hey there, thanks thanks 
@s2019 heated hopper, that’s on my list :-), the offers on the internet are just a little insane expensive (heated transfer hoses) so i have to come up with something DIY. Machining something to support cartridge heaters heatwires is a a little out of the window but or to keep the required motor power down I always turned the screw myself instead. The motor in the picture is ‘Tausend’, 0.75Kw, 1500 RPM, with a 1:20 reducer. You can buy these here for around 200 Euro. It’s a config I used often. It runs fine without getting too warm between the min. of 30Hz til 60Hz. As always, I opened the gearbox to check the bearing, it’s a ‘6008’ – Z. A little research showed that these can take quite some axial load but I have to wait for user feedback; for now I can just hope this machine won’t fall apart, lol. I better put another angle bracket at the motor. Luckily I know for sure that our screw won’t allow for too much back pressure.
but hell yeah, it’s getting quickly expensive, motor around 200, VFD 100, screw 2–300, heatbands and eletronics another 100 and metal work another 200.
I like the idea that the whole eletronics part has enough space and being kinda isolated and it’s enclosure provides the framework for the components. the very thick metal plate on the top enables the user to update this system for another motor, or an additional thrust-bearing. I hope I can integrate a more specialized gearbox into the housing (second/top layer) already and so a user just needs to plug the motor to the system; easier and cheaper to ship …
see you in a bit, still some stuff todo on this design. enclosing the upper layer entirely seems really tempting, heat the the feeder, fume extraction, …