Fan shroud / bracket for E3D

mwu

New Member
#1
When I built my gMax, I decided I would skip a normal j-head hotend and go straight to the E3D. My gMax is built with all of the 1.5 version parts. I did not have any trouble getting the E3Dv6 to fit.

However, the fan shroud was not long enough as was mentioned before. The shroud itself has a fairly complicated geometry that I did not really want to mess with. Instead I focused on the bracket the connects to the fan shroud. I altered it to simply drop the fan and the shroud down about 12mm to compensate for the extra length in the hotend. I did have to turn the hotend to an angle to allow room for the heater block so that it wouldn't contact the fan shroud.

I thought about posting the same way as I have with the other changes I posted using github and thingiverse, but decided not to. Like with the electronics covers I did, the OpenSCAD file relies on the original stl file. However I found that OpenSCAD has an issue with that stl file. I had to run the fan bracket file through netfabb's model repair site before OpenSCAD would generate its own stl. Distributing all of that together would get a little messy, so I'm just posting the resulting stl here.

This is for the single extruder fan bracket only for now since I do not have a second extruder to test a dual extruder setup with. If I get another hotend I will update that bracket as well. I had to zip the file as apparently stl files are not allowed as attachments.

Pictures will be coming soon.
 

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#2
I have been procrastinating on my dual extruder E3d build for a month now because i did not know what would be the best way to solve this problem. I will try this solution and let you know how it goes...

Thanks for posting. The simplicity makes me feel stupid HAHA
 

mwu

New Member
#3
Here are the pictures I promised. The first one shows the extension on the fan bracket. The next two show how the E3D nozzle fits. Notice that it is turned at an angle to the printer so that the heater block extends away from the fan shroud.

I may need to extend the bracket just a little bit more, but this should suffice for now. If I change it any, I'll update the thread.

If you're looking, you'll notice I don't have a bed on the printer -- it's because I was in the middle of swapping it out for a glass bed (which is making a world of a difference) when I remembered to snap these shots.
 

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tipg

New Member
#7
Great post regarding the upgrade.

Would it be possible to show how did you manage to hook up your extruder fan into the printers PSU?

Just ordered the E3D to replace my clogged for good standard extruder but im not entirely sure how to safely connect the fan. I’m quite handy with a lot of things but electricity is not one of them :eek: ;)
 
#8
My favorite part about the gMax... Simple hacking, it makes me feel like I actually own it.

I attached the wires the the screw terminals in the back where the LED light is attached. But any 12v rail will be fine. It's very important that you don't get the polarity wrong. Or the motor will run backwards and your extruder will not be cooled properly. If you get the LED light polarity wrong it will not work and you may even break it.
 

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mwu

New Member
#10
I realized my fan shroud wasn't quite low enough. The shroud needed to be about 2mm lower. As it was, more cool air was blowing on the nozzle than was necessary. I noticed this earlier, but have been lazy about making the changes. Recently, a failing print that curled off the print bed pushed the fan shroud into my nozzle and broke the bracket. Since I needed to print another bracket and fan shroud anyway, my priority on making these changes increased.

So I've updated the bracket design and the file listed in my original post to add that 2mm. It is now about as low as I feel safe going.
 
#12
Excellent!!

Thank you for the cabling guidance. I thought that you have to link it up to the main PSU box somehow, think the guys at E3D claim you mustn’t do it any other way hence the confusion.

Is the extruder and fan working fine with this sort of hack? Any noticeable drops in performance?
 
#13
I am almost sure this is the same if not better than wiring the EXTRUDER fan directly to the power supply. I tested for continuity while to printer was off. The power input terminals connected to the PSU are connected to the screw terminals for the LED lights in the back of the extruder(which are the 12V AUX pins). This does of course run through the fuses. If anyone knows for sure if this is a good way to wire the EXTRUDER fan I would like to know.
 
#14
Spudwheelie said:
I just made a slotted one today for this. I got an E3D volcano with 1.2mm and 1 mm nozzles. I altered your fan bracket to have slots for adjusting the fan height to the volcano then back to the regular E3D. I post pictures once i get the volcano installed.
I just tried out this slotted fan bracket on my 1.5XT with the Volcano hotend. It appears to be a few mm's too short and most of the air blows directly on the heater block, making it almost impossible to hold temperature during a print when the fan gets turned on more than ~70 PWM. Is anyone else having issues getting their Volcano or their V6 hotend to hold temperature? I was having some issues when I was just using the V6 but it was manageable.

Also, what program did you use to edit the STL file?

- Jack
 
#15
what program did you use to edit the STL file?
Blender.

I have actually not received my volcano yet. I wonder if it was lost in the mail. Thanks for letting me know that the fan bracket does not fit. I will put a few more mm on the slots.
 
#16
jackadanos said:
Spudwheelie said:
I just made a slotted one today for this. I got an E3D volcano with 1.2mm and 1 mm nozzles. I altered your fan bracket to have slots for adjusting the fan height to the volcano then back to the regular E3D. I post pictures once i get the volcano installed.
I just tried out this slotted fan bracket on my 1.5XT with the Volcano hotend. It appears to be a few mm's too short and most of the air blows directly on the heater block, making it almost impossible to hold temperature during a print when the fan gets turned on more than ~70 PWM. Is anyone else having issues getting their Volcano or their V6 hotend to hold temperature? I was having some issues when I was just using the V6 but it was manageable.

Also, what program did you use to edit the STL file?

- Jack
I went ahead and made a fan shroud bracket with slots that are a little longer. The shroud can now get as close as I'm comfortable with to being even with the nozzle. I've attached the file.
 

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#17
Re: E3D Volcano

Kyle,

I just finished my dual E3D upgrade (non-Volcano) using your updated fan shroud and I'm pretty much done with calibration and leveling. I can see why people rave about the E3Ds and your shroud is working great.

An obstacle I encountered during the upgrade involved the fan shroud. I downloaded your modified shroud and bracket(s) - Everything is working fine but I had to modify the fan bracket to get it to mount/orient correctly on the dual 1.5 x-carriage. Basically, the fan bracket was rotated so if I mounted the fan and the shroud, the shroud would not be centered, but offset to the left. I tried many different combinations/orientations but couldn't get it positioned properly- I needed to hack it to get everything aligned.

I purposely broke off the lip with the three screw holes from the fan bracket being careful not to crack it. I broke the lip off using the print layers/grain to provide a clean break at the vertex of the lip and the main plate. I did this so I could flip the plate over to get the fan screw holes to align with the fan bracket plate AND have the fan blow air into the shroud. After flipping the plate, I super-glued the lip back on the bottom of the plate and affixed it to the x-carriage using the two mounting screws. I also opted to super-glue the fan directly to the shroud since the opening of the mouth of the shroud and the fan output provided enough surface contact for glue so I just broke off the piece that physically held the shroud. If it were to be used, it needed to be broken, moved and glued like the other piece so I figured I would just glue the fan and shroud together. It's definitely a hack/workaround, but it looks perfect and more importantly, it works. If the fan goes bad, I'll just print a new shroud.

I am planning on building a few more dual gMax's with E3Ds and I hoped you could add a new fan bracket to support the 1.5 dual x-carriage. My modeling skills are sub par for something like this and I would prefer not to go through the super-glue hack again. :shock:


Good luck with the kayak!

Larry
 

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