FlexiStruder

thingiverse

I recently began experiencing some issues with my EZstruder on my Kossel Pro after countless hours of printing without incident. Initially, it was just the occasional missed layer or section resulting in scrap prints - quite frustrating. What was happening was that the small ball-bearing would slip sideways off the filament from time to time, causing the feed to stall. Most of my printing is done with the clear cover removed for ease of maintenance. Even with the cover replaced, there was still enough movement allowing the bearing to keep slipping off the filament. It seems the red lever arm was fatiguing and the thin section around the pivot was too thin, resulting in excessive movement. To rectify this issue, I decided to modify the EZstruder Bowden clamp but unfortunately, it proved impossible to drill out a 4mm hole without damaging the thread. Instead, I re-designed it to accommodate the EZstruder aluminium bowden clamp fitting. Although this still prevented the end of the tube from being placed right next to the pinch wheel and hobbed driver, it is a viable alternative for those experiencing similar problems. The final design employs an E3D push-in Bowden clamp. Both versions are direct replacements for the EZstruder despite my having mounted my extruder on one of the uprights. In my opinion, this mod, along with replacing the original tube with a shorter PTFE tube, is one of the most valuable I've made. Files added are STEP files from the original design, which can be imported into your preferred 3D CAD program by simply changing the .txt to .step. Special thanks go to Taylor at MatterHackers for posting the original mod that inspired this creation - thank you, Taylor. Important Tip for Post-Printing When printing the white version, ensure that the PTFE tube is pushed right through the extruder body until it protrudes where the hobbed wheel and bearing will be. Then, trim the excess tube to match the printed part. This enables flexible filament to be used on a Bowden machine as there's nowhere for the filament to bunch up. Designing this Modification I created a more compact version of the extruder using the same parts but changing the back plate design. Recently, Sonny pointed out that the extruder won't fit directly to a stepper due to its requirement for a recess in the back to accommodate the boss on the stepper. An additional file has been added for printing a spacer if needed to attach the extruder directly to the stepper. Spacers were added on 31/10/15.