My direct drive extruder mount (EZStruder) for the Mendel90

While the 3mm is working great for me, I have a ton of 1.75mm left over, I also find translucent PLA to be easier to find in 1.75 so I have wanted to get a direct drive extruder going for awhile. I really like the polish of the EZStruder from seemecnc so I made a little mounting system for it. I am not super comfortable using 1.75mm PLA without active jhead cooling so I modified the x carriage to accept a 40mm fan, and added a fan shroud to funnel it above the stock cooler piece.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:151551

Definitely open to comments, suggestions etc. I have yet to print with it but hope to in the next few days.

Oh, nice! This is a great project. I've been wondering what it would take to switch to a direct drive. Do you have it printing yet? How far out does the fan stick out? Is there any concern with it bumping the Z rods?

Please keep the pics and details coming! (cus I might have to make one)

Thanks for the interest, I hope to have it printing this weekend and will update the thread when it is.

The carriage is the same width with the fan installed as the stock one, it actually tucks under the x carriage, it only looks like it is partly sticking out because I modified one of the corners on the x carriage and made it shallower.

Hi there,
That's an excellent modification to the x-carriage. It tucks the 40mm fan in very neatly under the carriage. I was working on a clip-on attachment design to attach a fan but it just might be easier to reprint your carriage design! Thanks for sharing.

I think active cooling of the j-head insulator (peek) is a very good idea. the addition of the shroud should direct the air nicely.

Cheers!

I had some time today to get this working, need to reprint the carriage in ABS as I had a few cracks from popping the bearings in with my PLA carriage. In the current version the nozzle sits 1.3mm lower than stock which is nice.

What I did for routing fan power was connect the unused zprobe pin to ground (I tied it into one of the power resistor grounds) then used the positive from the hotend (like the print cooling fan does), this way I didn't have to run any wiring for the extra fan.



It prints just as well as the 3mm wade did, so I'm happy.

@NumberSix unfortunately the x-carriage had to be modified from the original so the one I made won't mount standard x-carriage extruders like the stock wade.

@Goopplastic I noticed your mods of the opening and hole mount hole/spacing on closer scrutiny of your x-carriage (file you posted to thingiverse). The idea is still neat, and I can graft it to the stock x-carriage. Tks.

Hadn't looked closely at that "EZStruder" before. That thing is like the milti-tool of extruders!

Oh... those stlye bearing mounts are notorious for cracking if printed in PLA. It's a bit late now to be giving you tips (since they have cracked already on you) but some gentle heat with a hair-drier will allow the bearing to push in without cracking the bracket. PLA is great for crisp print, but doesn't like stress on the layer. The x-carriage is better printed in ABS I think.

NumberSix Wrote:
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> Oh... those stlye bearing mounts are notorious for
> cracking if printed in PLA. It's a bit late now to
> be giving you tips (since they have cracked
> already on you) but some gentle heat with a
> hair-drier will allow the bearing to push in
> without cracking the bracket. PLA is great for
> crisp print, but doesn't like stress on the layer.
> The x-carriage is better printed in ABS I think.

Hairdryer? I've only been printing in PLA. So this'll be a great trick when I go to print a new x-carriage.

Any updates on using the EZStruder? Thinking about ordering one this month.