The road goes on and on...

23 July 2013

Assembling the MK7 Extruder.

After completing the X-Y and Z stage assembly, I finally had the time to assemble the extruder/hotend combination for my Makerbot Thing-o-Matic MK7 3D Printer.

Hotend MK7

In the pictures you can see the insulated hotend including the 0.4mm nozzle, the heater cartridge, thermocouple and the thermostat for the safety cutoff switch.

Extruder Stack

The picture of the extruder stack shows the stepper motor who is responsible for feeding the plastic Filament (ABS, PLA, PVA, etc...) into the heated chamber of the hotend. There the filament will melt and via the nozzle, or the printhead if you like, the melted plastic will be deposited to the build platform. (also heated in the case of my ToM using ABS 1.75mm, not heated for the Ultimaker using PLA 3mm).

Hotend Closeup

This wil be done layer by layer, hence the name additive manufacturing or FFF Fused Filament Fabrication, until the 3D object is recreated physically. (hopefully!)

Complete extruder setup

If you want to know more about 3D printers and there usage, calibration, etc.. i can recommend the book "Practical 3D Printers, The Science and Art of 3D Printing" by Brian Evans at Apress.