MK7 Hack to Enable Filament Changes Mid-Print by nycdesigner

Last crawled date: 2 years, 12 months ago

The MK7 is great. But one thing never made it into the design spec: the ability to switch filaments mid-print.
Switching filaments enables multi-colored prints without fusing filament first. It also ensures that if you run out of a given filament, you can load new stock mid-print. This is very helpful for long prints.
The MK7's Stainless Steel Thermal Barrier Tube is not seated close enough to the Knurled Pulley, which makes it nearly impossible for a new filament to chase another into the Tube. However, raising the Tube ~3.5mm brings it close enough so that the new filament will not bend or slip off the old filament as it enters the Tube.
Another benefit is that you gain an additional ~3.5mm in Z-height!
Here's some video of the results http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25pOHE91xY
UPDATE: Zach posted a solid filament block for the MK7, so you should print this out and modify that instead of your purchased one. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12147