Extruder Block Top Plate Enhanced Upgrade for Dual Extrusion

thingiverse

This design (based on user toreg's original design) enables consistent filament feeding by creating enough room for both extruders to use the "Minimalistic MK8 Upgrade" by user emmett in tandem with my "Spring Enhancer / Spring Compressor". The original plate that ships with the Replicator Dual is a little too wide, which obstructs the range of motion of the Minimalistic MK8 Upgrade arms. I simply added tube holders to toreg's original design. Then, I plucked out the little grey cylinder things from the original plate that came with the replicator, and inserted them into this new "Replicator Extruder Block Top Plate Enhanced." I like those grey things because they allow the filament tubes to swivel as the extruder block moves around during printing. NOTE: I recommend you also print this cable/wire manager pole to relieve tension from all the wires going to your extruder block: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:607733 DUAL EXTRUSION SUCCESS: I used the "cone" and "pendant" examples from MakerBot Desktop to test dual extrusion. It worked!! The pendant came out perfectly. You'll notice the cone is a little messy, and that's because I purposely put it sideways on the build plate (a non-optimal orientation) to test color-matching rafts and supports. The picture with the cone on the build plate looks extra messy, but in fact it turned out pretty decently as you can see from the final result. Instructions Print as-is with no rafts or supports. The STL is purposely upside down because otherwise there would be an overhang. After printing, pluck out the grey cylinder things that sit inside the filament tube holes from the original extruder top plate that came with your Replicator, and insert those into this new replacement piece. FYI, print settings I used: MakerBot Desktop PLA LOW Resolution settings: 0.3mm Layer Height 10% Infill NOTE: It may seem odd to you that the tube holder for the left and right extruders are not the same distance apart from the center. However, this was on purpose. I measured where the tube holders would best align with the Minimalistic MK8 Upgrade's tube holes. I'm not sure if this varies from Replicator to Replicator. For me, I found that: The left extruder's filament hole is about 1.65cm to the left of the center screws. The right extruder's filament hole is about 1.4cm to the right of the center screws. UPDATE: My right extruder still had a random jam, so I added this filament duster and added a few drops of safflower oil onto the spongy material.