Chinese extruders - any good?

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Chinese extruders - any good?

Postby Preso » Thu Jan 30, 2014 9:06 pm

I am in the very early stages of building a Hadron, however I haven't purchased a kit. I am mostly purchasing items for the build from different vendors and manufacturing the rest of the parts using a CNC mill and lathe. I am still undecided about the extruder and the consensus on this forum seems to be that users make up their own "flavours" of extruders from different motors, gears, nozzles, hotheads etc.
I have been looking at the Chinese units available on Aliexpress and Ebay and I am seeking opinion from anyone who has used one as to whether they are reliable or not. The one I am thinking of getting is here http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hot-Sale ... 28915.html
Extruder.JPG
Aliexpress Extruder - Any recommendations?

I would appreciate any comments from users wiser than I as to whether I should proceed or not. I like the idea that it is an integrated unit and the insulation around the hot end looks to be solid and well made. Some that I have seen which use Kapton tape look a bit flimsy and likely to fail.

Regards,

Preso
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Re: Chinese extruders - any good?

Postby TLHarrell » Fri Jan 31, 2014 5:05 pm

I've seen many posts regarding comparisons between the commonly available higher quality extruders and the extruders available from China. Not all, but a seeming majority of these companies are not interested in the details of getting these things perfect. Rather, you get something that is built to extrude plastic... and nothing else. They build them as cheaply as possible, and unfortunately it shows. If you have disposable income and time, you may get one that can be modified to improve the quality. If not, skip it and just buy a reliable extruder.
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Re: Chinese extruders - any good?

Postby zoominbc » Fri Jan 31, 2014 8:37 pm

If you are creating a 3D printer or modifying an existing design you are going to have to spend quite a bit of time dialing it in. The more variables you have the more time you will spend. I would suggest starting with a known hot end and extruder and then moving on to other solutions after you have established a baseline. I have had good success with the j-head and the extruder from Seemecnc.
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Re: Chinese extruders - any good?

Postby cvoinescu » Fri Jan 31, 2014 8:53 pm

I second the choice of J-Head, but please buy it from hotends.com or an authorized reseller. The clones on eBay are usually bad. Those claiming to be J-Head Mk IV are almost always bad fakes (the current version is Mk V-BV).
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Re: Chinese extruders - any good?

Postby Preso » Fri Jan 31, 2014 9:08 pm

Thanks for your replies. I have looked at the J Head and variants and as a model engineer, I can see the advantages of the design however I still have to add a drive mechanism for the filament and although I could manufacture most of the parts to do this It would be desirable to obtain drawings of a suitable system. Also, living in Australia, it is frustrating what vendors in the USA charge for shipping. In many cases the cost of shipping can be two to three times the cost of the part/s. Does anyone know the whereabouts of a reliable and proven design for a filament drive, preferably all metal?

Regards,

Preso
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Re: Chinese extruders - any good?

Postby zoominbc » Sat Feb 01, 2014 12:25 am

The extruder from SeeMeCNC or the filament drive is open source. I have used a purchased version from SeeMeCNC and it's been reliable for hundred of hours of printing. You can find it at https://github.com/seemecnc/EZStruder
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