Prusa i3 Bowden Extruder + Inductive Proximity Sensor + Radial Fan by NickyP

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a simple proximity sensor mount add-on to the already great bowden hotend mount designed by Tech2c: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:547706. I really liked his design and couldn't find anything similar with a proximity mount, so I added my own as well as a radial fan mount with bi-directional fan duct.
I have been printing with this at least a hundred hours with great results!
This is installed and used on my Prusa i3 Wilson ts by mrice. Love the printer and would recommend it to anyone looking to build a prusa i3 variant.http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:255605
The hotend I am using is a E3D V6 Jhead Hotend 1.75mm .4MM Nozzle Extrude http://r.ebay.com/gWXg4k off of eBay. Chinese knockoff i'm sure.
The radial fan duct i used by ffleurey: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:151555 directs the air flow on two sides of the print with one fan. I don't like having any unnecessary weight added to the carriage.
For those that don't know, "Inductive" proximity sensors only sense metals aka aluminum beds! I print directly to an aluminum heated bed sprayed with aqua net extra super hold. my prints stick very well. although i do miss printing directly on glass.
I highly recommend watching this video about installing and wiring the proximity sensor. I also recommend watching Tom's other videos about 3d printing which are very informative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcGFLwj0pnA
UPDATE 6/11/15 : V2 I moved the fan mount arm slightly to correct the hole alignment with the fan. I haven't printed it yet because I am using the first version which works with the aid of a zip tie instead of a screw.
Additional info:
Sensor Type: LJ12A3-4-Z/BX Inductive Proximity Sensor Switch NPN
Ebay has them for under $5
The hole for the prox sensor is 12 mm.
The hardest thing to print is the radial fan duct. Print it separately in case it fails. It's a small print with thin walls and heavy bridging so make sure your printer is up to the task. Then simply glue it to the fan.
All of the parts are printed in PLA. I have not had any issues of warping when printing with high temp materials. I have printed Nylon and ABS no problem.
If you have any questions just shoot me a message!
Printed with:
PLA 1.75mm
0.2mm layer height
40% infill
50mm/s print speed
no supports or rafts