If I wanted to make the flexystruder myself what would I need to do and is there any reason I should not? I currently have a stock mini.
Also can the flexystruder extrude standard plastics?
You would need a second hotend assembly and squirrel cage fan which can be sourced from the lulzbot store, the Plastic Flexi extruder body itself, the section of PTFE tubeing from Mcmaster Carr, a hobbed bolt and 2 bearings from the lulzbot store, another plastic Extruder Mount for the Mini which can be found in download.lulzbot.com, the extruder mounting nuts and bolts and possibly some M3 heat set inserts for the fan ducts if you are going to mount them. I don’t remember if the Flexy extruder has a part cooling 40mm fan on it or not.
You can theoretically extrude standard plastic, but it will wear the PTFE liner tube out faster since the ABS or PLA plastic is more abrasive than ninjaflex so it is not recommended
Would there be an issue with taking the parts from my current head? As far as the ptfe tubing wearing out is it all that hard to replace it? The stuff is quite cheap.
The main issue would be that then you don’t have a working standard head in case the conversion goes awry. I wouldn’t recommend going that route, but there’s nothing that would prevent you from doing so.
Confirmed, Ran some PLA through it one time and it wore a notch into the PTFE
i just bought a second extruder from the Lulzbot store that way i had all of the componets i needed (hot end, gear drive, fans) and then printed the albotross body for it. It took a little bit of time to get how much force i needed on the screw, but after i got it dialed in i havent had an issue with my flexistruder.
So if it’s not recommended to use the flexystruder for regular harder plastics, then basically you need to be running two printers all the time if you want to use both? It would be such a hassle to change over extruders every time you want to change materials.
So if it’s not recommended to use the flexystruder for regular harder plastics, then basically you need to be running two printers all the time if you want to use both? It would be such a hassle to change over extruders every time you want to change materials.
To use an old racing phrase: “Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?”
One solution is to have multiple print heads. That is the solution that I use. It really isn’t a hassle.
The second option is to get a Flexy-Dually print head. A bit more expensive but you don’t need to swap print heads. (You will give up some of your printing volume.)
The third solution is to by another printer so you can dedicate one printer to flexible filament.
where can I get the files to print the body?
Thank you so much
Thank you so much Cody it helps a lot.
A couple of questions:
Can I use the gear system from the standard extruder?
So if I understand correctly I only need to insert PTFE tube, ensamble it and calculate the esteps? Seems to be quite easy…
THANKS AGAIN!
I was able to re-use everything from the other extruder. Just bolts right onto the new extruder body.
Something to keep in mind is after you insert the tube into the body you’re going to have to drill down through it. Here is the ohai on how to assemble everything.
https://ohai.lulzbot.com/project/flexystruder_assembly/
Other than that everything went together fairly smooth and i haven’t had an issue yet. Let me know how how it turns out for you.
Thank you so much Cody!
It seems to be quite easy! I think that i do have everyting but the M5-.8 11mm Heatset Insert and the Teflon Tube.
Are you running it with 0.4 or 0.5mm nozzle?
Im using the 0.5mm nozzle
Also, i switched to a 1/4-20" insert instead of the 5mm ones. Where i work we have them more readily available.
Just finished mine and made some test pieces. It is working great so far.
Thanks a lot!
Just noticed that this is the V1 extruder but I cannot find the V2 files… does someone have the V2 body file?
Thanks
The page said its V2 but the stl file is v1. I’ll keep my eyes open.
It’s in here. http://download.lulzbot.com/TAZ/accessories/tool_heads/version_2/Flexystruder_v2/production_parts/
The other one in the Mini folder is indeed the incorrect version. The one in the TAZ folder is the same extruder hardware, you will need the Mini extruder carriage to mount it though.
Also, if you use Cura, profiles for the v2 flexy assume the .6mm nozzle that comes on v2 flexystruders.