Superfly Extruder - A Compact BMG Conversion by mustcode

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

Superfly Extruder
A Compact BMG Conversion
*Update (10th May 2021) - Added a higher strength tensioner, more suitable for high-speed printing, see details in "Printed Parts"
The Superfly is a compact extruder designed to reuse the excellent dual drive gears of the beloved BMG extruder. As with the BMG, the Superfly is a dual-drive geared extruder with a 3:1 gear ratio. It is designed with the following characteristics in mind:
compact and lightweight
short filament path
balanced center of gravity
easy to source hardware
support both NEMA 17 and round NEMA 14 motors
easy to print
Please see the project GitHub Page for more detailed information on the Superfly including additional assembly instructions and images
Parts
You will need the following parts of your BMG:
the drive shaft with the large plastic gear attached
the drive gear, this is the gear that is on the drive shaft
the idler gear, its shaft, and the two needle bearings inside, these are the parts that were on the BMG's tension arm
2 x MR85 bearings that the drive shaft runs on
Thumbscrew and spring (the washer is optional)
The motor gear, if you're planning on using a motor without a gear pre-installed
In addition to the BMG parts, you will also need the following hardware:
an M3 nut for securing the thumbscrew
4 x M3 screws for mounting (6mm-12mm depending on your motor and mounting needs).
If you're going to be running a reverse-bowden, you'll also need:
an embedded bowden collet (the type commonly used on a V6 heatsink)
4mm OD PTFE tubing
Printed Parts
There are only 4 parts that you need to print:
The main housing holds the drive gear assembly and one of the MR85 bearings
The back housing holds the other MR85 bearing and keep the drive gear assembly in the main housing
The tensioner holds the idler gear pressed to the drive gear with the tension from the spring and thumbscrew
The tensioner_high-tension is an alternate version of the tensioner that can provide stronger tension. The difference is that the regular tensioner has a hard-stop just before the gear pushes the filament in too deep to prevent over-tightening, while the high-tension version removes the stop and allow the thumbscrew to pull on the tensioner with more force. Please be aware that over-tightening the thumbscrew can damage the filament and/or your printed parts.
The motor spacer is an optional part designed to go between the main housing and the motor to allow you to use motors with shaft longer than 15mm.
Additionally, some variations of the drive shaft are known to be a bit long and may protrude beyond MR85 bearing at the back. If this is the case for your drive shaft, then you will need a spacer to make sure that the shaft is not pushing against the motor's body.
Finally, if you are using a NEMA 14 motor and you prefer to save weight than adding a spacer, you can grind away the protruding portion of the drive shaft, this is commonly done on other similar round NEMA 14 based extruder like the Sherpa Mini

Printing Recommendations:
All parts are printable in under 3 hours and should be an easy print for most modern printers. The following are some recommendations to help increase your chance of success:
The main housing should be printed "face down" as oriented in the STL, the model is designed to minimize supports in this orientation.
Supports are only needed for the main housing where the two motor mount holes are. Other overhangs and bridges are very printable.
Raft should be enabled for the main housing unless you're very confident in your bed-adhesion.
The tensioner should be printed with plenty of walls and infill to make sure that it doesn't break under stress.
As with most mechanical prints, your printer should be capable of producing parts with decent dimensional accuracy. If you found that your printed parts are too tight, try the "extra_clearance" version of the main housing instead