I am in the process of building an upgraded version of the Minimalistic extruder right now to try
This one is Based off of the minimal extruders designed from Thingiverse I wanted to re work it for the parts we had in stock. I used Shaun's(3DMON) awesome QU-BD model for the build (thanks Shaun). Then I found Barts(Buildlog) model he posted to Thingiverse (thanks Bart), put the two together and went from there.
the build is complete but I have not had a chance to test it yet (crazy busy here) Now that I have it assembled it seems like it will work great!

Simple Parts List
(1) Spring - http://www.mcmaster.com/ (type this number in the search box 9657K288) Sold in packs of 12
(1) 5mm Shim - http://www.openbuildspartstore.com/5mm-shim/
(1) 625 ball bearing - http://www.openbuildspartstore.com/ball-bearing/
(1) Low Profile Screw [10mm] - http://www.openbuildspartstore.com/open ... 5-30-pack/



I have springs so if you guyz want to try this just order the other stuff (or shoot me an email) and put in the notes that you need the spring and I will throw it in there. I am able to print pretty good with the PLA I have so if you need the 3D parts too let me know and I will see if I can print a few off for a few extra bucks

Hope this helps
Mark and Trish

Few more pics




Attached files QUBD_ExtruderUpgrade_4.skp (9.3 MB)Â

 

I did this mod along with hobbing the raptor gear with a 3mm tap and things were better but I still would get jams. After that I bought this gear from Ultibots. http://www.ultibots.com/micro-extruder- ... -filament/
I found out they live in the next town from me and they are really nice people. This gear is way better than the raptor gear as it has more teeth to grip the filament and it is a drop in replacement.
Well this seemed to be doing better but I still would get jams and then I did one more mod that has solved my jamming issues and I wish I would have did this sooner. I drilled out the barrel and added a PTFE tube inside. Here is a link to the info I got it from. http://www.buildlog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1977

I put a part in that I know gave me tons of fits with jamming and it printed it with no problems at all. If you have a good vise and drill press I highly recommend doing this as your headaches will go away.

So basically the QU-BD is junk out of the box and they should have done a lot more testing before they released it.

 

I've been really happy with this extruder design. Never jams, and I'm over a 1000 hours. But I'm ABS Yet PLA has a solution, last paragraph.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32315

It uses binder clips and that keeps the springs out of the road so cleaning the drive gear is a breeze, while running, plus you can see whats going on. I did have to jump up to a bigger size binder clip(3 on each) than the ones shown. The caveat is that it has to be made in ABS(4 shells@65%infill) because PLA just gets to soft after a few hours. If you can't do ABS just PM me and I'll print you a unit or two. Someone has ready to go units on eBay also.

It's also a common thing to change the qu-bd gear to a MBI unit. Something about the (non)heat-soak quality of the MBI piece compared to the easily transferred heating of the qu-bd. Fan ducted air blowing into the gear drive area reduces filament heating at the gear. A set of heat sink on the nema has had great results also. Most hard core Rep2 owners do all three to get 30-40 hour prints.

 

To be honest guyz I have to say that I almost gave up on this extruder. I had tried everything short of drilling the barrel out, but one thing that gave me hope is that I had one roll of PLA filament that just worked and worked great. We had bought several different brands to test and see if we wanted to carry it on the store. I could put any other of them (PLA) in and some would just not work at all (could not even get more then a few lines) and others would give me a print about 1/4" tall and fail.They would all work well if you just air extruded and that's what i could not figure out. But this one roll worked without fail so I decided to keep working with it and try another roll. Sure enough its working great as well. This PLA has a different feel to it and is very shiny compared to the others. I am not saying its and end all to 3D printing troubles but for me its working great stock with this PLA so you may want to give it a try.
I have only tried the black so far but plan on trying some white and maybe a color as well.
The company is called http://www.sainsmart.com/ and I found them on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/SainSmart-1-75mm- ... 66128011_2

I truly feel that poorly made filament material is the biggest downside to making these machines run effectively. The only reason at this point that I am even builing this upgrade is to see if I can run all my other material though using it
Hope this can help with getting your printers up and running properly
Mark and Trish

 

You are doing the olive oil trick right?

 

Tried that one too But to no avail
Mark and Trish

 

Good info Matt!
I am going to look into the PID Auto Tune function, sounds like it may be a big part of the answer
Thanks for the post
Mark and Trish

 

This should be a sticky or something.

Cheers
E-T

 

I agree Glen
Matt if you copy it over into a new thread I will make it a sticky
Thanks
Mark and Trish

 

Hi Stuart, I do have a couple of the parts printed. Send me a PM with your address and I will send it out to you