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Hello! I hope you all are having a good day!

I was wondering what your thoughts were and if you could help me choose what I need for the project I am trying to accomplish.

I am wanting to turn my old Monoprice Maker Select V2 into the ultimate flexible filament printing machine. It is a rebranded Wanhao Duplicator i3 and many parts from the CR-10 fit on it.

With that said, the printer is a 12v system and I don't know if upgrading to 24v is worth it. I don't care if it is loud or takes a while to heat up, because it is in a different room and flexible filament usually doesn't require high temperatures. Also, 24v hotends seem to be more expensive and my budget is around $300 dollars.

I would like to add klipper firmware so I can have remote monitoring and network printing. I have done some research and according to people online, the stock control board cannot be flashed with custom firmware because it is locked down. So I am guessing I would have to upgrade the board, but I don't know which one to choose. Also, if I change the board will I have to change all the motors out? Plus, if I have to replace all the electronics, should I just upgrade to a 24v system?

I am new to modifying 3D printers, but I fix and repair electronics all the time. Also, I am not afraid to make custom parts to make things work, but I would prefer things to be as close to plug and play as possible.

Now let's talk extruder/hotend. The Maker Select V2 did come with a direct drive extruder (which is why I got it, and that it had dual z-axis motors) but it has some short comings when it comes to flexibles. Printing flexibles over 5mm/s causes filament to come out of the side of the extruder and to many retractions causes the nozzle to clog. Plus, I experience these things with standard 95A TPU. I would like to be able to print down 70 or 60A. So, do you have any recommendations on which extruder/hotend I should get? I have looked at the Revo series from E3D and the Micro Swiss NG™ REVO, but I don’t know which is the best option for what I am trying to do.

Like I said before my budget is $300 dollars and I have no idea if that is enough. I would like this thing to print TPU reliably and faster than 5mm/s ;). I am open to all ideas and products (but not open to buying a new printer). Please let me know what you think!

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black text is unreadable in dark mode.

The Declaration of Independence, once the charter of democracy, begins by saying that certain things are self-evident. If we were to trace the history of the American mind from Thomas Jefferson to William James, we should find that fewer and fewer things were self-evident, until at last hardly anything is self-evident. (G. K. Chesterton - Aug. 14 1926 (The Illustrated London News))

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please edit your OP and remove the formatting, the big lettering just takes up space, and you've formatted it black which makes it difficult to read for dark mode users.

 

having that said, there's 2 things that are important for flexible printing:

- all flexible fillaments i'm aware of are quite high heat, so you need a hotend that can handle that temperature (hotends with ptfe tend to be on the edge at best)

- you need as little distance between the feed drive and nozzle as possible. in short this means no bowden drive printers, and no huge heatbreaks.

 

note that i say temperature, not heating power. if your printer cant sustain printing at full speed at a higher temperature, you just slow it down.

 

i've got a wanhao i3 plus, and i've printed flexible fillaments with it without issue. that said, i have made a few changes over the years that have helped a lot with higher heat plastics in general.

- it sits in an enclosure that helps keep temperature more constant, and filters out fumes because flexible fillaments tend to smell like death.

- full metal hotend, which is defenately a choice.. there's some interesting downsides to printing with full metal when it comes to thermodynamics.

- i've replaced the original feed drive with bondtech gears and a 3D printed lever clamp that bites the fillament HARD. if i have a clog, i can hear the skipping from the other room.

- bonus point of the above is that i designed it so the feed gears are right above the heatbrake. 

- improved part cooling, because wanhao's original option on the i3 plus is a joke.

- i print on a sheet of glass, which is then treated with appropriate methods to make plastics stick.

- there's a raspberry pi tucked into an empty corner of the frame running octoprint for remote access. i also added a relay that lets me turn the printer on and off remotely trough octoprint as well.

EDIT: oh, and i forgot.. i added kapton to the wires for the thermistor, because while the thermistor works up to 300°c, it's insulation very much did not.

 

some details i'd like to add as well.. it makes no sense to convert your printer from 12v to 24v. you're basicly replacing everything but the frame and the motors, at which point you may as well just buy a new printer.. which, i'd like to add, you can get a pretty competent printer for $300 these days.

it's what's holding me back from upgrading my printer beyond where i have it now, because all the affordable stuff is done, and bigger investments just dont make sense.

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5 hours ago, manikyath said:

please edit your OP and remove the formatting, the big lettering just takes up space, and you've formatted it black which makes it difficult to read for dark mode users.

 

having that said, there's 2 things that are important for flexible printing:

- all flexible fillaments i'm aware of are quite high heat, so you need a hotend that can handle that temperature (hotends with ptfe tend to be on the edge at best)

- you need as little distance between the feed drive and nozzle as possible. in short this means no bowden drive printers, and no huge heatbreaks.

 

note that i say temperature, not heating power. if your printer cant sustain printing at full speed at a higher temperature, you just slow it down.

 

i've got a wanhao i3 plus, and i've printed flexible fillaments with it without issue. that said, i have made a few changes over the years that have helped a lot with higher heat plastics in general.

- it sits in an enclosure that helps keep temperature more constant, and filters out fumes because flexible fillaments tend to smell like death.

- full metal hotend, which is defenately a choice.. there's some interesting downsides to printing with full metal when it comes to thermodynamics.

- i've replaced the original feed drive with bondtech gears and a 3D printed lever clamp that bites the fillament HARD. if i have a clog, i can hear the skipping from the other room.

- bonus point of the above is that i designed it so the feed gears are right above the heatbrake. 

- improved part cooling, because wanhao's original option on the i3 plus is a joke.

- i print on a sheet of glass, which is then treated with appropriate methods to make plastics stick.

- there's a raspberry pi tucked into an empty corner of the frame running octoprint for remote access. i also added a relay that lets me turn the printer on and off remotely trough octoprint as well.

EDIT: oh, and i forgot.. i added kapton to the wires for the thermistor, because while the thermistor works up to 300°c, it's insulation very much did not.

 

some details i'd like to add as well.. it makes no sense to convert your printer from 12v to 24v. you're basicly replacing everything but the frame and the motors, at which point you may as well just buy a new printer.. which, i'd like to add, you can get a pretty competent printer for $300 these days.

it's what's holding me back from upgrading my printer beyond where i have it now, because all the affordable stuff is done, and bigger investments just dont make sense.

Thank you for the reply, I will fix the formatting! Thanks for letting me know. So use are using a raspberry pie to remotely monitor your printer? And you are using the relay to turn the printer off if you detect a problem. Am I reading that correctly? I see that it isn't worth switching to a 24v system. I am also wondering if all stepper motors connect the same way or if they have different numbers of wires and/or plugs. Also will the drivers on the stock board be able to power the higher torque extruder motor? I don't know. I did find an extruder that claims to be designed for flexible filament. It is called the DropEffect OmniaDrop V3. Also, a youtuber designed an extruder called the proper extruder. He used a SLA printer to make it and I don't have one of those and I don't know if FDM would be strong or precise enough. What do you guys think of those options?

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3 hours ago, Unstoppable_RTR said:

And you are using the relay to turn the printer off if you detect a problem. Am I reading that correctly?

nah, it's just a remote on-off switch so i dont have to walk over to it to turn it on.

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4 hours ago, Unstoppable_RTR said:

Oh okay.

 

Does anyone know what a good main board would be that runs klipper?

dont bother with tossing that kind of money in an old $300 chassis.

unless you're also planning to replace all the bearings and wear surfaces....

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If you want to add remote management add a Pi with Octroprint, don't replace the whole mainboard...

 

But yeah you're going to end up spending more money and plenty of time than by getting a modern printer that is new, has built-in management, does TPU and that will print everything else better out of the box.

 

Unless the tinkering is the whole point and you're fine with getting less value for your investment of course.

F@H
Desktop: i9-13900K, ASUS Z790-E, 64GB DDR5-6000 CL36, RTX3080, 2TB MP600 Pro XT, 2TB SX8200Pro, 2x16TB Ironwolf RAID0, Corsair HX1200, Antec Vortex 360 AIO, Thermaltake Versa H25 TG, Samsung 4K curved 49" TV, 23" secondary, Mountain Everest Max

Mobile SFF rig: i9-9900K, Noctua NH-L9i, Asrock Z390 Phantom ITX-AC, 32GB, GTX1070, 2x1TB SX8200Pro RAID0, 2x5TB 2.5" HDD RAID0, Athena 500W Flex (Noctua fan), Custom 4.7l 3D printed case

 

Asus Zenbook UM325UA, Ryzen 7 5700u, 16GB, 1TB, OLED

 

GPD Win 2

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Thank you everyone for your assistance. The problem I see with getting a new printer is that there aren't any new printers available that are made specifically to print flexibles (in my price range). So, I would still end up needing to buy a new extruder. Unless there are new printers specifically made to print flexibles? I understand putting money into a 9 year old machine isn't the best idea, but I don't see a cheaper way to do it. If I buy a new printer for $300 then buy a $100 extruder, I am in $400 without tax.

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Basically anything current with a direct drive extruder can print TPU even if it's not specifically mentioned, it's a standard capability these days and not something you need "made specifically for it".

For example a Bambu A1 mini is $200, an A1 $340, with occasionally some sales on top of that 

F@H
Desktop: i9-13900K, ASUS Z790-E, 64GB DDR5-6000 CL36, RTX3080, 2TB MP600 Pro XT, 2TB SX8200Pro, 2x16TB Ironwolf RAID0, Corsair HX1200, Antec Vortex 360 AIO, Thermaltake Versa H25 TG, Samsung 4K curved 49" TV, 23" secondary, Mountain Everest Max

Mobile SFF rig: i9-9900K, Noctua NH-L9i, Asrock Z390 Phantom ITX-AC, 32GB, GTX1070, 2x1TB SX8200Pro RAID0, 2x5TB 2.5" HDD RAID0, Athena 500W Flex (Noctua fan), Custom 4.7l 3D printed case

 

Asus Zenbook UM325UA, Ryzen 7 5700u, 16GB, 1TB, OLED

 

GPD Win 2

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20 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Basically anything current with a direct drive extruder can print TPU even if it's not specifically mentioned, it's a standard capability these days and not something you need "made specifically for it".

For example a Bambu A1 mini is $200, an A1 $340, with occasionally some sales on top of that 

Is that printer able to print 60A TPU though? I am wanting to print those very flexible fillaments without baby sitting it 24-7.

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Should have no problem with that. Maybe look up if people specifically tried 60A, that's not exactly common.

F@H
Desktop: i9-13900K, ASUS Z790-E, 64GB DDR5-6000 CL36, RTX3080, 2TB MP600 Pro XT, 2TB SX8200Pro, 2x16TB Ironwolf RAID0, Corsair HX1200, Antec Vortex 360 AIO, Thermaltake Versa H25 TG, Samsung 4K curved 49" TV, 23" secondary, Mountain Everest Max

Mobile SFF rig: i9-9900K, Noctua NH-L9i, Asrock Z390 Phantom ITX-AC, 32GB, GTX1070, 2x1TB SX8200Pro RAID0, 2x5TB 2.5" HDD RAID0, Athena 500W Flex (Noctua fan), Custom 4.7l 3D printed case

 

Asus Zenbook UM325UA, Ryzen 7 5700u, 16GB, 1TB, OLED

 

GPD Win 2

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