Has been the holy grail for many printer owners... most printers come with their own custom MK7 or 8 branded partial extruder assemblies. These kits generally have the heat throat that goes from under the extruder frame into the heating block and nozzle.
These extruders are common in most printers... below is a typical MK8 extruder...
I have these connected to universal mounts that allow me to add/remove them from the 2 large CNC printers I have.
Neither print flexible materials... they get jammed or never extrude correctly. Plus neither printer has a heated bed.
Until...
I developed the perfect extruder that I will be packaging and possibly selling on Amazon shortly.
The good news:
- Its a modified MK8 extruder - thus it fits into 90% of the printers out there.
- It can be easily assembled - it has 2 modifications outside the typical MK8
- It is low cost - it is made using existing MK8 parts.
Here are the items I generated:
Extruder Base has a deep enough ridge to catch the flex material and keep it snug while it makes its way into the throat assembly. No clogging.
The extruder tension arm is based off the typical HicTOP model extruder arm
When combined with the typical bearing for pressing against the motor gear, these make a very tight and compressed path that works perfect for the flexible filaments.
Lastly we need the special bottom block used with the HicTop or other extruders that use partial plastic pieces.
With the assembly together using the existing cooling fins, fan and metal protective cage. The unit simply sits back in the printer as the old MK8 did.
Printing flexible items as we speak...
