Folger Tech i3 2020 Nema 17 Extruder Mount (El Scorpion) by chillysmokes

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

Version 1 in pictures is WHITE.Version 2 in pictures is BLUE. I haven't found the time to replace it in RL but you can be assured it works, I tested the fit on a Z-axis motor and it is oooooooooh-soooo-nice. All other important dimensions are coincident with the earlier version so I feel safe posting this now.
EDIT: I finally stuck it on... went on the motor perfectly; though I had to file out the 18mm diameter probe hole a tiny, TINY bit. I had to move the heat-block and throat back up almost all the way to the extruder as the fan ducts no longer go sooo low. So you can disregard moving the hot end down. I keep the instructions here just so newbies like me have a reference in case they need to make an adjustment. Looks pretty good. I'm happy with it.
If you are like me and so many others you (already did or are doing now) shopped around for upgrades to your printer BEFORE you bought one, had a list and made your decision on what to buy based on your upgrade options, bought the thing, put it together and started printing all your upgrades. I had a heck of a time finding my footing at first and the cooling/proximity probe mount points are pretty major aspects I simply could not fix without spending a bunch of cash and just replacing the extruder with a higher quality one... on a printer I just freaking bought. And even if I bought a better extruder I still needed to print new parts for it... so I made dun dun DUN!!!!! El Scorpion.... This part will help you if you are getting ready to print Toranado parts OR just want something that works.
This is an extruder mount for the Folger Tech i3 2020 direct drive extruder. I remixed this from 2 other "things", the Dual Blower/Radial Fan Duct Mount (Tevo Tarantula) bysupasorn and a proximity probe mount for the nema 17 direct drive extruder that I can't, for the life of me, find anymore to give credit to (SORRY YO). Either way, I had to almost completely remake the whole thing because the dimensions were all wrong or the walls were too thin or this, that; the idea was spawned from these two things and the fact that the Folger Tech i3 2020 direct drive extruder is difficult to find "accessories" for because of the limited mount options... that I found, anyway.
I had a cooling fan hitting below the nozzle from the front but found that my printed walls were not very smooth as cooling from one direction was not even as the y-axis moved the bed back and forth; the layer being laid down in the +y direction would not get any cooling but the layer laid down in the -y direction would get a bunch. After I made the first prototype (WHITE ABOVE) my prints looked uniform and good at 0.1 layer height with .4mm nozzle. Even if you don't use this puppy I highly recommend using a 360 fan duct or some other multi-angle blower.
The original dual blower duct fan thingy was awesome because both fans were bringing in air from the outside as they faced away from each other.
The El Scorpion is made for the following accessories:
2 50mm BLOWER fans
1 18mm proximity probe
Requires no hard-points as it mounts directly on the nema 17 motor. I guess you can use this on any direct drive extruder where the nema 17 faces forward.
The El Scorpion uses this hardware to fully construct:
4 50mm 3m socket cap screws
4 3m nylock nuts
2 small screws to mount each of the blowers (1 each) even though it is a snug fit into each duct
The fans plug into the ducts pretty snug but will line up with the anchor points differently so you will have to drill a pilot hole for each screw (I left plenty of room for error on each anchor point) but this is really a 30 second job and 2 screws in your junk drawer or misc screw bucket. Whatever works just don't crack the PLA. Yeah, I used PLA for its stiffness because of the proximity probe. This puppy will keep it stable and unmoving.
***The X-axis end-stop (which I keep on the right-hand side) will need to be moved to the upper 8mm smooth rod and then bent down at an angle to allow the carriage to hit it. Also, remove the two screws holding the end-stop to the 8mm rod clip, move the pcb up one hole and screw it on tight; 1 screw is all you need anyway 8)
Yeah, that's about it. In the original design I had to "bend" the nema 17 bracket apart to slide it on and then it would break. So now we have this puppy.