EZStruder Trick Laser Arm Mount for Rostock MAX/Orion/etc. by 626Pilot

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Are you using Trick Laser carbon fiber arms on your Rostock, Orion, or other 3D printer? If so, this will allow you to mount an EZStruder to one set of arms. (Or two, or all three!) The point of this is to reduce the length of the Bowden tube, thereby reducing the friction and hysteresis that can aggravate stringing and blobbing on Bowden machines. There is about a 50% reduction in Bowden tube length over mounting the EZStruder near the top of the printer!
Get your Trick Laser arms here: http://www.tricklaser.com/Carbon-Fiber-Tube-Arms-with-Metal-Ball-Rod-Ends-for-Rostock-MAX-RM-ARM-CFTX.htm
Changelog
2015-03-16: Replaced the EZStruder brackets with 15 and 25 degree versions of same (original tilts the EZStruder by 15 degrees). Also, replaced the hold-down with a version that will snap into place on the bracket and stay there, so you don't have to hold it during installation. Both 15 and 25 degree mounts have slightly deeper recesses for the hold-down, so you'll have to re-print if you're using and older version.
2015-02-20: Added a 30mm longer version of the slotted arm for people who are using a different arm setup.
READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. There are things you need to know! In particular, this will limit your printable radius. You need to move the effector around after the mod is installed to verify how big you can print. I recognize this as a weakness in the mount. In the future, I plan to do a version that won't have this problem; it will be able to slide up and down on the arms, and perhaps pivot the extruder from side to side.
Features
Shorter Bowden length (about 1/2 as long as stock!) discourages stringing and blobbing.
Uses heat shrink tubing to help absorb stepper vibration.
Makes the EZ-Struder whipser quiet! Retracts are almost totally silent, and skipping is much, much quieter than using the stock mount.
Slotted arm with flared mounting holes allows the arm to move freely, no matter what position the effector is in, without binding or constraining the Delta arms.
EZ-Struder is offset and angled to center the extruder's output with the hot end's input.
Mass of the extruder is close to the carriage hinge, so it doesn't have any leverage to sling the effector all over the place at high speeds (majority of momentum added is strictly up/down on the associated tower).
You can have three extruders (one per arm!) and still have room for another up top.