ABS curling on the ends (10" i3v)

[printbus]

I'm using a blower approach for the print cooler. Here we're talking about the hot end fan, so that doesn't matter. The print cooler is turned off for ABS.

On the hot end, I'm still using the hexagon hot end shroud design, but with a few tweaks. First, I flipped the fan around so it exhausts out the front of the printer. This seems to have helped reduce the focusing of the airflow on the build plate for ABS. I have noticed, however, that the fan then tends to have a downward angle to the airflow, perhaps because of the way the inside upper part of the fan is blocked by the hot end mount. To keep this downward airflow from cooling the forward side of the bed, I've added a strip of painters tape to the bottom of the fan for some larger prints, shaped to form a bit of a scoop. Yeah I could probably print something to do that, but the tape seems to be working fine.

One of the bad things about the hex shroud design is that it uses a fairly high flow fan to move air through a large volume, hoping that enough of it will pass over the fins of the hex heatsink. Clough42's design is better in that it is a closer fit, ensuring air will flow over the heatsink even though it is using a smaller fan. Having seen how easy it is to soften the mounting surface of the extruder base, I'm not thrilled at the idea of using a printed X-carriage plate to use the clough42 cooling system.

There are a few other shrouds on Thingiverse for the hexagon hot end, but the one's I found won't work with the i3/i3v carriage. It doesn't help that the fins on the hexagon hot end are tightly spaced, making it hard to use a slip-on shroud. For now, I'm sticking with the hex shroud, although I have also added plates to the back side to help ensure airflow is passing over the heatsink, not just flowing around it with little cooling effect.

If I had an e3d hot end, I'd likely use their tight-fitting shroud but with the fan flipped around so it exhausts to the front. The design of the X-carriage will still create some airflow as the fan pulls air up to it, but that should be less focused than with the fan mounted the other way. Besides, it's a smaller fan and thus likely less airflow.

EDIT: I still prefer to print with PLA instead of ABS when ever I can.

[AbuMaia]

Yes, I have the fan on my E3D shroud flipped so it pulls air through the heatsink and shroud and out the fan. In preparation for adding a print cooler, though, I have the E3D fan turned 90 degrees, so it exhausts under the extruder motor, not out the front. There's *just* enough room in the X carriage for it to fit in this orientation.

[printbus]

...I have the E3D fan turned 90 degrees, so it exhausts under the extruder motor, not out the front. There's *just* enough room in the X carriage for it to fit in this orientation.

Even better!