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My Steve's extruder had been running along happily for awhile until I notice the dreaded extruder squeak other members have encountered.

After a close look, it was apparent that the side walls near the thru bolt had collapsed inward and there was no tension on the bolt itself. This pitched the gear and was allowing it to rub the side of it's mates and squeak.

I machined up a 1.835" long tube for the bolt to pass through to properly space and force the side walls square and allow the bolt to be tight without collapsing the frame.

And... squeak is gone!

I think this would be a worthwhile change to be added to the extruder kit. I suspect the frame is creeping over time due to extruder and motor heat.

Great idea, thanks for sharing that.

cheers,
Michael

What kind of material is the tube? Steel? Aluminum? Is it something that came as a tube and you cut to length, or did you drill out some solid material?

It looks to be aluminum but it does not really matter. You could use plastic (nylon/delrin or print one in ABS!) or any material really. It has very little load and a 1/4" bolt running through it. Find a tube with a 1/4" bore and you should be good to go. You could even stack 1/4" washers or spacers from the hardware store. However, since this is on a moving carriage, keeping mass down would be desirable. I made my spacer from a piece of 1/2" OD 1/4" ID black acetal/Delrin I had laying around.

cheers,
Michael

It's aluminum that I machined out of bar on the lathe down to a .38" diameter.

I think nylon spacers, hard wall copper tubing, hobby tubing, etc could be used as well.

Soo... Ccavanaugh. Do you have two of those 1.835" tubes you want to sell..

[email protected] wrote:Soo... Ccavanaugh. Do you have two of those 1.835" tubes you want to sell..

Mhackney sells them on his site. I purchased one before my Rostock even shipped! Note when I was building my Rostock extruder, I could not install the idler pulley assembly into the extruder with this upgrade. I had to remove this spacer, install the idler, and then re-install this piece.

Not a big deal, just FYI installing the idler is impossible once this spacer has been installed.

Not sure that I am following what the problem was cassette? I have removed and added the spacers and idler multiple times with the spacer installed. Am I missing something?

mhackney wrote:Not sure that I am following what the problem was cassette? I have removed and added the spacers and idler multiple times with the spacer installed. Am I missing something?

I can confirm. The spacer blocks the path of the idler. It's not really an issue for me but I did noticed I had to remove the spacer before I could remove the idler.

Tom

I think it may be blocking mine as well. I don't consider that a problem; it's just an extra step if I want to get the idler out. I had my extruder apart a couple days ago to unjam a wad of filament, and I puzzled with it for a while without figuring out a path to get it out with the spacer in place.

Then again, I had the same trouble before I installed the spacer. It took me a few minutes of pushing and pulling to figure out the right path to get the idler out then. Maybe I just haven't found that path again since I installed the spacer.

- dan

These parts are all pretty much the same; it's odd that some can remove the idler while others cannot. Maybe the idler gears just need to be in the right position to free it up.

- dan

mhackney wrote:It looks to be aluminum but it does not really matter. You could use plastic (nylon/delrin or print one in ABS!) or any material really. It has very little load and a 1/4" bolt running through it. Find a tube with a 1/4" bore and you should be good to go. You could even stack 1/4" washers or spacers from the hardware store. However, since this is on a moving carriage, keeping mass down would be desirable. I made my spacer from a piece of 1/2" OD 1/4" ID black acetal/Delrin I had laying around.

Nobody has made an stl file for this yet? I'll be right back

I'm not understanding why that bolt has to be tight. On my steve's extruder, which I just switched back to, I just tightened the nut until there was no play and left it at that. It seems to work just fine that way. I liked the overhead mounting of the EZ Struder, but preferred the power of the Steve's, so I did a jury-rig.