HICTOP filament feed improvement. by Klotzmando

Last crawled date: 2 years, 12 months ago

If the filament on the spool becomes tangled while printing on an HICTOP Prusa i3 style of printer, it could be caused by the filament being pushed back as the X carriage moves from left to right. This movement changes the distance between the extruder and the filament spool.
Obviously, as the distance increases more filament is pulled off the spool, as the distance gets shorter the filament is pushed back onto the spool. If the spool is full this extra filament may cause the returning filament to fall off the spool which may prevent the smooth delivery of filament and possibly a tangled spool.
By having the filament pass through a Bowden tube, available from Amazon search for "PTFE Teflon Bowden Tube for 1.75 Filament", the length of dispensed filament will always be the same, as the tube will flex as the distance decreases and straighten as it increases.
This set of devices allows the user to added a Bowden tube between the spool and the extruder. It is based on Filament Guide for HICTOP 3D Printer 3DP11 from Thingiverse.
You will benefit from the printing the guide and then “Filament Guide-PTFE Adapter”. Finally, insert the PTFE into the smaller end of the adapter and feed the filament through the adapter, through the tube, and into the extruder. This alone will create a fixed distance between the spool and extruder.
I have also redesigned the Extruder Arm to have a mounting hole for the tube as well, but I have not yet tested it.
As of the date of this post the filament tube: https://www.amazon.com/gp/slredirect/picassoRedirect.html/ref=pa_sp_atf_industrial_sr_pg1_1?ie=UTF8&adId=A03698162FWXQBU8D833E&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBlack-Menba-Filament-Printer-Rostock%2Fdp%2FB01D1G7LRO%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fs%3Dindustrial%26ie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1485615614%26sr%3D1-1-spons%26keywords%3Dteflon%2Btube%26psc%3D1&qualifier=1485615614&id=802055749591352&widgetName=sp_atf
The Filament Guide for HICTOP 3D Printer 3DP11: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1462684