Voxelab Aquila Nozzle Brush

thingiverse

The Voxelab Aquila has a really annoying ooze at the start of a print that I was trying to catch with tweezers each time - got fed up of that so set out to try and make a "hit print and leave" approach. Best ways I found were to brush the nozzle and have a side purge line. Here is how to. This is for the original Voxelab Aquila, might work on other releases but untested. It is relatively fool proof, but it is always good to monitor first lay of prints anyway! You need one of the cheap brass wire brushes like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B084KMB1SP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details Cut off the head and clean up (I removed a bit of material from the back side of the head as it was a little convex, this could effect the Z height in the start GCODE). This must be places on the Rear Right of the bed - this is the only place I could fine where the Aquila has sufficient out of bounds travel to clean the nozzle. I really wanted it to be on the X-axis, but could not find a way without modifying the bracing on the right hand side. There are a couple of ways to implement the Nozzle cleaning, you can alter you Marlin firmware to implement the G12 command - but I have problems with my main board and it will not flash any recently compiled firmware, which brings me onto a more simple work around below: BEFORE YOU USE THIS CODE!!! NOTE THAT IT TURNS OFF THE SOFTWARE ENDSTOPS WHICH OPENS UP THE POSSIBILITY OF FOULING YOUR PRINTER IF MOVING TOO FAR! BE CAREFUL, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CHECK THE LIMITS ON YOUR PRINTER AND MAKE SURE YOU HAPPY TO GO AHEAD! After the Nozzle clean is done, it turns back on the software endstops. This is the full start Gcode I use (in Cura > Settings>Printer>Manage Printer>Machine Settings>Start G-code, adapt as you wish and check the coords in Nozzle Clean section for out of bounds moves (you might need to tune your Z value when cleaning to get the correct nozzle depth into the brush: ; START GCODE ; ----- HOME ----- M300 S440 P200 ;Tone to indicate start G28 ;Home ; ----- BED LEVEL ----- ;G29 ;Level, uncomment if level every print ;M500 ;Save values, uncomment if level every print M501 ;recall saved probe data M420 S1 ;Use bed level values G1 Z15.0 F6000 ;Move the platform down 15mm ; ----- PRIME EXTRUDER ----- G92 E0 ;reset extruder G1 F200 E3 ;extrude 3mm G92 E0 ;reset extruder ; ----- NOZZLE BRUSH ----- G1 Z13 F2000 ;bin height M211 S0 ;!WARNING! TURN OFF SOFTWARE ENDSTOPS !WARNING! G1 X220 Y237 F2000 ;Move to wipe bin G1 Z5.3 ;Move Nozzle down to wipe height G1 X165 ;Brush Nozzle G1 Y220 Z7 ;Go back in bounds M211 S1 ;!SAFE AGAIN! TURN OFF SOFTWARE ENDSTOPS !SAFE AGAIN! ; ----- PURGE LINE ----- ; With purge line and brush, no need for skirt G1 X0.1 Y20 Z0.3 F5000 ;Move to Purge Start position G1 Y100 F1500.0 E9 ; Draw the first line G1 X0.4 F5000.0 ; Move to side a little G1 Y20 F1500.0 E17 ; Draw the second line G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed G1 X5 F5000.0 ; Move over to prevent poop squish ; ------ GOOD TO GO BOSS ------ Enjoy! If you have success using this for any other printers, drop a note in the comments so other know too.