new GT2 belts from them.

The PEI sheet arrived a couple of days ago, and the belts + adhesive should arrive today or Monday. I’m a bit worried about the PEI. Because it’s so thin, it has a slight curve to it. It’s currently sitting in between several spare large (and heavy) ceramic tiles with a 10 lb weight on top. I’m hoping if left like that for a bit it will flatten out. Not sure if the curvature is normal in such thin PEI, but if it’s a problem I may contact Amazon for a resolution (I haven’t removed the protective film and I still have the original packaging). I’m also VERY worried I’ll screw up the application of the PEI on my aluminum bed because I only had enough funds to cover a SINGLE sheet of the 3M adhesive. I’ll have to be extremely cautious.

While I have my bed off, I’m going to replace some pieces with ones I’ve reprinted or added since my initial build. One example is bearing carriers. Instead of zip ties, I may use some printed carriers (found here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:710913) – but I may not because I also want to keep the mass of the bed assembly as low as possible. Zip ties are good for that. I also may move from solid mount to spring mounted again, because my induction probe may not sense the bed under the 0.03″ PEI, which is approx. 0.762 mm – the sensing distance is typically 4 mm when using iron, but since this aluminum, it would be a lot less – almost half the normal distance…add to that the typical 0.5 – 1mm offset from the probe to nozzle tip and it would be cutting it extremely close. I’d love to get my hands on a BL Touch (manufactured by ANTCLABS) as I hear they’re fantastic and extremely accurate, but alas money will be tight now after the extruder purchase. It’s either that or swap for a cheaper capacitive sensor.

I’ll get some pictures of the PEI sheet after installation and of the Titan when it arrives, too.

As always, KCPO (Keep Calm and Print On!) – Cheers!

– E