Silicone Nozzle Wiper Details for Automated Build Platform
Since the introduction of the teflon-coated nozzles for the Plastruder MK5, the MakerBot Automated Build Platform v1.0 has been shipping with a silicone nozzle wiper instead of a wire brush.
Assembly couldn’t be easier: the small piece of extreme-temperature silicone rubber comes pre-bored with a bolt hole.Slide nylon washer onto the M3 x 20mm bolt. Press barrel of bolt down through the top of the wiper bolt hole, and then mount the unit onto the tiny protuberance to the left of the build surface (where the wire brush had previously been mounted). In the Botcave, often the upright portion of the wiper is closer to the electronics ports on the heated build surface than the toothed gears at the front of the ABP. (Note that this choice requires you to offset your y-axis placement when establishing the “zero” position to just behind the wiper so the wiper path — originally crossing the current bolt position — now crosses the silicone flap.) Other Operators flip the wiper backwards with the flap on the forward side of the mount point so that they don’t have to adjust their starting placement. (I recommend that latter option.) Tighten the M3 nut underneath the tiny platform to lock wiper into place.
Depending on how you mount your Plastruder to the Z-stage (ie thumb screws, bare bolts, etc.), you might consider trimming down the flap to a height that your mounting points clear or grace the top of the silicone. The current default MakerBot Automated Build Platform wiping settings send the nozzle across the wiper at 6mm height, so that is the factor to start with when considering whether to trim your wiper or not. (I trimmed my wiper to 8.5mm, measured from bottom of L to top of flap.)
Done! Molten plastic “boogers” (a technical term?) no longer interrupt your serial printing pleasure….
These instructions have been added to the Automated Build Platform assembly instructions as well.
| Tagged with | abp, automated build platform, nozzle, teflon, teflon-coated nozzle, wiper | 5 comments |
5 Comments so far
Zh4x0r
I bought my Cupcake Ultimate, and it shipped with a teflon nozzle, but not the silicon wiper… I know I can get another nozzle (the current one has most of its teflon scratched off already), but is there a way to just get the silicon bit?
Thanks!
-Z
Matt
The easy workaround that we were doing before we added the special silicon wiper is to remove the brush and use the rubber tubing itself as a wiper. So you should be good to go with just adjusting that rubber tubing.
Matt
UPDATE: Charles, the designer of the Automated Build Platform put his details for the silicon nozzle wiper on Thingiverse here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4747
Dan
Mind correcting your spelling from silicon to silicone please? Unless I am misunderstanding you, I don’t think you mean a rock hard mineral is what the brush is made of. Sounds like the machine would sort of break it off. I think you mean the polymer called silicone.
Thanks.
Matt
Good catch, Dan. change completed. A silicon wiper would be a bit more aggressive than our floppy silicone wipers. (I’m terribly embarrassed: the product is listed correctly in our warehouse database.)