Section 3.4 Assembling the Extruder

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Finally it is time to build the extruder. The design of the extruder is made to be a dual extruder, but you can also make it a single extruder by leaving out the right hand motor and hotend.

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	1x Nema 17
	1x Filament Pulley
	1x M3x3 Set Screw

• Turn the set screw into the filament pulley

• Fix the filament pulley onto the motor shaft

• Make sure that:

  • The screw is on the front

  • The screw touches the flat side of the motor shaft

  • !!! The front of the pulley and the motor shaft are not flush ( we got new motors with a longer shaft picture is not updated yet), once the extruder is assembled you can use a piece of filament to adjust the pulley to be in the right position. !!!

• For a dual extruder, prepare two motors

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	1x Extruder Base Plate
	1x Extruder Fan Holder
	2x M3x12 Counter Sunk

• Mount both motors onto the fan holder and base plate

• Make sure the motors are straight and tighten the screws well

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	1x Extruder Center Left
	1x Extruder Center Right
	4x M3x20 Screw

• Make sure the filament path is free. Test it with a piece of filament.

• Put the plastic parts onto the assembly, but do not tighten the screws yet

• For single extruder put the right plastic part later, and fix it with the aluminium plate

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2x Extruder Spring

• Slide the extruder springs behind the plastic part.

• Push them all the way in, with the aid of the other extruder springs.

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	2x 624ZZ Bearing
	2x 4h8 Dowel

• Put the dowel through the bearing

• Place it into the slot hole of the aluminium base plate

• Repeat for dual extruder

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2x Extruder Spring

• Slide the remaining two extruder springs behind the heads of the M3x20 screws

• Tighten the screws (but not too tight!!)

  • The ball bearing is (almost) touching the filament pulley

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	1x Radial Fan
	2x 30mm Fan
	4x Torx 3 x 16 Screw

• Click the radial fan into the designated slots of the extruder fanholder part

  • Lead the wire through the cable channel

• Mount the fans onto the extruder fanholder

  • Make sure the wires for the fans are soldered so the fans are powered with 1 connector

  • Lead the cables through the cable channel

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	2x E3D Cooler Body
	2x E3D Heat Break
	2x E3D Heater Block
	2x E3D Nozzle

• Screw the Heatbreak and the nozzle into the Heater Block

  • Handtight is well enough

  • there might be a teflon inliner , do not put it in yet

• Screw the cooler body onto the Heatbreak

  • Make it tight, but only hand tight

  • Understand that the heatbreak has a very thin 'neck' which can be damaged with too high force

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• Adjust the nozzle in such a way that there is just a couple of tenths of a millimeter between the heater block and the head of the nozzle.

  • The neck of the heat break should be more or less flush with the top of the heater block

  • Everything is fixed, but only hand tight

  • Later the nozzle will be fixed while the hotend is heated to 300°C. This is to make sure the nozzle is press fit to the heat break

  • Fixing the nozzle like this also reduces mechanical load on the heat break while fixing the nozzle

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2x Thermistor

• Put a piece of heat resistant insulation on both legs of the thermistor

  • Leave about 5mm of blank metal for connection

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	2x Heat Cartridge
	2x M3 Set Screw

• Slide the heat cartridge into the hole of the heater block

  • The left side of the cartridge should be flush with the heater block

  • Gently fix it with the set screw

  • In a dual set up the cartridges are mirrored. Use the picture of the next step as a reference

• Slide the thermistor into the little hole

  • Make sure the thermistor is (more or less) in the middle

  • Bend the leads so it cannot slide

  • Bend the leads together so you can connect it later with a connector.

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	1x Extruder Front Plate L
	1x Extruder Front Plate R
	6x M3x20 Counter Sunk
	4x Torx 3 x 16 Screw
	2x FanDuct

• Put the hotends onto the extruder base plate

• Connect the thermistors. Polarity is not important

• Lead the wires through the wire channel

• Lead the wires of the heat cartridges through the wire channel

• Fix the hotends with the aluminium front-plates

  • The right hotend can slide some millimeters in it slot.

  • Mount it as far up as possible. The exact height will be adjusted later.

• Mount the fan duct in front of the hotends with the torx screws

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