ANET A8 Direct Feed or Bowden X Carriage for E3D hot end - remix

thingiverse

Greetings Program! I remixed the Anet A8 E3D V6 Direct Mount by pheneeny to better suit my needs. I added a few holes for cable management - use them if you like. I widened some of the smaller holes so I could use other parts with this. I also shaved about a millimeter off each side of the mount (X axis) because of how and where I mounted the bed sensor. Part Cooling Fan holes have a bit of slop in them, so you can tweak the fan around a bit if you need to - not every OEM makes the fans exactly the same way after all. I widened holes to use the Anet A8 X Belt holder and tensionner by Miranina (cuz I like it): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2425783 This is made just like the original for E3D V6 and V6Lite, and Clones. I suggest you test assemble everything to the carriage before mounting it to the printer - that way you'll know exactly how you need to adjust and fit everything before you attach it to the X Axis bearings and have limited mobility and access after that. I used a couple M4 bolts on the clamp for the original part, no nuts or anything, and it tightened up just fine. I reprinted it after modifying it and discovered that the M4 bolts no longer bit into the plastic as well as the first time, so I modified the part to slot in a couple small thin strips of plastic in those clamp holes. The M4 bolts should be a lot more snug that way (worked for me at least). Again, test fit everything before you mount it to the printer. I added a circular fan duct I whipped up from a multitude of designs. Honestly, I don't know who to attribute that one to at this point as I've gone through eleven different iterations of the thing, but the V7 of that duct seems to work well for me. Included V6 as it is just a bit longer in the X Axis when mounted in case someone needs it that way for some reason. I added a mount on the side for the ANET inductive sensor. I've been having lots of trouble finding mounts with options that include this one as folks favor the other round inductive sensors or the BLTouch probe instead. The ANET sensor works fine for me, so no reason to buy yet another sensor. The offset for this sensor mount should be about 31 or 32mm for the X axis, and probably 13mm for the Y axis. Again, assemble this by hand OFF THE MACHINE first to make sure everything fits, and you can measure it at that point as well (can be hard to do after it is mounted). If you mount the sensor about 2.5 or 3mm down from the top of the slots (or so that the bottom of the sensor is about even with the bottom of the heat block on the nozzle), your Z offset should be between 1mm and 1.5mm. My advice for that is start at 1mm regardless, and work your way up to the offset you actually need for your machine. Also, on my A8 the X axis and Y axis are reversed, so I've started calling this one Yellowjacket since it's black and yellow, and it can really 'sting' the wallet when it breaks down. The V7 fan duct is slightly different from the V6 - the center of the fan ring is closer to the attachment point by a couple millimeters. Either should work honestly, but you use whichever works for you. I also widened the hole in the top of the carriage for the filament feed slightly. This allows for a pretty easy fit for the old A8 heat break tube on the stock extruder. So I use that heat break, along with some longer PTFE on my V6Lite, to create a closed direct feed between the extruder gear and nozzle tip (the heat break and PTFE are just snugged up together, they aren't actually attached). I added a nut on there to snug it all down, and an extra M4 short screw and washer along with that holds the extruder and stepper nice and snug. You can just see this in the top of the pictures. I had just finished printing and attaching the V7 fan duct when I took that pic, so I know the whole thing works. However, the picture shows an earlier rendition of the carriage. I moved the inductive sensor mount to the right a couple millimeters, and did an angled cut-out on the right side support to make way for the wire on the sensor, and I posted that version for the download. One of these days I order up more yellow PLA and reprint mine using this updated version - every add-on I do on this machine is in yellow, so I've started calling this one Yellowjacket since it's black and yellow, and it can really 'sting' the wallet when it breaks down.