Replicator 2X Extruder Base/Adaptor for Flexible Filaments by aethiopicus

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Update: Version 2 uploaded 28/02/2014. Have made some minor adjustments to the margins to improve fit, added a small support tab to the front of the thing to support that corner, and mirror-imaged the thing for the left extruder.
May produce a third version with the outer margin opened to allow for a view of the drive gear at some point.
Both ABS and NinjaFlex loading/unloading/printing have been smooth for the past 48 hours of operation.
This thing has been remixed from the design by rmcniff:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:222667
to work with the 3in1 Universal Extruder upgrade by DHeadrick:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:136423
After acquiring some NinjaFlex filament I ran into some of the same filament feed problems that have been discussed in the MakerBot Operators Google Group (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/makerbot/ninjaflex/makerbot/KUwEIXMlVtk/Mcze9mt0hskJ).
While my 3in1 Replicator 2X aluminium extruder upgrade does exactly as advertised (they rock!), the filament has enough flexibility to buckle during loading/printing. As I didn't want to have to swap my 3in1 drive block out for another design with a filament guide below the drive gear, I have modified the base of the rmcniff extruder to interface with the 3in1 universal upgrade (using Geomagic Studio to subtract components, combined with some hand editing).
I have successfully printed in NinjaFlex and ABS since installing the printed part. Thus far, both filament types feed smoothly and I have yet to experience air prints using the NinjaFlex filament. I will post more photos of the part soon and will also likely make some minor modifications to the design.