If you need i have two spare printed on a stratasys dimension 1200es SST machine just send me a message or email me at Henshawdann@icloud.com 
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When you say the filament changes speeds when you grab it? can you stop the filament with your fingers and have the extruder stepper skip? or does the drive gear just slip on the filament and chew a hole? Some pictures of your print head / setup would also be helpful? Do you hang the spools on the back or do you use some low friction filament holder?
Thanks Robert, I’ve just installed my spring loads drive blocks, and with the new cooking fan and duct I’ve just had what I would call my first perfect print! No missing layers, no blobs, just smooth solid walls. Thank you! Now what benefits would the metal thermal barriers and threaded cooling bar give me?
1. Smaller melt zone.
All metal has a smaller melt zone because the cool side of the thermal barrier is way cooler due to the threads’ surface area being able to effectively dissipate heat to the cooling bar. You get better retraction and less or no oozing. There would also be huge benefits to this while dual extruding.
2. Higher temps for different materials.
Another benefit is that your printing temperatures won’t be limited by the ptfe liner which is usually only 240C, so you won’t be able to print nylon or polycarbonate or other higher-temp plastics should you have a need to in the future. There are other ingredients in the ptfe itself however, that slowly degrade at even lower temperatures than that, creating a health hazard. This degradation will also change the properties of the ptfe which is why you have to replace them all the time.
3. Exotic filaments (flexible/bronze/stainless/copper/wood)
If you’re not running all metal, you might have trouble printing exotic filaments, and many are abrasive and wear out your ptfe quickly.
4. Less maintenance.
You will constantly have to change the ptfe tube. The ptfe tube extends all the way inside the nozzle, so when replacing, it will be almost impossible to tighten the nozzle just the right amount so that it doesn’t push on the ptfe tube and bend it too much but still make a seal. When the ptfe tube bends from tightening there will be parts of the ptfe tube that won’t be touching the inside of the thermal barrier wall, creating areas in the hotend that have different temperatures. The result is some of the plastic will be at a liquid temperature and other parts will be cold and not print right or eventually jam.
Even if you install it properly by tightening it the perfect amount, and also cut the new ptfe tube perfectly and evenly, it is too hot inside the thermal barrier in the area where it is supposed to be cool, so you have a large transition zone and large melt zone. This is not good for retraction.
The thermal barrier tubes that work are internally stepped, and the step allows the bot to control the plastic meniscus more precisely, and never jam if installed properly. So instead of a huge hot mess inside the entire length of the thermal barrier it works as it should; with a cold zone and a hot zone. You also have to apply thermal paste to the cold side of the thermal barrier as well as where the cooling bar touches the heat sinks, but not in the hotend side of the thermal barrier (there is a heat break separating the hot and cold sides). Non-stepped threaded thermal barriers (one smooth diameter hole the entire length) don’t work and make solid nightmare jams.
This doesn’t mean that it won’t work right with the ptfe tube, as you can get some pretty nice prints, but it will still jam eventually. Some people get lucky and never get jams, but more people experience jams than not. For example, when I had a ptfe tube there was a moment in time where it printed perfectly and wouldn’t jam no matter what temperature or settings I used, and I was ecstatic but it eventually started jamming again. With the all metal set up it’s not going to jam; if you lower the temp during a print the plastic will just harden in the hotend and stop printing, but it won’t be a jam you can just increase the temperature and watch the plastic start flowing again.
1 month later
Hi Robert,
It seems like you have intimate knowledge of CTC printers. I’m going to order one and was wondering if you had any recommended locations to buy these 4 upgrades you speak of. I’d like to have them in house when my printer arrives.
Additionally, do you have any recommended software upgrades as well?
Thanks!
Yeah sure. Carl Raffle makes threaded cooling bars and thermal barriers. They are called “Aludual”. You can find them at http://shop.raffle.ch/ 8
Do not get threaded thermal barriers just because they are threaded, they also have to be internally stepped otherwise won’t work. I say this because you will find many threaded thermal barriers online, but most are not internally stepped and the hole has one diameter all the way through (many are reprap thermal barriers). The Raffle thermal barriers are stepped, and you should get them from there. AVN Swiss (They have an ebay website by that name) also makes amazing thermal barriers but they are about a 1-2mm shorter which will leave you with no room to squeeze in an active cooling fan which you absolutely need. I have AVN Swiss’s thermal barrier but I wouldn’t recommend it because they are a little bit shorter than you would want.
The aludual cooling bar is for a replicator 2x, so what you have to do is buy a rep2x carriage from makerbot, pop the old one off, and pop the rep2x one on. Then you can fit the cooling bar. You can contact Makerbot and ask them to sell you one. They are about $10. You can get an aluminum rep2x carriage from the Raffle shop but it’s very expensive, it’s heavier than the plastic one, and it doesn’t work unless you ghetto rig it. Keep in mind weight is bad, and so is having to ghetto rig things.
I could not find any other place with threaded cooling bars. Also the installation is very particular. You have to make sure that the threads are screwed in all the way inside the heaterblock, and the nozzle as well so that it can achieve good thermal transfer. Remember to not tighten hard because the aluminum will strip. Just enough to make a seal and not unscrew too easily. The cold side of the thermal barrier tube also needs to be screwed in as far as possible into the cooling bar, with a nut on top, and no nut on the bottom unless it is brass. Apply thermal paste to the cold side of the thermal barrier tube—the side that screws into the cooling bar— and do not apply thermal paste to the side that screws into the heaterblock.
About the active cooling fan, which is necessary with PLA; you don’t want a regular fan! You want a centrifugal fan because a regular one will not make a difference. The flashforge dreamer has a centrifugal fan and you can buy it from flashforge’s website it is called flashforge extruder turbo fan. It is not designed for the ctc, so you have to drill two holes on the side of the cooling bar. Or if you can’t drill glue it on there or something, but I think there is an stl file on thingiverse of somekind of bracket for that part.
Important: When you install the active cooling fan, you need to buy a MOSFET first and install it in the “EXTRA” slot on your motherboard. This is where you will connect the fan. You have to solder it on there, but it’s pretty easy just solder the flat bottom of it to the extra slot and make sure there is sufficient contact but make sure you don’t short anything. I would recommend finding a professional in your area to do that, it should be pretty cheap. You can do a google search for the letters/numbers on one of the other MOSFETS to find out which one you need. You will see two sets of numbers/letters. One set is the actual part that you need, and the other set is simply stuff like date of manufacture, facility, etc., so if you don’t find anything for one set that is why—simply try the other set. Also be advised: Skipping on a cooling fan will just be a waste of time and plastic because it will come out looking like shit every single time. Remember: Centrifugal fan only. Also called “squirrel cages” and “side discharge”.
As far as software goes, just make sure the first thing you do is upgrade your firmware to the latest version of Sailfish. And also this last part is just my opinion but I hate the new Makerbot slicer, and I find the older Makerware versions better as well as easier to edit profiles with.