Extruder Hotend

There is two thing I really hate about DIY 3D printer, one is calibration and another is the hotend.  Hotend really is the most painful part of DIY 3D printer in my experience.

Why extruder is so painful? Because the most common use hotend is j-hotend, and this hotend easily melted, if melted, there is no easy way of fixing it, that why most of the new design is base on all metal design to avoid melting... arr....

Another reason is because it take weeks to get it replace since I live in Malaysia.  Also when I got start I never know that it have this "melting" problem, and I should have order few backup, but since I'm a cheap, I only order one, that was a big mistake...

Currently my deltabot also have the melted j-hotend, I only notice it recently,  oh well, will order one soon, it really take away my fun experience....

Anyway, in the process of search for better hotend, I come to across stepextruder that have all most all metal part except it have ptfe tube between hotend connection, which I think it a good thing. Another great thing about this design is all the part are serviceable, I mean it can be unscrew and clean if you encounter jam.  Trust me, this is a very good feature when you got started..

Above is the picture of my new stepextuder, but I think I got the wrong screw size & type, it not fitting as I would like, will need to replace them.  But I really like the design, and I think I will have less problem with this compare to j-hotend(I'm hoping), will start testing once I got my screw replace...

I'm also trying to start testing this extruder with nylon, but I make a mistake of getting a 2.5mm nylon instead of 1.75mm, will need to replace them on monday, since it 9th of chinese news in penang, most of the Chinese shop will be close.

I'm also thinking building a RC glider, I have this book that show how to build RC plane using foam, and I have it for years and never really try out the process.  Here is the book that I talk about.

 It really a good book, I alway wanted to try the process, also you can build an CNC foam cutter if you want automation. CNC version not that complicated, I have most of the part already. Not sure if I have time...

  Here is my quick glider drawing after looking at Falcon UAV, I plan to enter it to CAD program later when my PC is back from shipment.

It really look amazingly simple, but I'm still having hard time figuring out how to connect flip  to the servo for controlling the glider.

That all for today....