Anet A8 extruder access mod (preserving Heatsink)

thingiverse

We all know the problem: a slightly curved piece of filament refuses to pass through the extruder and into the heating block. So far, our only two options have been: poking around until we finally hit it (a rather hopeless approach) or disassembling the entire extruder and solving the problem by hand. The second option has always bothered me, which is why I designed this modification to provide easy access to the filament. The idea is that if we need access to the extruder, we simply flip the fan and heatsink out of the way and can easily reach everything. All approaches I've seen so far have a problem: either the heatsink is removed (in my experience, this leads to dusty filament) or the heatsink fan combination hasn't been properly secured to the extruder. In my design, the heatsink fan combination is primarily held in place by gravity and secured with a few turns of a screw. Due to the interference fit with the lower screw, the hinge cannot move away from the extruder. Before making this modification, you will need: 2x Screw M3x25 flathead (or longer), 2x M3 Nuts (I used winged nuts), 2x Screw M3x20 flathead (used to attach the bottom of the extruder to the motor), 1x Screw M4x10 (or longer, used for the bottom resting point of the hinge), and 1x original M4 screw that connects the slider and Printhead-holder.