[EL34]

Got a test gear cut on the CNC. I cut it right on the shaft of the A axis motor.
I set the A axis motor to angular in mach 3 and tuned the motor so that Gcode A1 equaled one complete revolution of the motor.

The hard part was figuring how far away each cut should be so that you get a nice pointy gear profile.
I used a V cutter and cut grooves every .05 on the A axis
The v cutter tip was only .03" wide and I cut the grooves at .05" deep
I am basically engraving a short line at top dead center, then rotating th4 axis .05" and then cut another short line until I have gone all the way around the cylinder
I set this up into a loop on Mach 3 and it completed on it's own
I just clamped the A axis motor into a vise to get it nice and solid

I need to cut another gear and put the teeth slightly closer together to get sharper ridges
But the first test was good and it was very difficult to get the filament to slip.

You can see the gear in the image below
I also shot a quickie movie of the extruder pushing filament

Here's a link to the Youtube movie
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWvxSvhAsw0]First text of 3D printer Extruder moving 1.75mm PLA filament - YouTube[/ame]

[EL34]

Got alot done this week

Cut a new extruder gear profile that is curved and grabs the filament way better (see pics)

Made two extruder tips from scratch and drilled the tips with a miniscule 1/64th inch drill bit

Did my first hot extrusion test yesterday.

I am still waiting on my temperature control board to arrive.

The 40 watt tip heater gets so hot that it boils the plastic and then it spurts out the end, but I did get some solid extusion before the tip got way too hot.

I won't be able to do a proper test until I can control the tip temperature
The temp control unit should be here next week