Jan 21, 2016

M2 Modified (Hinged) V4 Single Filament Drive

STL files for this are available at Thingiverse and can be found HERE.

This is a modified V4 Single Filament Drive that I came up with for my Makergear M2 to overcome some problems I was having with the stock filament drive.

I started to have problem on one of my printers lately where it would just stop feeding. I tried adjusting the feed tension but even tightening it as tight as it could go I couldn’t get a good bite on the filament. Taking the filament drive apart it looked like the springiness to it just wore out, plus the offset bolt in relation to the bearing always kind of bugged me as I figured it just wasn’t getting even pressure on the bearing so I figured for shits and giggles I’d try to fix it.

I modified the original drive to add another bolt on the other side for even pressure and incorporated more of a hinge with a pin at the bottom to see if this would keep it from wearing out.

I’ve always been intrigued with the spring loading bearing on my Micron Extruder so I thought I’d give them I try on this one too.

Here is the initial prototype… I’ve changed a few things in the design since I printed this but it should work for a test.

So far I’ve just been experimenting with a few different springs to see what happens and so far it seems to work ok.

Here’s the latest design… I changed a few things, added the filament tube holder,and I had to offset the fan mount as I couldn’t find a screw long enough to mount it through everything and back to the original hole.

I printed it in the EPC and this stuff prints awesome. It prints just as easy as PLA and the supports break off really clean.

I did some final tweaks and reprinted the bearing half and then ran some ABS through it and I’m getting some nice clean bite marks now. I put the springs through the paces too by running some cleaning filament through it and shockingly the stuff feed without any problems… Overall I’d say this is a good sign. Usually with that stuff being so out of round/uneven It normally strips out after a bit and I have to force feed it through until it catches again. I need to run some longer prints to be sure but so far I’m calling this a success.

This was the final design. I no longer run the extruder fans as I didn’t think they actually did anything with the 4V hot ends and I switched to a Blower type fan.

The new filament drive works flawless and with the spring assisted hinge design I never have to adjust the tensions any more even when changing different filament types.

2022 = I have used this drives on all three of my printers since designing them in 2016 and they work amazing.

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