As I mentioned last time during testing I found my water cooling system for my 3D printer was way too efficient. I've been thinking about what tweaks I might need to make to improve its functionality and today sat down to work out the details.

The biggest change I have made has been to the amount of water interacting with the aluminum heat sink. Before I had several fins that water flowed around, this time I've only got one channel for the water to flow around. I have also decided to reduce the hose size that feeds the heat sink from .25 inch ID to .125 ID. Originally I had planned to use .125 or 1/8th inch ID hose but decided to ditch the idea since it wasn't as readily available as other sizes. Also the hose adapters to go from 5/16" to 1/8" didn’t exist but that’s not a problem really because I can make my own. I have also decided to try to route the hoses up rather than straight out from the heat sink. I found before the hoses had a tendency to droop below the print nozzle as the print head moved up. This could catch on tall prints and cause major problems.

In terms of design I decided to try something new and designed in a small support block under the input/output of the water jacket. Typically the printer will just put support material under those areas but it often leads to parts that don’t look good and are distorted to some degree. The support blocks give the areas to be printed a solid support structure which yields less drooping and better quality. There is enough of a gap that the block is easily removed.

Time to make some parts and do some testing!