Remote mounted extruders.

[SystemsGuy]

I've done sorta the same - she who must be pleased spent the better part of an afternoon "connecting" various bits of filament after seeing a post by RichRap - it worked pretty well actually, but was really fiddly - we were using 3mm filament.

[orcinus]

Retract is pretty much the only problem with bowden tube extruders.
And as you've found out, it's not overrated

(It's harder to do fast retracts with this setup, but with some tweaking, it usually works out fine)

If the bowden extruders really were non-viable due to being problematic, some of the more successful non-mainstream reprap designs wouldn't be as successful as they are.

[gyrogearloose]

Another thing to watch out for is the clearance of the delivery tube. Too much clearance and the print will be inaccurate. I am currently using 3.2mmID PFTE tubing. I hace some 3.0ID tubing on order, but it is probably gong to be to tight. 3.2mm has just the right clearance for 3mm filament. Also, the extruder has to have an absolutely positive drive because of the higher friction between extruder and hotend. A direct drive type extruder such as the QU-BD is not going to do it. Believe me, I tried. Apart from that, it is a great setup. Mounting everything is so much neater and it declutters and lightens the x carriage.

[mikegrundvig]

Rodney got me thinking about Bowden setups a few weeks ago and I've been doing a lot of research on it. It seems like a combination of the geared stepper and filament drive design of the plastruder combined with a j-head hot end would be a great way to go. Then the Hadron carriage could be significantly smaller and have the bend removed which would bring down the price a bit. This would also make dual-extruders work lots better. I've got a design for some of this if you want to give it a shot Rodney? We can talk at the next Make:KC meeting.

-Mike

[REdington]

Mike
Sounds good to me. I might start on the 3 to 1 gearbox tonight and get the tubing tomorrow. I'm working on the 12X12 and going to try to get it up and running today.

Rodney