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Attaching spring to the extruder carriage?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:01 am
by orcinus
I was looking for a convenient existing topic to put this into, but didn't find anything... So pardon me for opening a new one for what is probably a simple matter.

Anyways, what are you guys using to attach the (cabling) spring to the extruder carriage?
There are two holes at the top, arranged vertcially. If they were horizontal, or if there were 4 of them arranged rectangularly, i'd have used zipties. Bart seems to have used clamps of some sort in his original photos.

I could drill two more holes there and use zip-ties after all, i guess, but i'm sorta hesitant to drill anodized aluminium (don't want to... well, ugly it).

Re: Attaching spring to the extruder carriage?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:41 am
by kongorilla
I just bought these at Home Depot. (The product photo isn't completely accurate, btw, but they're essentially the same)
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R ... oreId=1005

Looks like they're what Bart used. I'm not sure what the correct size is for the nifty spring, though. (I have less cool flex tubing instead, also from Home Depot).
http://www.buildlog.net/forum/download/ ... &mode=view

Re: Attaching spring to the extruder carriage?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:47 am
by mxk
I wasn't able to find cable ties that were the correct size, so I used zip ties. If you leave the fastener on the back of the carriage, run out thru one hole, around the spring, and back into the same hole (sort of a teardrop shape) you can cinch the zip tie down pretty tight and it won't pull thru the hole. Or, you could use both holes for one zip tie and bring the spring in toward the carriage horizontally. That would need a longer spring, but would probably still look good.

Re: Attaching spring to the extruder carriage?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:38 pm
by IPvFletch
mxk wrote:I wasn't able to find cable ties that were the correct size, so I used zip ties. If you leave the fastener on the back of the carriage, run out thru one hole, around the spring, and back into the same hole (sort of a teardrop shape) you can cinch the zip tie down pretty tight and it won't pull thru the hole. Or, you could use both holes for one zip tie and bring the spring in toward the carriage horizontally. That would need a longer spring, but would probably still look good.

This is what I did, and it came out great. It was VERY simple (AND CHEAP) and EASY to replace if you need to take it off and then put it back on..

Re: Attaching spring to the extruder carriage?

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:19 pm
by orcinus
Thanks for the ideas, guys!
The tear-drop zip tie thing never occurred to me. I guess work's made me particularly daft the past few weeks :lol:

I've bought some wall cable clamps made for nailing and will see how those turn out with M3 screws (they might end up too thick for even M3x20s).
If that fails, zipties sound like the way to go.