Bowden cable coupler

thingiverse

This is a Bowden cable coupler. It joins Bowden cables. Filament passes easily from one cable to another. With an M4 nut, the grip on a standard sized (4mm OD) bowden cable is strong enough not to detach during prints. One side lets you slip a Bowden cable in and out to allow for easy detachment. Why? Easy to detach Corrects mistakes made from undersizing Bowden cables Allows coupling tubes of different material, e.g. teflon with PEEK. I started making this design after finding it difficult to remove the Bowden cable from the Hotend I'd designed. I'd tried store-bought couplers for threaded rod, but realized most stores do not stock couplers small enough to grip the cable. A store bought 10-24 coupler would simply slip off the cable during prints. I realized I could use M4 nuts if I printed out my own interface. I'm thinking to use this eventually for printing polycarbonate with my hotend - just hook up the bowden cable to some similarly sized PEEK-based tubing and feed the PEEK to the hotend. Updates: 7/30/14: removed overhang in the center portion. This makes it easier to guide filament from one cable to another.