Combined extruder and x-carriage.

I sometimes have strange ideas which I ponder for a while then dismiss as unusable.
I find it a useful way to think as sometimes exploring crazy avenues leads to something useful.
I was thinking that the extruder could be built into the x-carriage if the hotend were clamped in place from the front.
Thus the hotend could be removed by loosening 2 bolts. It could eliminate some weight and make hotend maintenence easier.
Has anyone done this?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2014 05:36PM by Ralph.Hilton.

Well, it is probably not a smart idea to make something modular, less modular. If your extruder breaks or needs repairs, now, I can just take it off, but if it's integrated in the X-carriage, this means that I have to take off the complete X-carriage?

Besides that, I have seen many good solutions for this already, the 'standard' extruder already has 2 bolts that clip the hotend in place.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2014 06:11PM by Ohmarinus.

I have thought about this too and arrived at the fact that you will essentially have an extruder with LM8s fitted to it.

The Flex3Drive^TM has the hot end sliding in from the front of the housing with a snug firm push fit into the groovemount so this would apply here.

As for the bearings, the slide in from the sides, again with a firm push fit, possibly with a locking grub screw or a slight raised edge to lock or "pop" the bearing into place.

If and when you need to carry out some maintenance, you simply slide the bearins out to the sides, and the "carstruder" is then effectively free from the machine. X axis stay assembled and on the machine undisturbed.

Does that make sense? Clearer than mud i hope

Hi Mutley, It looks like you have spent a lot longer working on this than I have been thinking about it. That looks like a great design.