Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[DarkAlchemist]

This failure did appear to be in the feed mechanism, and there was nothing but shavings from that filament loading up the stock QIDI feed gears teeth. I guess that's to be expected as the feed gear was spinning with no filament motion. Longest (and last) print I did with it was about 2.5 hrs.

I gotta say, getting to the extruder and such for these repairs is a real pain. I cannot imagine performing the level of maintenance that you regularly execute. I would be spending all of my free time dis and re assembling with no time left for actually printing. And it probably wouldn't work then because I broke something. I guess all that practice must have a positive impact on how quickly you can strip one of these apart, but it took me hours...

Another reason I love a RepRap system as everything is accessible and easily taken apart, and reassembled, like no tomorrow. On these Makerbot based things nothing is.

Oh, go look at your X belt, for instance, and when it needs tightening you have to take the entire dual extruder off then you can remove two screws (these are not metal screws so eventually they will strip since they bite into the plastic) AND when you have done all of that you are met with a continuous belt so you have to cut it so you can tighten it or simply replace it.

The X belt has a number on it that I believe means GT2 and is around 800mm (I can't remember the exact number precisely) long. No joy with the machine and how much you have to do to get to anything real on the machine in comparison to a RepRap which was created to have everything easily accessible.

Why is there no way to tension any belts on these machines with just adjusting a screw, or some sort of tensioner?

[Mjolinor]

Hexadecimal system is for geeks, nerds, and computer programmers. Sorry, not following that at all as the majority of the world is based on base 10 not base 16.

The hexadecimal system is used of necessity. All your messages are posted using it, just because hte geeks and nerds do ti well enough so that you do not have to bother using it is a credit to them not an indication of how much better than denary it is.

Yup, that is becoming apparent. Probably best to stop trying I suppose.

[JSensebe]

Everything would be solved if we all used base 2,520.

[DarkAlchemist]

Everything would be solved if we all used base 2,520.

LOL, hahahaha.

[DaveB]

I've been trying to make a replacement filament guide/manifold piece for the top of my QIDI extruder assy because my feed hoses keep working their way out. The design that I am working with now is http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:735350
I've built it and tried it out and it seemed to work fairly well. It did need the two screw mounting holes drilled out to 3.5mm.

Note: By the way, the design in the "Useful items to make for Qidi Tech" ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:616895 ) will not actually work on a current model Qidi. The filament feed holes do not line up with their current positions on the feed mechanisms. See the comment section in that part for more info if you're curious.

Anyway, in the process of messing with these things I noticed something odd about the Qidi extruder assembly. This filament manifold sits across the steppers, the filament feed mechanisms, and the 40mm fan cases. What's odd is the filament feed release handles actually project ABOVE the plane of the adjacent stepper top surface. The stock Qidi manifold has a completely flat bottom surface, and when it is pulled down into place by its two mounting screws, its bottom surface hits and compresses the top of the filament release handles, and forces them downward. Apparently this deformation is needed, because when I relieved the area of the manifold over the release handles such that the manifold no longer compressed them, the feeders stopped working reliably.

Does anyone else have any info on this?

[rcleav]

I've been trying to make a replacement filament guide/manifold piece for the top of my QIDI extruder assy because my feed hoses keep working their way out. The design that I am working with now is http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:735350
I've built it and tried it out and it seemed to work fairly well. It did need the two screw mounting holes drilled out to 3.5mm.

Note: By the way, the design in the "Useful items to make for Qidi Tech" ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:616895 ) will not actually work on a current model Qidi. The filament feed holes do not line up with their current positions on the feed mechanisms. See the comment section in that part for more info if you're curious.

Anyway, in the process of messing with these things I noticed something odd about the Qidi extruder assembly. This filament manifold sits across the steppers, the filament feed mechanisms, and the 40mm fan cases. What's odd is the filament feed release handles actually project ABOVE the plane of the adjacent stepper top surface. The stock Qidi manifold has a completely flat bottom surface, and when it is pulled down into place by its two mounting screws, its bottom surface hits and compresses the top of the filament release handles, and forces them downward. Apparently this deformation is needed, because when I relieved the area of the manifold over the release handles such that the manifold no longer compressed them, the feeders stopped working reliably.

Does anyone else have any info on this?

I've been using this on my Qidi Tech for 6 months now and it works great.
Unless the newest Qidi Tech's have deviated from the basic MK10 dual extruder design and it doesn't look like they have it should work fine..
There is a little play for alignment in it before tightening the screws down.

[beano_2278]

So, i'm interested in printing in a flexible filament and i've seen a lot of people printing replacement MK8 extruder parts that keep the filament on a better line through the drive gears, ideally i'd like to try the same but i want to print a a simple upgrade that doesn't require lots of modifications. upon looking on Thingiverse i can see many different mods out there but firstly i'm not sure which ones are the best and which ones may fit the Qidi Tech printer easily.

My initial investigations have led me to this one : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:684426

Thoughts from anyone with a Qidi that has printed with flexible filament.

Many thanks

Steve

[Syd_Khaos]

So, i'm interested in printing in a flexible filament and i've seen a lot of people printing replacement MK8 extruder parts that keep the filament on a better line through the drive gears, ideally i'd like to try the same but i want to print a a simple upgrade that doesn't require lots of modifications. upon looking on Thingiverse i can see many different mods out there but firstly i'm not sure which ones are the best and which ones may fit the Qidi Tech printer easily.

My initial investigations have led me to this one : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:684426

Thoughts from anyone with a Qidi that has printed with flexible filament.

Many thanks

Steve

What you have linked is for a Mk8 Extruder set-up. The Qidi machines use Mk10s.

There is a feed assembly on Thingiverse for Mk10 set-ups...and having been using it for 2 months now I can say it works rather well.
These are what ya need for Mk10s http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:857200

[DarkAlchemist]

So, i'm interested in printing in a flexible filament and i've seen a lot of people printing replacement MK8 extruder parts that keep the filament on a better line through the drive gears, ideally i'd like to try the same but i want to print a a simple upgrade that doesn't require lots of modifications. upon looking on Thingiverse i can see many different mods out there but firstly i'm not sure which ones are the best and which ones may fit the Qidi Tech printer easily.

My initial investigations have led me to this one : http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:684426

Thoughts from anyone with a Qidi that has printed with flexible filament.

Many thanks

Steve

That is a bit confusing because these printers use a MK10 and not a MK8 but my thought is that after looking at the date that was published that the author must have had the earlier model of these printers that DID use MK8. MK8 != MK10 and are not interchangeable. I am unsure if that goes for the drive mechanism as well or not though. All you can do is try it.

[DarkAlchemist]

What you have linked is for a Mk8 Extruder set-up. The Qidi machines use Mk10s.

There is a feed assembly on Thingiverse for Mk10 set-ups...and having been using it for 2 months now I can say it works rather well.
These are what ya need for Mk10s http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:857200

You use that with Filaflex, TPU or Ninjaflex?