Elastic and Flexible Filament Feeder for Wanhao Duplicator i3 Mini 3D printer
Elastic and Flexible Filament Feeder for Wanhao Duplicator i3 Mini 3D printer
3D
Published 2020-02-03T19:55:18+00:00
The Wanhao Duplictor i3 Mini is a fantastic little printer for printing with PLA, but Elastic (as well as Flexible filament) is too soft to be pushed through the nozzle with the standard feeder clamp's base.
Elastic and Flexible filament opens so many new oppertunties and you don't have to miss out on them if you own the i3 Mini.
This replacement part offers a very simple solution since it solves 3 problems in one. The attached images shows how the elastic filament easily escapes at the entry to the tube, or jams on either side of the feeder wheels with the standard feeder clamp's base.
Simply print this part in PLA and replace the standard base with this one (there are only 2 hex bolts to remove). Since this changes nothing with regards to the filament feeder action, normal PLA can still be used afterwards but now there is no escape room for the elastic fillament.
NB: Do take note of a few important steps when printing with Elastic filament (regardless of the feeder or printer being used):
1) Disable retraction (the material is too soft to retract and then causes feeding problems for your print)
2) Set the extruder to flow 120% (i.e. it pushes more material than needed for other materials like PLA). I found this created continues lines and not dotted ones).
Enjoy!
Print this part in normal PLA at around 40% fill to keep it strong and rigid.
NB: When printing with Elastic filament (regardless of the feeder or printer being used):
1) Disable retraction (the material is too soft to retract and then causes feeding problems for your print)
2) Set the extruder to flow 120% (i.e. it pushes more material than needed for other materials like PLA). I found this created continues lines and not dotted ones).
For Flexible fileament, 120% may be a bit too much but I did found that I had to increase the printing temperature for to 230 degrees C, while for the Elastic filament 200 degrees was fine.
Enjoy!
| Date published | 03/02/2020 |
| Time to do | 45 - 50 minutes |
| Material Quantity | 6g |
| Dimensions | 30mm x 53mm x 15mm |
