Extruder Advice Needed Please

[chris2008]

Hi,

I have purchased a CTC printer and have watched many Youtube videos for upgrading etc. This one talks about replacing the extruder for the e3d v6:

Go to 3:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9pH0ppUCow

He links to this project on Thingiverse:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1446512

My question is, would I need to purchase a whole of the e3d v6 extruder or just some parts of it?

I have found one here but not sure if I could add it to just one side (the ctc is dual extruder) and then add another one at a later date (when money allows). This is the one I have found:

http://ooznest.co.uk/Extruders-Hoten...AyoxoCITTw_wcB

Thanks for any help you can give to a newbie.

[AutoWiz]

The mk8 is a direct drive extruder. It is very simple in its operation and capable of printing a bunch of different filaments. The stepper motor sits directly on top of the heatbreak and there is a very short distance between the stepper motor and the nozzle. Because of this design, the mk8 extruder can handle printing flexible filaments and works well with retraction. When you move to a remote mount extruder setup You will hurt this performance. IMHO just because someone has an idea up on thingiverse doesn't mean it represents an improvement on your machine. You need to print a bunch of stuff with your machine first to get an idea of a baseline on how you are doing to start. So you will then be able to see how these changes impact your machine.

[noiseboy72]

+1 to what Autowiz said.

The only weak point with the stock extruders is the filament feeder, which benefits from being fitted with a spring loaded idler. Easy and cheap to do.