E3D Titan Extruder Upgrade for Prusa Steel Igus bearings

thingiverse

I'm building a Prusa Steel v4 3D printer with a 20x30 cm printbed using a Titan extruder from E3D, a short body Nema17 motor and Igus bearings which are very sensitive to compression so they will stick very easily. I used the excellent E3D Titan Extruder Upgrade for Prusa i3 from GyroBot as a base and modified the geometry of the bearing holders to use Igus bearings instead. I employed a 2.3 mm drill and an M3 taps to create the threads. A short body Nema17 motor is being used, resulting in less weight compared to a normal Nema17 motor. The reason for choosing this type of extruder over a bowden type is that I plan to print very soft Filaflex. Update 2016-12-12 I utilize the x-axis parts designed by toolson from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1036871. The initial version was based on Gyrobot's design, and to make it compatible with toolsons' design I had to offset the belts 5mm. I named the new part x_carriage_toolson.stl. The yellow component is compatible with Gyrobots' design while the red part is designed for compatibility with parts from toolson. Update 2016-12-19 A holder for the BLTouch was added. However, please note that its functionality has not been thoroughly tested and any issues should be reported so improvements can be made. It was somewhat challenging due to the Igus bearings needing to be pushed in from the sides, which caused interference with the existing holder design from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1552022. This part is created as two separate objects allowing for easy reconfiguration. It needs to be printed with support and additional parts are required from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1552022 to create a complete unit. Update 2017-01-01 A new version of the BLTouch holder and imu8 bearings has been added. Update 2017-06-21 The fan holder used is from here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1571526 Print Settings Printer: Vertex K8400 Resolution: .2 mm Infill: 20% Notes: Only the version with the BLTouch needs to be printed with support. Post-Printing How to make the Igus bearings fit: If you simply print this part and try to use it, the bearings will likely stick. The key to making it work is to print it in PLA. First mount the bearings and steel rods. Then heat the holder using a heatgun so that it gets slightly warm without melting. This should be enough for the plastic to become soft. It will harden again when it cools down, allowing the bearings to fit properly. To ensure the bearings remain in place and do not slide out of the holder, they must be held by M3 screws and a washer as shown in the pictures.