QU-BD Extruder on thing-o-matic, or rep 2, any advice or experience?

[Bill Chapman]

I'm trying to find examples of people who have been successful with the QU-BD MBE extruder. http://store.qu-bd.com/product.php?id_product=11   

I have a Replicator 2 that is currently non functioning. I've had so many issues with it and am still trying to sort it out with Makerbot. If this next round of adjustments doesn't get it done I'm planning to try to upgrade to the QU-BD dual extruder but have not yet see anyone else attempt this. I am fine being the first but with over 2500 extruders sold by their claim I highly doubt no one else has tried it. 

In the mean time I was trying to get a thing-o-matic working that my business partner has had for a while and was wondering if anyone has had success with the QU-BD extruders on that one. They imply that it is a drop in replacement for MK7 but I have looked all over and don't see anyone with a definitive answer about using it on a TOM? I was thinking that a thing-o-matic with an upgraded hot end could do about 80% of the printing I need the replicator for. It will just be a bit slower. 

Thanks in advance to anyone with advice or who took the time to read this. 

[Joseph Chiu]

IIRC, there were a couple things you would run into when 'dropping in' the QU-BD extruder.  1) the QU-BD does not come with a thermocouple - instead, you get a thermistor; 2) the heater may be different (depends on whether you ordered the correct one); 3) the nozzle is 0.35 mm nominal versus 0.40 mm nominal - in practice that might not matter much; and 4) the steppers that they provide is not connectorized like the ones from Makerbot.   Also, you will want to get the Makerbot compatible mounts, iirc.

In addition, there were some people complaining that the QU-BD extruder gear were not as good at biting filament as was originally expected.  I don't know how true that is.

I purchased the original dual QU-BD MBE package from their successful kickstarter round.  I was originally interested in getting that to play with a dual-head ToM, but then never got around to it.  I eventually got a Replicator dual...  

Oh, one more thing - at one point, there apparently were problems with some of the nozzles being damaged in transit, so you might want to look at yours.  Mine were fine.

As for printing speed - I had my jetty-firmware ToM running 90mm/sec constantly, and were doing 120 mm/sec, too.  If anything, I've had a better percentage success rate with the ToM because once the bed was dialed in, it was absolutely repeatable afterwards.  My post-aluminum arm Replicator is pretty stable, but I still feel like I've had to fuss with the ToM less...

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[Bill Chapman]

Thank you for the insight. This definitely sounds doable for the TOM and I think I might as well give it a try.  For the rep 2 I've actually been hoping makerbot would start selling more replacement parts for the 2x. Given that much of the Rep2/2x are fundamentally the same.  Ordering a heated bed, dual extruder and power supply made for the rep 2x to mod on the the rep 2 should be doable with a little effort. I may wait until that becomes an option. 

[drando...@gmail.com]

The qu-bd extruder has a lot of similarities with the MBI one. The big difference is the hot end and the drive gear. However with the printed spring loaded upgrade I think the benefits over the original makes it pointless for the change on a rep2. Qu-bd does offer .4 tips now and they are identical to MBI. I like the MBI drive gear best. So if you want to have the extruder on your ToM then buy your moter/hot end/ feeder/ heater/ thermistor/tip from qu-bd and buy your gear from MBI and print out the spring upgrade.

Or you can wait a little bit. Qu-bd has a completely new dual drive 3:1 gear extruder coming out very soon that looks great. I ordered one of their RPM printers and it will have the extruder on it so I will be excited to see how it stacks up against my rep1

[Michael Cook]

I bought a QU-BD last year when I decided to upgrade from a MK6+ and 3mm to 1.75mm. I didn't like the drive gear, I ordered a Makerbot gear and use that instead. You'll have to wire up the connector (as already mentioned) but otherwise it works fine.

[Jetguy]

BTW, from a hot end standpoint, there is nothing wrong with a
Replicator-2 IMO. It's a carryover from the replicator 1.
So, depending on what the problem is, fix the problem, not the
symptoms.
Failing thermocouples are a combination of a bad design and bad
firmware. The firmware side can be replaced with sailfish firmware,
the thermcouple itself can be replaced for about $14.
We all, even the QU-BD folks are pretty much in agreement that the
filament drive system works best wiht the printed or aluminum
upgrades. After all, it is just a MK7 copy.

SO to recap, no reason to change the extruder as a complete assembly,
Technically, you would be replacing parts with carbon copies of the
same parts. Not exactly cost effective.
As other have said, the MakerBot kurled wheel is one of the best. You
have the same hotend as my Replicator-1 which does work fine. You
might have a failing thermocouple being masked by crap firmware. It's
a hardware and software problem so replace both.

[Bill Chapman]

Well,  I agree in theory about not replacing the entire hot end  but I've already replaced the makerbot cross bar assembly in mine once and am still having issues. I'm hoping the upgraded drive block does the trick but I didn't have another printer to print the parts with so I'm waiting for the makerbot one to arrive. I was going to order the qubd extruder for the TOM we have in the office so that I don't get stuck without a printer for this long again.  My experience so far with QU-BD has been that they ship faster and have parts more readily available so it would be nice to know I can use more of their stuff. 

[Shawn]

I have one of the original dual kits from the QU-BD kickstarter last
year. I've only assembled one extruder at the moment and have it
sitting on my RepRap2. But not extruding. The motor does not behave
well with the settings for the original extruder motor. So eventually
I'll have to reprogram the Arduino Mega with the right numbers for this
motor. I'm using one of these for mounting it -
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:45308.

As for the rest, the MBI extruders seem to "just work" in comparison to
the QU-BD extruders. But that could be a simple reflection of the fact
that I assembled the QU-BD whereas the MBI extruders were pre-assembled.
(in other words, I may have messed up...)

My thoughts.