MakerFarm 8" Prusa i3v Enclosure

[gmay3]

You might also just be able to use a fixed filament guide and not any of the tube.

Yeah good point! I think that's a good first step, especially since my bowden tube isn't coming in for about a month! I'll have to see what's out there on thingiverse or design my own. My thought is that it would look something like a curved 3D printed tube for the top mounted with a flange or to existing LDC bracket screw shafts.

How well would this work on the 10-inch printers where the Y-bed moves 2-inches farther to the rear? Seems like that would be more limiting than on the 8-inch printer.

Another good point! I wonder if the 10 inch just moves 2 the bed inches further or if Colin made every part 2 inches bigger and it frame would still be in proportion with the 8". Either way, if anyone with the 10" printer is interested, I think I'll need help to remix everything I do after everything is said and done.

[usarmyaircav]

I am in the middle of the build process and just mounted the bed last night. I would be happy to check\verify anything.

[gmay3]

Thanks usarmyaircav! Glad to hear you're making progress with the build!

Whenever you get your y bed and frame all assembled I think an easy measurement to make first is to push the Y bed all the way to the back towards the back of the frame and then measure how much the y bed sticks out past the back of the frame.

Another measurement to make would be the overall height of the back of the frame.

I'll measure the 8" version and upload a sketch so you can see what I mean!

[usarmyaircav]

Here is what I measured last night.
Bed all the way to rear, 1" past frame
Frame height 18 3/4"
Bed = 10 3/8w x 10 3/8 L or 264mm x 264mm

[AbuMaia]

Yeah good point! I think that's a good first step, especially since my bowden tube isn't coming in for about a month! I'll have to see what's out there on thingiverse or design my own. My thought is that it would look something like a curved 3D printed tube for the top mounted with a flange or to existing LCD bracket screw shafts.

Here's my take on filament guides:
http://www.thingiverse.com/make:95614
http://www.thingiverse.com/make:74923 (second image)

Resize the clips to 110%, and they'll hold a 4mm OD PTFE tube nicely. The Replicator 2 Quick change piece is full size, with a short piece of 6mm OD tubing to act as an adapter. Before I got the tubing, however, I used the clips to route the filament directly, as they were designed to do (first image).

[usarmyaircav]

gmay3, where did you order your bowden tube from?

[jtice]

I ended up mounting my spool up above the printer on a shelf with a bearing holder.
I think it will work out much better, I like that its up out of the way.
http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ll=1#post29106

[gmay3]

usarmyaircav: Thanks for the measurements! As a rough estimate of the 8" dimensions, the bed all the way back actually doesn't go past the back of the frame. The bowden tube was ordered from amazon. This specific link is for use with 1.75mm diameter filament.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

AbuMaia: Thanks for the ideas about filament guides! I hadn't thought of having the bowden tube piggy back onto the main wire harness. Have you been printing with these clips installed already?

[AbuMaia]

AbuMaia: Thanks for the ideas about filament guides! I hadn't thought of having the bowden tube piggy back onto the main wire harness. Have you been printing these clips installed already?

I don't know if I understand your question. Did you mean, have I been printing *with* these clips installed? If so, yes. I've been using them for several months. You'll note in the first image I have them installed on my old MakerFarm 8 inch i3, before I upgraded it to an i3v.

[gmay3]

I don't know if I understand your question. Did you mean, have I been printing *with* these clips installed? If so, yes. I've been using them for several months. You'll note in the first image I have them installed on my old MakerFarm 8 inch i3, before I upgraded it to an i3v.

Yes that is what I meant. Apologies and thanks for reading in my missing word.

Ah, I didn't look closely enough and didn't realize it was your printer. That's pretty cool. The clips make it looks super clean. I wouldn't have thought of that.

My current plan was to fix the bowden tube to the top of the frame with maybe an inch or two extra to allow it to flex at the angles needed to have free motion along the x axis. This way the filament should never be bending more than 20-30 degrees and it would be pretty easy to swap out the filament since you'll have access to the several inches of filament above the extruder.