Kossel Mini Flying extruder inc new E3D Titan Version by DjDemonD

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

4-5-16 - New version available for e3d titan extruder. This can be run (if you're using 1.75mm filament) from a 20mm "pancake" nema 17 so the total extruder and flying bracket is only 250g. The old version with a standard 40mm nema 17 and lightweight extruder was 395g!
UPDATED - There are two carriages, one with the flying extruder loop fixed to it and standard belt clips. The other has quick release belt clips and moves the loop to fix on the top using the upper two bolts which hold the carriage onto the slides. Its only 2mm so the standard bolts should still work.
I made a flying extruder for a Kossel Mini Delta printer. Replace the carriages with these parts and string them to the extruder mount with some elastic material, I am using sewing elastic at present, but apparently modelling balloons work or silicone straps etc... Allow just enough tension to hold the extruder mount up, with extruder attached, centred between your three carriages. The additional parts to hold the elastic do make restringing the belts a little fiddly but I presume it's not something you are going to do very often.
This has been designed for this extruder (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:275593) but the file is public on tinkercad so feel free to alter it to fit whatever extruder you have (https://tinkercad.com/things/dJ0MpmOgcXt). The editable version of the titan flying extruder bracket is here (https://www.tinkercad.com/things/jYfQ3kHzbqz-djdemond-kossel-flying-extruder-e3d-titan-version). Aim to send the filament straight down the centre of the mount to the effector/hot end. In the photo the version I printed has my initials in the centre of the mount as a weight saving device and path for the filament to use, but in this version I have just left a large hole which should allow the filament path to be unhindered whatever extruder you are using.
Attach the extruder to the effector/hot end with a bowden tube, which will now be somewhere between 4-6 times shorter than it was before, giving you hugely improved filament control, and adjust your retraction settings to be a little less aggressive I am now using 2mm at 150mm/s instead of 5mm at 100 mm/s. UPDATED - A small amount of downwards tension on the bowden tube helps so its not too long - too much bouncing around of flying extruder, or too short - too much tension on the elastics.
Despite this setup and the extruder now adding considerable mass to the carriages this is only fully affects the inertia of z direction moves and not in a way that seems to affect print quality, x and y direction moves are only marginally affected as the mount can swivel around relatively freely, so don't overdo the elastics, or have too short a bowden tube. Might be worth reducing your acceleration and xy jerk by 10% if it seems to be causing your corners to print less well than before.
Update 02-06-16 I recently changed to an effector where most of the hot end is above the effector. As such the bowden tube using the titan flying bracket was too short to be flexible enough to function, so I made an inverted version for putting the extruder above the flying bracket to allow a slightly longer tube.