Wanhao Extruder Plate for Flexible Filament

thingiverse

In my attempts to get NinjaFlex to work on my Wanhao Duplicator i3, I set out to install JetGuy's recommended Extruder Gear Mod, which involves replacing the stock MK10 extruder drive gear and drilling a hole into the extruder plate to allow for a short PTFE guide tube to be inserted. I don't have a drill on hand, so instead I took thruit00's extruder plate (specifically DriveBlockBaseRight_V9), opened it up in Tinkercad, and added a 4mm-wide hole for the PTFE tube. I found that other extruder plates with built-in filament guides had 'upper' guides that were too tall - thus getting between the roller and the gear and preventing them from gripping the filament hard enough. The plate says 'D4' but I used this on a Wanhao i3 and guess it will work for any similar extruder. A short length of PTFE (approx 6mm long) will settle right over the hot end, allowing for what should be pain-free extrusion of the noodliest of flexible filaments. Print Settings Rafts: No Supports: Yes Resolution: .2 Infill: 100% Notes: Support needed for that overhang around the hole for the gear.