Makerfarm i3v Greg's Accessible Extruder as bowden

thingiverse

I had a nasty surprise waiting for me, as the last piece of filament fell into the X belt and almost singed my motor. As a result, I decided to convert my Prusa i3v to a Bowden configuration. I went to eBay and ordered a teflon tube and some fittings, which came in at a standard 1/8" size that doesn't match my hexagon hotend's dimensions. So, I whipped up a few simple conversion pieces on my printer, and voila - everything works almost the same as before, except now I need to adjust the distance for refraction to 4.5mm instead of 1.5mm. Next up, I plan on adding a filament end sensor so that when my spool runs out next time, it will be safer to know exactly what's happening. It ended up costing me about $10 and four hours to print out the tube fittings, M4 bolts, and plastic clamps - all told, a pretty worthwhile investment for added peace of mind and reduced wear on my motor.