Flex Filament Pulley Guide for Lulzbot Taz 5 by billyd

Last crawled date: 3 years, 2 months ago

This is a flexible filament guide for a Taz printer (mine is a Taz 5) using pulleys instead of the typical guide tube. I have found the tube creates too much friction with some soft filaments and this can lead to under extrusion. The pulleys have ball bearings installed and are very low friction. Also this guide will not interfere (see pictures above) with the normal guide tube when using regular hard filaments. This pulley guide system is NOT appropriate for any other filament types. For the hard filaments use the stock tube setup.
You will need the following hardware:
Qty 2: 5mm x 25mm long hex socket screw (or longer)
Qty 4: 4mm x 30mm long hex socket screw (or longer)
Qty 2: 5mm hex nut
Qty 4: 4mm hex nut
Qty 2: 5mm Heat set insert 6.7mm long
Qty 4: 4mm Heat set insert 7.9mm long
Qty 2: 5mm x 15mm long hex socket screw (or 16mm long)
Qty 2: 5mm x 10mm long hex socket screw (These are on hand with a Taz 5 printer)
Qty 4: 5mm washers (2 are already with the Taz 5 frame)
Qty 2: 5mm slide nut for Taz frame
Qty 2: 10mm od x 5mm id x 4mm thick ball bearings
Qty 8: 3mm x 5mm long hex socket screw
Qty 8: 3mm hex nut
Print one of each bracket, 4 idlers, and 2 pulley tops, and 2 pulley bottoms.
Mount the shorter bracket at the right rear most top two 5mm screws on the frame. (see pictures for reference. Use the 5x16mm screws here with washers. Take the existing 5mm screws from this spot and the other two washers for the other bracket. The other bracket mounts on the top rear transverse frame piece such that the filament drops vertically when your extruder is at the center of travel.
The 4 and 5mm nuts are used at the pulley and idler locations at the back of the brackets to cinch up against their respective heat set inserts to give the bolts rigidity to hold the pulleys and idlers firmly in place.
The bearings are sandwiched between the two pulley halves and captured by the 4x 3mmx5 screws and 3mm nuts.
If your idlers are creating too much friction reheat the 4mm heat set inserts and alter them from the 90 degree angle such that the idler creates a bigger gap at the pulley. But not so much that the filament can pull through.
This is for 2.85mm or 3mm filament.