Bowden vs Direct Feed Extruder?

I have had pretty good success with bowden as well -- definitely better than my wade's. Here's my setup for anyone interested:

200 step Nema 17 (76.4 oz in kysan)
1.67 gear ratio
7mm diameter hobbed bolt
8x microstepping
100 mm/s retraction
Kisslicer
J-head
1.75mm filament
2mm ID MFA tube
1/8" NPT push fits

I have gone Bowden with my OrdBot. I have a standard 1.75mm jhead with Wade extruder mounted on the top of the frame. Bowden tube is only about 300mm. Reason for going Bowden was because I wanted to increase printing speed to shorten print times and also I want to go multicolour. I figured lightening the x carriage load was neccessary for getting the speed up.
I have found the settings are more critical for Bowden. Seems less forgiving than direct. Just a personal opinion with no scientific basis.

I have tired both and i honestly believe they have their own pros and cons...

you just need to decide what will suit your needs..

I found with bowden, nylon and any softer filaments are a bit of a pita, even @ 3mm
-Retraction needed more tunning and sometimes id get a jam because of having retraction up more.
It was probably my setup but i did notice alot of hysteria with the bowden setup.
I only ever really went upto 100mms on my printer and the quality was getting affected


Direct drive
I person prefer it, less retraction is needed..
Seems to have more force into the hotend.
I still print at the same speed as i would a bowden...

But yeah there is more mass.. but for my purpose, it doesnt matter.. I don't get ghosting either...

I have a feeling a really nicely tuned bowden system to work pretty damm awesome.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2014 07:09PM by nechaus.

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Sublime

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MrDoctorDIV
This has me rethinking my entire thought of direct vs bowden..
So there is [again, in your humble opinion] no real reason to go direct?

If you plan on printing with the new soft materials coming out then direct would be a benefit. But you then need to be satisfied with the ghosting effect left from the heavy carriage oscillating.

Picture of extreme ripples by jbernardis

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I still get this with my Bowden only now the print is way smoother so the ripples stand out even more. I had read that is not a product of the extruder but a product of a bounce effect on X and/or Y and in my case (I3 Rework) I am getting it on Y.

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