That horse has left the barn, but I can estimate. Taking your 20mm recommendation from step 70 as a rough guide to how long I cut each piece (since that roughly matches what I would choose from my own experience), you need 12 * 20 = 240mm to complete steps 70 & 72. I wound up using my own tubing for two connections, so that implies I had ~200mm in the kit. It's very probable that I could have cut them all a bit shorter and been OK, though any shorter would have made me a bit nervous. In any event, I certainly didn't have plenty of extra.
Stepper motor wires: My kit comes with only 3 "26/2 Cable Pre-Terminated", as indicated on the bag label. These instructions require 5. I'm going to assume this is another thing that will change with new kits and just make myself a 4-wire extension from materials I have around..
(last bullet): The kit comes with a single piece of 1/2" tubing. I think it's important to tell the reader to CUT that tubing in half. Otherwise they may blindly use the whole thing here (despite your 40mm instruction) only to discover in Step 73 that they need another piece. (I suggest simply telling them to cut it in half, and removing the 40mm recommendation).
Here's a tip for working the heatshrink tubing over the two pieces of insulation on the "short" side. Before twisting the wires together, ensure that the two pieces of insulation do NOT end at exactly the same position (strip the wires to slightly different lengths, or just offset them a bit when you twist them together). Now when you work the heatshrink tubing up past the start of the insulation, you only have to work it over one "bulge" at a time, which is a lot easier.
Blower fan assembly: This was another case where I kept hoping the video would stop moving for just 5 seconds to let me see where things were. Then I remembered your photo in step 63, which makes all the difference.
I know you're probably trying to avoid requiring a voltmeter for this guide, but I've read enough horror stories involving incorrect heater cartridges that I think measuring the cartridge resistance is an important safety step.
E3D hotend assembly: I used both the video and E3Ds wiki page. I followed the steps in the order Brad describes them, which I think works very well, but I found that the wiki page was required for a number of details not spelled out in the video. Specific observations:
- Initial nozzle/heatbreak installation -- video suggests backing nozzle out so 3-4 threads are exposed. This is very much contradicted by E3Ds instructions, and it made more sense to me their way.
- Inserting heatsink into extruder body -- WOW that is a tight fit. The amount of force required (particularly the first time it's inserted) made me worry I might slip up and apply force to the heater block, which might bend the heatbreak. I think it might be better to trial-fit the heatsink ALONE (before assembly to heatbreak) initially.
- My heater cartridge was a very loose fit, and I had to torque down the clamp a LOT. It was necessary to use a washer as E3D suggests.
In the video, it looks like the idler assembly mates to the main extruder body with little or no resistance. This is not the case with my parts. Perhaps due to ABS warpage, I have to push hard to force the idler assembly into the extruder body. I worry that this will destroy my ability to tune idler tension.
That horse has left the barn, but I can estimate. Taking your 20mm recommendation from step 70 as a rough guide to how long I cut each piece (since that roughly matches what I would choose from my own experience), you need 12 * 20 = 240mm to complete steps 70 & 72. I wound up using my own tubing for two connections, so that implies I had ~200mm in the kit. It's very probable that I could have cut them all a bit shorter and been OK, though any shorter would have made me a bit nervous. In any event, I certainly didn't have plenty of extra.
Understood. My bag is definitely labeled as containing 3 of these.
I'm also of the opinion that the kit doesn't supply quite enough 1/16" heat shrink tubing, but this is also something I have on hand, so moving on...
Stepper motor wires: My kit comes with only 3 "26/2 Cable Pre-Terminated", as indicated on the bag label. These instructions require 5. I'm going to assume this is another thing that will change with new kits and just make myself a 4-wire extension from materials I have around..
(last bullet): The kit comes with a single piece of 1/2" tubing. I think it's important to tell the reader to CUT that tubing in half. Otherwise they may blindly use the whole thing here (despite your 40mm instruction) only to discover in Step 73 that they need another piece. (I suggest simply telling them to cut it in half, and removing the 40mm recommendation).
Here's a tip for working the heatshrink tubing over the two pieces of insulation on the "short" side. Before twisting the wires together, ensure that the two pieces of insulation do NOT end at exactly the same position (strip the wires to slightly different lengths, or just offset them a bit when you twist them together). Now when you work the heatshrink tubing up past the start of the insulation, you only have to work it over one "bulge" at a time, which is a lot easier.
Blower fan assembly: This was another case where I kept hoping the video would stop moving for just 5 seconds to let me see where things were. Then I remembered your photo in step 63, which makes all the difference.
I know you're probably trying to avoid requiring a voltmeter for this guide, but I've read enough horror stories involving incorrect heater cartridges that I think measuring the cartridge resistance is an important safety step.
E3D hotend assembly: I used both the video and E3Ds wiki page. I followed the steps in the order Brad describes them, which I think works very well, but I found that the wiki page was required for a number of details not spelled out in the video. Specific observations:
- Initial nozzle/heatbreak installation -- video suggests backing nozzle out so 3-4 threads are exposed. This is very much contradicted by E3Ds instructions, and it made more sense to me their way.
- Inserting heatsink into extruder body -- WOW that is a tight fit. The amount of force required (particularly the first time it's inserted) made me worry I might slip up and apply force to the heater block, which might bend the heatbreak. I think it might be better to trial-fit the heatsink ALONE (before assembly to heatbreak) initially.
- My heater cartridge was a very loose fit, and I had to torque down the clamp a LOT. It was necessary to use a washer as E3D suggests.
In the video, it looks like the idler assembly mates to the main extruder body with little or no resistance. This is not the case with my parts. Perhaps due to ABS warpage, I have to push hard to force the idler assembly into the extruder body. I worry that this will destroy my ability to tune idler tension.
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