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PollyMobiles Rebuild

Understood Paul, wasn't aware of the clearance (lack of) issues. :)

no worries john, it's abit of a tight area with so many things in the way and this is the strongest way to mount the turbo to the nearest bolt hole on the block.
currently awaiting new gaskets & studs so probably be tomorrow when I can fabricate the bracket.
 
no worries john, it's abit of a tight area with so many things in the way and this is the strongest way to mount the turbo to the nearest bolt hole on the block.
currently awaiting new gaskets & studs so probably be tomorrow when I can fabricate the bracket.
If you extend one stud could you do anything with a couple of Rose joints and make an adjustable brace?
 
If you extend one stud could you do anything with a couple of Rose joints and make an adjustable brace?

Nope. Not enough room for rose joints, they wouldn't last long against the intense heat and once loose, they won't be much of a brace. Turbo wouldn't and shouldn't be flexing that much to require adjustability or pre-loading either.

Best keep it simple, a solid fixed brace will do.
 
Oh sod, I booked a ticket and track session for Petrol & Piston show at Croft for Sept 3 but just realised JAE runs from Aug 31-Sept 3!

But since Sun is usually the quiet packing up last day, I think I'll be packing up on Sat night, drive home to unpack before an early show at croft next morning.
 
Ever since I fitted the turbo, it's always had this mis-matched T2 elbow flange/gasket where it's only sealed by 1-2mm in the circled region. it's never leaked but is annoying and the new thin gaskets won't work properly. So I think I should beef it up.

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before welding, I try out using a flat piece of copper as a guide for forming a flat edge with less sanding required

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at the 1-2mm settings it's abit too cold and leaving some cavities

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at the max 2-3mm setting, the hotter but unstable pool flows nice & solid

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cleaned the area

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laid a bead of weld

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but it left some slight cavities

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so filled it with abit more weld

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grinded flush

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sanded flat

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and now it fully encloses the gasket :cool:

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the damn gasket & studs I ordered hasn't arrived yet so can't do much.
 
new turbo gasket arrived

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it fits the Renault 5GT turbine housing but it obstucts the stud for the Pulsar GTIR turbo elbow

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so I dremelled it to clear the stud

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bolted one part of the bracket to the turbo

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lined up & tacked the bracket together

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welded it up

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and now fits perfectly and very sturdy

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after a weekend in york getting absolute drunk with me m8s, I'm back home and continue assembling the car.
had to trim abit of the turbo bracket to clear the boost pipe.

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all assembled with no major leaks.

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drove it in the rain and she's abit quieter without that exhaust leak. boosts quickly, pulls nice & smooth.
the poor old T1Rs are getting old & hard cos it's power understeering abit and struggles with traction in the wet more than usual.
the turbo oil drain at the sump with the diy copper seal leaks a tiny bit so I'll need to fix that.
 
ever since I replaced the flexi-pipe on the downpipe, the shortened length of pipe has caused the backbox to occasionally hit the rear axle during big bumps.
so I'll need to lengthen either the downpipe or mid-pipe by 20mm to push it back to where it was.

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after removing the 57mm mid-pipe, I realised I only had 63mm stainless pipe o_O
so instead of waiting to order some pipes, I decided to just slot the big pipe so it can be clamped tightly over the old pipe and welded.

it also meant I didn't need to cut the pipe perfectly square, making it much easier & faster.

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cut the messy old section off

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clamped the new section on and aligned both ends. just need to check it fits ok before welding it.

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tacked

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welded

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and refitted

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went for a short test and it still knocks more than before. looks like it's now hitting the sway bar so I've got more tweaking to do tomorrow

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Paul, I was trauling suspension videos and found this one :

Starts off as usual but towards the second half introduces 'roll frequency ' It's one of the first times I've heard of it and thought it might have an input into what you do with your roll bars. The short of it is that the back needs a higher / shorter roll frequency than the front, this allows the rear to catch up in roll to the front in a turn otherwise (if I'm right) it feels like the back hasn't made up its mind if it's going to grip or not.
I believe I was feeling something like this before adding rear bumpstops (big progressive ones) which is sort of equivalent to a rear roll bar. It also occurs to be that it might be a reason a forwards tilting roll axis is preferred, the smaller rear roll moment means a higher frequency / shorter movement / less time before the rear settles. If this was happening when you had no roll bars it might indicate rating the rear roll centre a bit might help? Ie more inclined roll axis.
This article has some stuff about measuring roll frequency, I haven't done it but probably will at some stage.
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=Measuring-wheel-suspension-rates&A=113057
 
I subscribe to his channel recently, luv his clear explanations same with engineering explained.
I recently tryed a softer front bar to reduce turn-in understeer which helped, but still scrubs on long bends so need to check geometry & pressure cos outer tyre shoulders are wearing really fast. looking into stiffer springs to reduce roll.
rear panhard geometry needs checking too.
I used to read alot of autospeed articles too, really detailed & interesting.
 
member called Garin wanted a 3D model of his SR printed big as possible on my printer at bout 1:25 scale.
I modelled the SuperS bumpers with the existing body shell.

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modelling his SR alloys from rough template into a final refined & smoothed version.

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the curvy door mirrors are a little bit more complex to model but turned out ok.

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just need to order more reels of plastic to fine tune the print settings cos this massive model is gonna take afew hrs to make
 
When you were setting the toe for the wheel alignment you said the wheels have moved in towards the centre of the car(this certainly appears to be the case), doesn't this also mean you've lost some of your negative camber as well.

My old camry had a camber adjustment on the top bolt where the hub carrier? bolts to the strut, they sell these things but they use undersize bolts to gain the adjustment so aren't the best but you might be able go the other way and get a bolt one size larger this would give the opportunity to enlarge the holes where you want (ie enlarge on the inside on the strut part and / or on the wheel side of the hub carrier) this would give you back a fixed amount of negative camber and could make it so you can do fine adjustments with the strut tops.
 
When you were setting the toe for the wheel alignment you said the wheels have moved in towards the centre of the car(this certainly appears to be the case), doesn't this also mean you've lost some of your negative camber as well.

My old camry had a camber adjustment on the top bolt where the hub carrier? bolts to the strut, they sell these things but they use undersize bolts to gain the adjustment so aren't the best but you might be able go the other way and get a bolt one size larger this would give the opportunity to enlarge the holes where you want (ie enlarge on the inside on the strut part and / or on the wheel side of the hub carrier) this would give you back a fixed amount of negative camber and could make it so you can do fine adjustments with the strut tops.

when I extended the lower ball joints so the arms point downwards, this raised the roll centre closer towards the CoG so bodyroll is reduced. correcting bump steer also made the steering much sharper and reduced low speed understeer.

but due to the length of the balljoint extension pushing the hub upright inward and the lower arms pointing downwards pushing it further inwards, this meant the wheels are sitting further inward and the top camber plate maxed out can only provide 1.2deg -ve camber.

my next task is to lengthen the lower arms, pushing the wheels out so the camber plate has more -ve camber range and also stop my tyres rubbing the chassis at full lock when parking.

tbh the static camber mainly affects inside shoulder wear and limits traction whenever the wheels pointing straight under acc/braking.
what I really need is more caster angle so when I'm cornering hard, the wheel leans into the corner relative to the steering angle and counteract the tyre flex so the outer shoulder doesn't wear as fast.
the reduced bodyroll from raising the roll centre helps reduce wear too.
 
Yeah my solution would have moved the top of the wheel further in, doing the opposite on the bottom bolt would more it in less but given existing clearance problems not be the best solution.

An perhaps odd ball idea... Could you do as you say and lengthen the bottom arms but do it making them perhaps adjustable, then modify and rotate the strut top so it points the adjustable part forward / back and becomes a caster adjustment.
Didn't a couple of the rally guys talk about blocks to mount under the rear of the arm? Are they not an option? Why?
 
A downside of extending the lower arms Paul would be that it reduced the drive shaft spline length engaging with the gearbox..........
 
Yeah my solution would have moved the top of the wheel further in, doing the opposite on the bottom bolt would more it in less but given existing clearance problems not be the best solution.

An perhaps odd ball idea... Could you do as you say and lengthen the bottom arms but do it making them perhaps adjustable, then modify and rotate the strut top so it points the adjustable part forward / back and becomes a caster adjustment.
Didn't a couple of the rally guys talk about blocks to mount under the rear of the arm? Are they not an option? Why?

Tilting the top of the wheel in via hub upright camber bolts creates more clearance issues with the tyres fouling the spring & covers.

Pushing the hub/wheel outwards by lengthening the lower arm actually returns it back to it's original position to clear the chassis & arch.

Making arms adjustable will be more unnecessary work and weakens it.

I'll need to investigate if turning the top camber plate 90deg into caster plates is feasible.

Putting spacers under the rear bushing is abit of an anti-dive geometry. puts a lot of misalignment strain on the front PU unless it's modded too.
 
A downside of extending the lower arms Paul would be that it reduced the drive shaft spline length engaging with the gearbox..........

Nope, both the hub spline and the gearbox splines are still fully inserted and locked in. The inner cv joint has afew mm of allowance along it's axis, as well as the swinging range.

Currently the extended balljoint geometry has moved the hub & shaft inwards few mm.
So after extending the lower arms, it'll actually return the hubs & shaft back to where they were beforehand.
 
Putting spacers under the rear wishbone mounts creates anti-lift, as that's the basis for the Whiteline anti-lift kit.
 
exhaust has been knocking against the axle again when driving over bumps.
notice the rusty impact spot. seems the recent pipe extension nudged the pipes closer towards the axle :confused:

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so I had to undo all that work by cutting & grinding the old welds off

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hammered the pipe 15mm shorter

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and rewelded

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now the pipes clear the axle/sway bar, the backbox clears the panhard rod and it no longer knocks over bumps.

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Treat with soem Krust, and then a couple of cans of cheap black or silver paint and you are sorted.

did that krust stuff yrs ago. it didn't help much for long imo.
with the axle assembly being a PITA to remove for servicing doesn't help either.
just gotta hope it lasts long enough.
 
I just brushed mine in situ, left it for a day to dry and the blasted it with a few cans of cheap spray paint. Given the amount of gravel rash I need to top it up after most events, but it helps keep it in good condition. Same with the sills and floor pan.
 
Making arms adjustable will be more unnecessary work and weakens it.
Plenty around that do it that way, making it adjustable seems a good principle because your unlikely to get an optimum suspension setup straight off especially where there's less development been done as seems the case with micra. Looking at the micra arms and some wrx ones the bit where camber adjustment might be seems to require less strength.
I'll need to investigate if turning the top camber plate 90deg into caster plates is feasible.
It's difficult to be sure because I haven't got a micra nearby but it may even be as simple as swapping the strut tops to the other side. It worked with the tea mug I used as a model...:confused:
Putting spacers under the rear bushing is abit of an anti-dive geometry. puts a lot of misalignment strain on the front PU unless it's modded too.
Agreed, here's how minis deal with it:
http://minispares.com/product/classic/C-STR632.aspx

I'll try to be quiet now for a bit...
 
really tempted to take out the axle now and give it a good once over before JAE :p

...hmm there's too much going on in the coming weeks so gonna leave it till after JAE.
 
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Plenty around that do it that way, making it adjustable seems a good principle because your unlikely to get an optimum suspension setup straight off especially where there's less development been done as seems the case with micra. Looking at the micra arms and some wrx ones the bit where camber adjustment might be seems to require less strength.

It's difficult to be sure because I haven't got a micra nearby but it may even be as simple as swapping the strut tops to the other side. It worked with the tea mug I used as a model...:confused:

Agreed, here's how minis deal with it:
http://minispares.com/product/classic/C-STR632.aspx

I'll try to be quiet now for a bit...

the lower arm is a hugely stressed part responsible for transferring lateral cornering loads to the chassis, massive lateral forces from the brakes and acceleration as well as vertical bending forces of the swaybar plus driven daily, so strength & durability is important.
all the extra time & cost & hassle to make it adjustable for one-occasion and a potential weak-spot just ain't worth it tbh.

yeah swapping the top camber plates left-right, that'll work.

I'm simply gonna weld an extra 10-20mm bit of arm and then use the top-plates to adjust camber.
or I could tweak the camber via the strut/hub bolt and use the swapped top-plates for caster.
 
What are you worried about Paul, I drove two stages and about road section of 100 miles during Wales Rally GB with a snapped NS wishbone.... Did make the handling a bit odd though.... ;)
 
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What are you worried about Paul, I drove two stages and about road section of 100 miles during Wales Rally GB with a snapped NS wishbone.... Did make the handling a bit odd though.... ;)

I don't wanna risk having my wishbones suddenly fail & lose control whilst going over 100mph through a fast delicate circuit bend, especially without a roll cage.
plus I wouldn't wanna keep replacing this modified & costly wishbone repeatedly since it's a daily and I don't have the funds.
 
new spool of PLA plastic has arrived. it runs at lower temp, warps less than ABS and gives a better finish & surface detail for the micra model.

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PLA requires a cooling fan to solidify the plastic as the nozzle lays it down, so I modelled a shroud for the fan to cool the E3D hot-end and blow around the nozzle

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the shroud was slightly too low and removing all the support material inside the cavity was a pita

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still some support left inside

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so remodelled it with an open bottom for easier support removal

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took afew attempts to stop the material warping

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still a PITA to clean up

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tried using Slic3r instead of Cura to calculate the printing moves with less support material and this has reduced the amount of warpage

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no warpage on the bed

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alot easier to remove the supports

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inserted the divider that splits the fan for cooling the heatsink and the nozzle

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refined the nozzle shroud

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installed

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had to go through many design iterrations

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but whilst printing, the heat block was basically melting the shroud :(

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tried simply cutting the shroud off and blowing across the area but the wrong opening angle simply cooled the bed too much till the object warped, rather than cool the nozzle.

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so redesigned the nozzle to blow at the nozzle from a distance

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printed the new shroud

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notice the integrated divider that splits the fan airflow

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now that looks and works much better

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it worked brilliantly and wow, wish I used PLA early on cos dayum this finish is ultra smooth, consistant & accurate with zero warpage :cool:

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I don't wanna risk having my wishbones suddenly fail & lose control...
Fair enough, I guess as a daily driver you've got to find that balance between grip in turns and tyre wear, I'd also guess that point doesn't change all that much as long as it's still performing daily duties.
I put fixed negative arms on my mini but almost immediately wished I'd gone adjustable even with a conservative camber setting. I guess the difference is you have a pretty good idea on what camber setting you want.
 
Try 80mph on gravel just inches away from the trees with a snapped wishbone...!

Good you have moved away from ABS, my work involved in research into the fumes from 3D printers and ABS is the worse by miles...
 
Fair enough, I guess as a daily driver you've got to find that balance between grip in turns and tyre wear, I'd also guess that point doesn't change all that much as long as it's still performing daily duties.
I put fixed negative arms on my mini but almost immediately wished I'd gone adjustable even with a conservative camber setting. I guess the difference is you have a pretty good idea on what camber setting you want.

indeed it's always a compromise when I'm using her as both a normal daily duty and track car. adjusting the geometry is a real PITA and almost impossible / inconvenient to do during the event so I gotta pick the one fixed setup.

with the current 1.5 - 2deg front camber, driving her on road unstressed would wear the inside shoulders faster but once stressed on track, she rolls and her tyres flex alot and wears the outside shoulders very quickly. the aim is obviously to get an even wear pattern.

I feel the slight camber is ok for straight line but I need alot more caster to make the wheels lean into the apex during turns and try even out the wear. fitting stiffer spring rates to reduce body movement is also a priority. removing that heavy sunroof to lower CoG would be nice.
 
Try 80mph on gravel just inches away from the trees with a snapped wishbone...!

Good you have moved away from ABS, my work involved in research into the fumes from 3D printers and ABS is the worse by miles...

yikes, there'd be poop & pee everywhere with my eyes shut if I even sat passenger through that lol.
I don't think I'm as brave or crazy as you to do that :p especially in a car I put all my heart & life savings into and can't afford to lose.

ABS still has it's place with strong high-temp parts (like my HT lead mounts) but PLA is soooo much better overall for everything else and yeah not as pungent (good thing it's in the spare bedroom)
 
tday met up with me local m8 to sort out the ticket for next weekends Redline North East Motorshow in durham

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recently whilst printing with ABS plastic in the enclosure, which uses higher temperature settings, I noticed the machine began to suddenly stop/reset itself 1/2 way through a print and happened several times which got annoying.

I tried restarting the laptop to clear memory. tried a different USB cable. one of the error logs once said "communication timeout error" so I tried printing directly from an SD card on the control board to eliminate the laptop but it still crashed/reset. tried printing at max speed to finish it faster but still froze after few min.

puzzled by this error which didn't happen much throughout the 1.5yrs I ran the machine, I thought maybe the PSU was failing? some electrical noise maybe tripping it? one of the wiring overheating or dry solder?

the breakthrough came as I was printing fast as possible but with the enclosure panel open, and it didn't crash.
hmm it seems the cold air getting into the enclosure stopped the controller from overheating as much?

which seems to make sense since this board was originally fitted on the colder outside of the Makibox casing. so by trapping it inside this insulated enclosure, all those tiny uncooled chips/mosfets just got hotter till it rebooted. googling also confirmed this issue.

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so I fitted little heatsinks to all the hard working chips

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and so far so good.
 
with the new PLA plastic installed, fine nozzle settings configured, I thought it's be a good test to see how much detail it can print.
So I loaded this Nissan badge I modelled few months ago

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began printing and it laid down a consistantly good looking bead

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trimmed the excess brim and wow it looks fabulous :cool:

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gonna see if I can further smooth it in an oven or with acetone before painting.
 
yikes, there'd be poop & pee everywhere with my eyes shut if I even sat passenger through that lol.
I don't think I'm as brave or crazy as you to do that :p especially in a car I put all my heart & life savings into and can't afford to lose.

ABS still has it's place with strong high-temp parts (like my HT lead mounts) but PLA is soooo much better overall for everything else and yeah not as pungent (good thing it's in the spare bedroom)


Ultrafine Particles and Fumes from 3D Printers:

Quote; " it's in the spare bedroom"

A competent person fabricating & using harmful materials such as petroleum derived plastics, solvents (VOCs), printing/welding fume gases and ultra-fine particles (UFPs) such as asbestos would mitigate protect the environment, themselves, and others in the vicinity or their home & working area from any deleterious effects known & those yet unknown by simply avoiding contamination?

Standard HEPA filters and positive fume extraction with full PPE procedures would suffice.

Quote: “The emissions from 3D printers are harmful. You could become very sick under the right conditions. If you’re only printing PLA once a week then good ventilation would probably be adequate to protect yourself. For more toxic filaments or more active printers, an enclosure with a Hepa or carbon activated filter is a good idea.”

Referance: https://3dprinterchat.com/2017/07/ultrafine-particles-from-3d-printers/
 
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Ultrafine Particles and Fumes from 3D Printers:

Quote; " it's in the spare bedroom"

A competent person fabricating & using harmful materials such as petroleum derived plastics, solvents (VOCs), printing/welding fume gases and ultra-fine particles (UFPs) such as asbestos would mitigate protect the environment, themselves, and others in the vicinity or their home & working area from any deleterious effects known & those yet unknown by simply avoiding contamination?

Standard HEPA filters and positive fume extraction with full PPE procedures would suffice.

Quote: “The emissions from 3D printers are harmful. You could become very sick under the right conditions. If you’re only printing PLA once a week then good ventilation would probably be adequate to protect yourself. For more toxic filaments or more active printers, an enclosure with a Hepa or carbon activated filter is a good idea.”

Referance: https://3dprinterchat.com/2017/07/ultrafine-particles-from-3d-printers/

yea sticking to PLA now onwards
 
the printer is still prone to freezing/reset itself so I checked for hot spots and these stepper motor driver chips were really hot. no wonder they crashed without any heatsink

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for the time being I hung this small fan overhead and hope it keeps the chips cool enough not to crash

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also noticed that the bed has a slight concave bow in the middle, even though the 4 corners are adjustable.
so I'll need an extra adjustment screw from the center.
to keep it simple, I stuck this Alu bar on and added a screw to push the bed level from underneath

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did further tests with PLA and this overhanging spiral used to be impossible to make with ABS but now possible in PLA :cool:
more tuning needed

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the vacuum cleaner flat nozzle I once printed out of ABS has broken after being stepped on, so I designed it with extra stiffness vanes to resist deformation and verified the flow of the vanes with CFD

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printed it out of PLA and this stuff is awesome.
prints very accurately with zero amount of any warpage compared to ABS. it just solidifies rapidly with the cooling fan and stayed completely flat.

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the walls are 2mm thick which seems abit overkill now cos PLA is quite stiff, all the layers have fused strongly and won't break apart, it feels like an injection moulded part :cool:

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the thin plastic screw lid that held the printed catch can top onto the glass jar was getting old and annoyingly flimsy where it kept coming loose.
so I modelled a new threaded screw cap and printed it out of PLA and omg it turned out as perfection :D
even though I was in a rush and printed it at max speed, it still turned out perfectly accurate, screws straight on and really strong :cool:

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