Get the Plastruder MK5 now!
After strenuous testing which logged hundreds of hours of continuous extrusion, we are supremely excited to offer the all-new Plastruder MK5.
Designed for reliablity, low maintenance, and ease of use, the next-generation MK5 revolutionizes the MakerBot extrusion mechanism.
Hot End Reinvention:
This story begins with the complete redesign of the extruders’ heating element, barrel, and nozzle. Our goal was to take user feedback and our experiences the MK4, and return with the most robust, most reliable, and longest lasting extruder possible.
In close consultation with our manufacturers, we opted for precision machined stainless steel throughout the hot end. Every part was totally redesigned and pushed to the limit before we included it in the final product.
Each component screws tightly together, creating rigid connections and no room for leaks or loosening over time. The result is an all-stainless hot end that feels heavy and strong, and extrudes smoothly for hours and days without issue.
The heating element has been reinvented too: Nichrome wire has been replaced by two matching power resistors that screw-mount directly to the stainless steel MK5 Thermal Core. The resistors receive current straight from the Relay Board, and they heat evenly to produce a consistent temperature perfect for reliable extrusion.
Sayonara Idler Wheel:
You may notice the reduced footprint and profile of the MK5 Plastruder. It’s thinner, sleeker, and the motor housing is smaller. The reason for this is the complete “Paxtruder” inspired redesign of the filament guide mechanism. Now simply twist the thumbscrew to push the Delrin plunger into place, and your filament guide is set. No moving components, and the low coefficient of friction and high strength of Delrin means that the filament will slide over it smoothly and meet with the MK5 Drive Gear with no variation. It’s a simple design, and it’s simply effective.
The Gear that Drives It:
The MK5 Drive gear, released earlier this year, has become the defacto standard drive gear for MakerBots around the world. It’s custom machined stainless steel, lasts ages, and is easy to clean without removing from the plastruder body. The MK5 Drive Gear grabs filament with 100% greater push strength than the MK4 Extruder Pulley. The proof is in the pudding for this item- it’s already in successful use around the world.
Power Play:
With the larger surface of the MK5 Thermal Core to heat, the extruder needed more juice to get hot. For this reason the MK5 is powered by our Relay Board Kit, already in steady use with our Heated Build Platforms.
The Relay Board comes standard with enough outputs to run the Plastruder MK5 and the HBP simultaneously. By using the relay, the MK5 doesn’t draw the power load through the Extruder Controller. Translated- Steady power, without wearing on sensitive circuits or microcontrollers.
The combined effect of our innovative new components, redesigned filament guide, and stainless steel construction is tremendous. It’s a totally reinvented extruder that mounts easily to existing CupCake CNC Z-stage, and makes your machine better instantly.
Assembly required.
Check out the complete documentation here
Hi fellow Operators,
We have received a number of requests asking when we will have brass Heater Barrels, PTFE Thermal Barriers, and Spare Parts Kits back in stock. We had an unprecedented run on these items, folks bought a LOT of them all at once, and we sent them out to MakerBot Operators all over the world. Due to long lead times, are now waiting for a resupply. We expect them to be available in the store again in several weeks, and we want to thank you all for your patience, and apologize for the delay! We work hard to keep all our items available, and we are adjusting our operations to support the growing demand we see for machines and parts.
I saw a post recently discussing whether or not you needed to replace the barrel and barrier if you were having some warping, or plastic leaking out. The short answer is no, you don’t have to immediately replace them, if they continue to extrude! Some of our longest-printing extruders have had some crazy blooms, like the one you may have seen on CBS. The ABS eventually forms a seal, and can sometimes self-correct the problem! So as long as it keeps extruding, you don’t need to swap it with a new barrel or barrier. Run it ’til it quits!
Hose Clamp Hack
Another solution to warping or bulging of the PTFE barrier is an old plumbers hack- the Hose Clamp! You can head down to most hardware or plumbing supply stores and get a nice metal hose clamp, and tighten it around the joint between the heater barrel and PTFE barrier. This can control warping and contain some of the pressure that causes bulges. It also acts as a great heat sink, which helps cool the entire hot end assembly.
Thanks again for your patience and happy printing!
toothpaste on ceramic tile by CatarinaMota
There are so many awesome projects involving makerbots being tweeted about. Check them out!
catlx: Joel’s Processing script to generate paths for #makerbot+microscope RT @i_ilinx Path_Maker 0.1 released ! http://bit.ly/bLy2cg
hugepedlar: My fermenter tap is leaking, so I printed a god damn PLUG for it on my makerbot. How awesome is that?
suiseikobo: 皿ネジを使って平らに作成したホットステージに、カプトンを貼った0.1mm厚のステンレス板を載せてプリ ント。その後ステンレス板を曲げてモデルを簡単に取り外せるライフハック。いかがですか？ http://yfrog.com/3u31fkj #CupcakeCNC
michaeluna: Makerbot 3-D printer, Eyebeam Gallery NYC http://twitpic.com/208jun
local_guru: Custom Cookie Cutters for the Makerbot: http://bit.ly/8YykQd
uxfeeds: Better Living With MakerBot – Episode 1: Kitchen Lamp: This is a short documentation of fixing my kitchen lamp with my MakerBot. http://url4.eu/50zv8
You may have seen this sweet addition to the MakerBot CupCake CNC if you’ve seen us lately at MakerFaire, ATX or at the BotCave- but now it’s available to everyone! The Deluxe Filament Spindle Kit MK1 is the best way to improve the printing experience- No hand adjusting the plastic! We’ve solved this issue with a really snazzy lasercut box and spindle system and filament guide tube. Just stack your Bot right on top of the box and your machine can extrude hands-free for days and days! The pull from the extruder uncoils the filament so you can kick back and have another cup of coffee. Or just work on the next thing you want to print!
Also good news, the Heated Build Platform V2 Kit is back in stock and will resume shipping after the weekend! Have a great one!
From pathological to borderline acceptable in one firmware update
In case ReplicatorG hasn’t already notified you, there’s a new update to the motherboard firmware. The v2.2 release includes the extruder packet retry code suggested by Miguel Angel, revnar, and others. As you can see, it’s drastically reduced packet drops from our in-house Pathological Extruder Board, so just imagine what it will do for yours! If you’ve had extruder comms issues, install it and give it a while.
This is just an update to the motherboard firmware– you don’t have to update anything on your extruder controller.
Happy printing, and let me know how the update works for you!
Joel Belouet and Catarina Mota have collaborated on what may be my favorite (and delicious) MakerBot project of all time. Using a MakerBot + Frostruder + Heated Build Platform they have managed to 3D print and cook a real cookie. That’s right: your MakerBot is capable of autonomous cookie creation from start to finish. MMM. Oh yeah, and check out the their hilarious documentation site.
ReplicatorG 0017 is now available for your 3d printing pleasure! This is a pretty big update– you’ve got STL preview mode, Skeinforge integration, bug fixes, usability improvements, better error reporting, and a raft of other stuff. Why are you even reading this? Grab a copy from the download page, and read this quick guide to the new features.
Update 6/18/10 6:30
The initial release on Friday morning had a couple of bad bugs (trouble with Java 1.5, and problems selecting a new serial port) that slipped by. These have been fixed. If you downloaded a release earlier today and had some trouble with it, pick up the latest version (-r2) and give it a whirl.
continue reading »
I’m not sure how long it would take me to explain an “Edible CupCake” to an outsider, but I would sure have fun trying. In either case, these cookies were yummy. These were made for us by http://www.cakescometrueandtrufflestoo.com/ and arrived at the BotCave intact, all the way from Ohio. Next step – an edible Frostruder!
We’ve been working very hard in the MakerBot R&D lab lately. The thing that has been our main focus lately is the Plastruder. As many of you know, it can be a bit finicky at times. One of the failure modes of the extruder is that the drive pulley will strip the filament. Drawing on excellent research by Nophead and others in the open source 3D printing community, we’ve developed an improved drive mechanism: the MK5 Drive Gear. In fact, this drive pulley pushes about 2x harder than the old MK3/MK4 Drive Pulley. We jut got 700 of them in the MakerBot Store.
The design is pretty simple: there is a chunk of Stainless Steel 304 with a knurled groove that has the same diameter as the old drive pulley. Therefore, this part is a drop-in replacement for the old pulley. Since it is stainless steel it is very difficult to damage the pulley, even if you tighten it down too far. Furthermore, since the knurling on the pulley is so fine, it has a limited ability to self-clean as any stripped filament will typically fall out of it. If you’re feeling hardcore, you can download it from Thingiverse and make it yourself.
As sexy as this new pulley is, we wanted to be able to prove that it was indeed better than the old system. So, we turned to our trusty friend, Science! We formed a hypothesis (that the MK5 drive gear is better than the MK3 Drive Pulley). We created a test rig and we ran a bunch of tests. We tested the MK4 with both the new and old drive pulleys at a variety of spacings. As we had hoped, the new MK5 drive pulley came out on top.
For the force measurements, we used a very nice yet affordable Dillon GL-500 Force Gauge. This gauge has a few really nice features: a 500N capacity (~50kg) with an accuracy of 0.2N (~20g). Besides being nice and accurate, it can also measure both pull and push forces. It can record peak force, and even has RS-232 output which we could use to record measurements digitally. It is also a really solid, well built device.
The test rig was lasercut from some plywood and bolted to a chunky 2×6. If you want to replicate our results at home, you can download our template and lasercut it. The test process was pretty straightforward. We typically repeat this process 10x per setup to get a decent sample size.
The design is pretty simple: there is a chunk of Stainless Steel 304 with a knurled groove that has the same diameter as the old drive pulley. Therefore, this part is a drop-in replacement for the old pulley. Since it is stainless steel it is very difficult to damage the pulley, even if you tighten it down too far. Furthermore, since the knurling on the pulley is so fine, it has a limited ability to self-clean as any stripped filament will typically fall out of it.
- Unclamp filament drive, remove the motor, and clean the teeth.
- Re-attach motor, and set the filament idler wheel distance.
- Clamp down extruder filament drive with output hole right against the force gauge probe.
- Rest the force gauge to record Push force in Peak mode
- Run the filament drive forward at 255 PWM (full-on)
- Wait until the filament reaches the force gauge probe and fails (you can tell because the force gauge numbers climb and eventually stop at the peak.)
- Record the peak force reading
After a bit of testing, some pretty clear results emerged: the MK5 drive pulley can generate a much stronger push force before failure by a solid margin. Since it is made from Stainless Steel, it is also much stronger and more durable than the Aluminum pulley which can easily suffer damage to its teeth when setting the gap. A word of warning: if your hot end does jam, the new drive pulley is strong enough that it may actually destroy your insulator retainer. You should definitely print out some replacements before you begin using with the new and improved MK5 Drive Gear.
If you would like to get your hands on this new hotness, they are available right now in the MakerBot store. Hot off the lathe. The kit comes with a new drive pulley, a 3mm set screw, and a new spacer stick so you can get the best force out of your drive pulley.
For the curious, here is the data we generated during our testing:
Maker Faire is an extravaganza of making things! It’s this weekend in San Mateo and it’s going to be a blast!
We’re getting ready for Maker Faire this weekend by tightening all the screws on our MakerBots and packing lots of ABS so we can print things out all weekend. We may even have a Frostruder set up if we can find a compressor or an airtank and a bicycle pump. We’ll have a table set up to show MakerBots MakerBotting!
If you’re planning to be there, plan to find us and say hi!
