How much plastic is extruded for a given print ? (part 1)
By anar on 01/02/2011, 11:48 - Permalink
Skeinforge's Statistic module gives information on how much plastic should be used.
It's just an estimate.
But how good is Skeinforge in this cost estimate ?
Let's try to find out...
OK now how am I going to do that ?
I must be able to measure the total real filament length that has been used.
So I must find a way to place a small counter somewhere that could give me a number.
Then by measuring the real length of filament I should be able to know what is the correspondance between my counter's indication and the filament lenght.
Easy to say...
Now what could I find in my now famous gar(b)age ?
Well I have several things that could be used...
A bicycle counter or a small 3 digits counter like the ones that are inside of old tape recorders.
I have choose to try the tape recorder solution as I have at least 5 or 6 of them and that I know nobody still interested in using those.
I choose to open the less prestigious brand/model which is a Philips F6222.
And that really was a good choice indeed !
The small counter is not just easy to access and take off but when I try to find a place for it, it fits perfectly just next to the extruder motor (on left side). And even better, the lenght of the axix holding the wheel to rotate it is the exact lenght needed !
I couldn't have found better I think...
So here it is now mounted next to the extruder motor.
An extra wheel is placed on the motor axis and a small belt (from same tape recorder) is added between it and the counter.
Now it's time to try it out... (part 2)