Stuck....

The first prints I did on my Mendel90 were from clear PLA. These came out really well. However, I changed to fire engine red PLA from Faberdashery and I just could not get it to stick to the glass bed.

In the pub with nophead on Friday lunch and he suggested I increase the hot end temperature. This didn't help, even when I also raised the bed temperature.

I've used this PLA on my other printer with no problems, so I decided to try replacing the glass bed. I bought some 0.9mm aluminium sheet from ClickMetal ordered to match the heated bed dimensions. I then covered this with kapton tape. The next print I did the PLA stuck well and completed as expected:



Another reason for me taking this approach is that I regularly print parts in ABS that have a large surface area in contact with the bed. I use kapton tape as these parts tend to lift from the bed, and ABS sticks very well to kapton. The problem I have is that it sticks so well the only way to get the parts off is to flex the bed. Obviously it is easier to flex a thin metal sheet than one of glass.

Here is my Mendel90 doing its first ABS print:

Happy Holiday

I've been changing between PLA and ABS plastics over the Christmas holidays. Every time I flush the extruder from one plastic to another I seem to encounter blockages and general problems, which result at least in me having to dismantle the extruder.
Left to a single plastic, they seem fine. So I've decided to have multiple extruders, one for each plastic type.

So over the holidays, I made myself a new 0.4mm extruder hot end:

Mendel 90 full kit unboxing

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I ordered a Mendel90 kit from Nophead last week and finally got around to unboxing it.
Disclosure: I've known Nophead for 20 years and he agreed to let me have an early kit. The kit he supplied me had some parts in it that needed reaming, which I agreed to accept. Kits ordered here will be superior.
The kit has absolutely everything down to the last tie-wrap. Here are the printed and CNC machined Dibond parts:

There is so much in the kit I had to take two pics. Bear in mind that I already had the stepper motors and PSU/Mains lead which Chris agreed to leave out for me. Here are the rest of the parts: