Tevo Little Monster - Effector PTFE & Cable Strain Relief

thingiverse

Human: Designed for compatibility with the Volcano Fan Duct I created specifically for the TEvo LM\r\nhttps://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2852292\r\n\r\nI engineered this part to address several issues inherent in the Tevo Little Monster floating extruder design, as well as compensate for some engineering oversights from E3D. This component is intended to be used with my previously designed Volcano Fan Duct for the genuine E3D volcano hot end.\r\n\r\nThe item is engineered to absorb strain from PTFE tubing and a floating effector off the effectors Bowden fitting on the Tevo Little Monster, thereby preventing clogging in the E3D volcano hotend. The PTFE tubing is damaged by the subpar fitting that comes with E3D hotends (and cannot be replaced with a decent metal screw) when the delta effector moves around under the floating extruder. The movement not only damages the PTFE tubing, but it also allows the tubing to move up and down inside the hotend regardless of any clip on the Bowden fitting. This causes a jam due to hot filament getting trapped between the gap created between the end of the PTFE tubing and the heatbreak during retractions (inside the hotend), preventing the filament from feeding or retracting. The strain relief prevents this by moving and isolating the motion of the tube up and away from the bowden fitting, also holding the tube down firmly against the bottom of the heatbreak inside the hotend. This works so well you no longer need to use a clip on the fitting if you prefer not to.\r\n\r\nI added a channel and clamp for my wiring to feed in behind the support for the PTFE tubing, making use of the redundant BLtouch holes already in the effector (if you haven't already discarded that subpar BLtouch, it's time to do so). This clamp is designed to be easily removable in case you need to replace the strain relief or remove the electronics from the effector at some point. My soldering skills are professional-grade, so I only needed a small amount of extra space around the shielded cable to make my wire connections in the back of the fitting; you can certainly make the solder connections lower down away from the strain relief if you need more room.\r\n\r\nI have included several sizes for the various PTFE tubing as there is considerable variation in the outside dimensions of the different PTFE tubing being sold, just ensure you print the matching clamp for the size you choose. The Capricorn tubing from filastruder is recommended for the connection between the extruder and hotend (4.2mm size strain relief) due to its strict inner diameter ensuring the best possible constraint of your filament and trouble-free flexible filament printing.\r\n\r\nUPDATE: I have discovered a variance in the BLTouch effector mounting holes between older and newer Tevo Little Monsters (holes are closer to centre of effector on older models), there is no need to actually put bolts through these additional mount points so I haven’t updated the file. I have not utilized the bolts despite having designed them to be used.