Making our own replacement parts

#1

In light of the fact that zeepro seems to be going bottom up, im starting to look at the prospect of making my own replacement parts.

For those who don’t know i work in manufacturing, specializing in small parts.

I’ve gone ahead and reverse engineered the extrude and all the parts could be made by the company i work for.

I’ll go ahead and see about getting a quote for making replacement extruders. Ill go ahead and make the plans for the extruders available to everybody.

The designs are very simple nothing to fancy really, if you have any manual lathe and mill equipment you could make it yourself almost.

I know not everybody has access to it so i’l see what it would cost to get the extruders made. I’ll look into the heater blocks next.

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3 Likes
#2

You rock! I was really hoping someone with the knowledge would step up and do something like this.

#3

Hi Tookys, I’m really interesting in this topics. I asked many times to zeepro to publish all materials as open source in order to help many customers.
for the nozzle do you really be able to create it?

thank you
Roberto

#4

I think so, on the extruders at least we make parts like these all day long.

(The company i work for, typically only do orders for 10,000+ parts but they take smaller orders too)

I asked my sales manager a moment ago, as a completely rough ball park estimate he says it’d be a cost of approx~ $8,000 to produce 1,000 extruders. (after taxes and all that fun stuff)

I’ll post the designs up here when i finalize them,

If there is enough interest, i can go ahead and submit a formal quote to my boss, to see about getting them made.

(that estimate was without assembly, its simple enouh to assemble yourself though)

#5

count on me for this.
maybe we can organize a kickstarter campaign for this :smiley:
thank you !
Roberto

#6

yeah i was thinking about that,

I’ve had bad experience with kickstarter, but it may be the best way for us to get this taken care of.

Might try and combine it with the heater blocks and build plates. (I would actually plan to make the replacement build plates using a aluminum plate)(aluminum doesn’t shatter if dropped)

#7

Very cool tookys, I’d back this effort. Another option might be to redesign the heater block such that it accepts a more standard reprap nozzle and nozzle throat. That PEEK tube Zeepro used looks like it may be special size, I have not been able to locate any short of buying bulk. It does not appear to be turned on a lathe or drilled though, more like extruded tube. One of the more standard thread nozzle throats might fit into the head heatsink though.

#8

Good stuff, I am in if the printer start working!

#9

Dont forget if the worst happened we need to connect zim to pc (uSB or whatever). When they shut down their server there goes cloud slicing and we are back into
Medieval age…
As for spares if we want to change things i would suggest the heated blocks so that they are compatible with cubify or printerbot nozzles…at least that will keep ua on the safe side for nozzles…

#10

I think its great that we are already moving past zeepro and taking control of things. I would definitely contribute when it came time to get things manufactured.

#11

Ok Guys :smile:

I need nozzles and it is impossible to get. So I will have to make my owns ! :unamused:

I found a factory that can manufacture me parts exactly same as the Genuine nozzles.

I am discussing the price with the manufacturer get the nozzles fully assembled

Now the price will be directly impacted but the quantities ordered.

For 100 nozzles we could have a unit price at 15 € without shipment the parts would made and shipped from France.

Who would be interested ? Can we match minimum 100 units or not ?

1 Like
#12

The idea is great and I am in need of replacements as well.
But 15€ for one nozzle plus shipping costs? Way too expensive. For the price of two nozzles I can buy a whole new extruder with standard nozzles.

Replacement parts
#13

Okay. I am still working on the price. It would be manufactured in France so way too expensive. I will try to see in China directly.

#14

Ok Guys

After some search I got the link to the small CNC manufacturer that made some parts for Zeepro.

He still have the schematics and can product the parts we need.

We can get a set of 2 nozzle + shipping at 25$

The CNC can also manufacture all the Heat parts (PEEK and Aluminum) and some other parts of the Zim. He can manufacture on demand.

A interesting information is that this guy has the schematics of a upgraded Heater block designed to avoid the Fan duct melting. the cost of the raw Heater block is 17 $ pls shipping.

#15

Wow, great effort and result Nightmare. Thanks.

That all sounds very promising, except for the price tag.
The price for the 2 nozzles plus shipping plus VAT plus customs is the same or more than the first offer from france. So much for cheaper in China :frowning:
No wonder Zeepro went bottoms up with these prices :wink:

Any more details on the upgraded Heater Block design? With the easy heat shield from Jpod and me, warping is no more and the replacement with ABS works fine. But airflow and cooling effectiveness needs an upgrade.

#16

the parts would be shipped in envelope by China post. so the price of 2 nozzles delivered is 25$. this get the price of 1 nozzle at 12.5$ including the delivery
France part was 15€. without shipping and the part was not assembled.
Honnestly I dont know what price you are looking for.

It is a specific manufacturing with a very low volume. The Nozzle is a 4 part assembly and a specific tool is needed to assemble. (attached image)
I am pretty sure that we could get a better price on a large scale order.

Now to be honnest. I prefer continue this kind of nozzles and heater blocs than using the modified ones. I am happy with their results and dont want to change all the system jus for few $ saving.

AND the cost of 43 US$ for a modified heater block is MORE than expensive. The heater block cost in China is 17 $ for a ridiculous amount of parts.
For me 43$ pays 4 zeepro genuine nozzles :smile:

Now I have already ordered my parts. I have paid even more than the price annouced and I will get my “genuine” parts.
Never mind If you don’t have any interest. I’ve got mines.
If other have any interest Please contact me

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1 Like
#17

There seems to be a misconception. I understood wrong that there would be additional shipping fees. And I furthermore did not know it was the whole set of pieces and not just the bottom brass nozzle part.
You paid 25$ for two nozzles including shipping.
But you forgot to add your 21% VAT and 30% customs that you will have to pay on delivery in France to customs.
That is at least what I always had to pay for anything from out of Europe so far. And I order a lot from USA and Hongkong.
But please post what you had to pay when it arrived.

I am still interested and in need of replacement nozzles and as stated would also like to stick with the Zeepro parts.
But with a high price on these parts its a tough decision if its not the time to change to a standard extruder and save money in the long run.

There has been no other reply yet, so it seems we are the only interested ones. I guess I will have to dig deeper in my pocket and just buy 4 pieces.

But please elaborate on the updated heater block.

#18

Maybe we could spike interest with other nozzle diameters.
Has anyone thought about using 0.2mm for details or 0.5mm for quick big parts nozzles diameters?
Or would there be problems?

#19

These parts will be shipped using china mail. I often purchase parts in china without having to pay VAT or Customs.
By the way the customs for 3D printer are 1.7% and not 30%. I suppose that when you order you request to be delivered by a premium forwarder UPS DHL Fedex. this is why you have all these costs.

As you are French. I will get the goods and post them to you from France like that you want have any overcost.

Changing the nozzle size ? 0.2 is not reasonable but 0.5 or more ? why not. But actually we will run a very small volume so it will be impossible to ask the CNC such modifications.

You can decide to drill the nozzle :slight_smile: If you want I can deliver the nozzle non assembled but in this case you will need to purchase the nut tool. Your reply will be that this tool is fuc…. expensive and you’re right 20$ the tool but it makes sense for you. It could let you change the nozzle output diameter and modify the volume of the melt zone. the actual size is 2mm and I know that some test have been done with 2.5mm melt zone just before they shut down.

Now the modified Heater block is the same part with rounded corners. the Fan duct is melting because at this location the heater block is really near.

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I dont know why the CNC cost is 20$ I am discussing to lower this price to a more reasonnable level. I suppose that is is due to the small ordering volume. The heater block raw (No heat cartridge no Thermistor) but these parts are easy to source :smile:

2 Likes
#20

Strange. As I said I order quite a lot from USA and Hongkong and always had to pay the mentioned 21% plus 30%. I guess its always the same rate because of always being electronic stuff. I had mostly USPS and DHL but also China mail or maybe some other Asian Mail service. I even tried german customs and france customs. But it did not make a big difference in the end, except for speed. German customs are faster.
Maybe with non electronic parts its different somehow? But that you dont even have to pay VAT…cannot believe that.
Be it as it may. I need those nozzles, hoping it will solve my outer surface problems.
You can count me in for 4 nozzles completely assembled for 50$ with no additional VAT or customs :smile:

The idea with different nozzles comes from the Robox Cel from CES 2016. The idea with dual extruder with different nozzle diameters and a physical shut of the nozzle (and not only stop extruder) while not in use, so no oozing, I found very attractive. So they use 0.2mm for small details on the one nozzle and 0.5mm for the rest. Or other combinations. The prints I have seen look very good. And often I wish I could do more detailed things. But I do not know the possible many problems with such small nozzle diameters or if the Zim could even do that at all.