Please read this text completely before printing!

This is an improved version of thing 295317

Goals

Fine detailed parts of your prints (PLA and ABS) normally don't show up well and and bridging only works for small distances if you use your printer like shipped from the manufacturer. This is because a fundamental part of your printer is missing - the extra cooling fan (duct). On some of the prints you can slow down printing speed as a workaround for this problem but you will not get very fine details or long bridges to match your needs. The goal of this duct is to create the best possible solution to avoid this problem without any real drawbacks.

Compatibility

This active cooling duct is designed to work on the following MK7/MK8/MK9 Dual Extruders:

• MakerBot Replicator 1
• FF3DP FlashForge Creator
• CTC Creator Dual
• WanHao Duplicator 4 and Duplicator 4X

Improvements compared to v1

• Higher air flow rates especially on the side channels
• Less air loss between fan and duct
• Only screws and nuts are required which are available in every hardware store
• Duct will be mounted horizontally and solid - enough space for small buildplate clips
• More flat center air outlets to avoid contact with heatblocks
• Angular fan mounting allows usage in Duplicator 4X with regularly installed and closed front door and avoids previous known crash problem with front door nuts.

Downsides compared to v1

• More complex bridging requires better optimized filament profiles
• Because of the thin walls for low duct weight you will need a temporary cooling solution to get the duct printed well. Printing it with an installed v1 / Thing 295317 works flawless. Not as good but also a good chance provides my ordinary duct for flipped extruder fans but there are other good cooling solutions out there allowing to print this duct.

Mounting

All of the above mentioned printers have one thing in common - they use an almost similar ABS extruder carriage. From the bottom side it holds 4 linear bearings in every corner and from the top it has 2 small slot-holes at the front (and 2 at the back) of the carriage. Unfortunately the form of the mold differs a little bit and so the carriages do. The upper list of printers I own or have access to and I found a way mounting the duct which works on all of them.
First you place a M3 nut in every outer arm of the duct. Insert them from the sides. If you turn the nut the right way it should not require any force. Now you snap your fan into the back of the duct. It's a close fit and it should immerge 5mm on every side into the side frame. Now attache the 2 other nuts into the matching slots at the front of the duct and screw the M3x16mm screws trough the fan into the nuts.
Now you place the duct in front of the extruder carriage. Make sure the small lobes on both sides grab the carriage from the bottom near the linear bearings. Now attache the printed clips with their hexagon connectors to the top of the side arms. The clips should be directed to and grab into the slot-holes of the carriage. Now screw the M3x12mm screws from the top through the clips into the duct body. At the end you should achieve a very strong and close fitting duct in front of you carriage and the bottom of the duct should be installed perfectly horizontally.

Requirements

• 2x the printed clips
• 1x the printed duct
• 1x 40x40x10mm fan with 24V if you want to use the normal power supply as source
• 2x M3x12 countersunk head screws
• 2x M3x16 countersunk head screws
• 4x M3 nuts
• 1,5m twin power cable from the printer bottom along with the other cables to the extruder to supply power for the extra fan
• a solution to switch on the cooling fan only when you need it

Cooling fan power source

A simply way would be to directly take the power for the fan from the power supply and install a simple on/off switch in between. For the first few (1-5) layers you should leave the fan switched off and switch it on afterwards. This manual switching solution works but requires a lot of your time waiting in front of the printer.
A much better solution is to control fan power with the MightyBoard you have in your printers. If everything is setuped perfectly you can control the fan via GCODE. Any good slicer is capable of inserting the fan control commands automatically. If you use sailfish firmware, which most of the advanced users use anyway, you can also control the cooling fan from the printer menu. For this you need the so called EXTRA connector on you MightyBoard. This connector and the required MosFET Q6 are often not soldered on the board.If you are a soldering expert and aware of the risk of killing your MightyBoard and losing your warranty, you can solder the missing part Q6 which is a MOS-FET named PSMN7R0-30YL (bought mine on the most famous online auctions platform) and an additional power connector to your mighty board. One of the pictures above show my modified board. Don't blame me, if you fail on doing that! (See Detail picture of modified MightyBoard for connector mod)

Active cooling for PLA and ABS prints

Some people think cooling is something you only need for PLA prints. They say on ABS prints you destroy your print because of warping if you use an active cooling solution like this one. I can promise you, that this is not true! For further instructions how to avoid warping please read How to avoid warping chapter of instructions tab over here.

Printing Instructions

See Instructions tab for further details on how you should configure your slicer

Disclaimer

All trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners. Modification of your device might result in a full loss of warranty.