Skadis Filament Buffer V18

thingiverse

I've been working on the design of my Skadis filament buffer for around 6 months. With the version 18, I believe that I've finally hit that sweet spot between ease of use and functionality. I never liked the Prusa "buffer", in fact I disliked it so much that I never got any further than trying to thread a filament through it the first time. Since then I have been trying to perfect a better solution. This started with standalone buffers. Recently I started using the Ikea Skadis system. This is a great system which allows modular designs to be built up. Version 18 of the buffer is a simple 2 piece design that uses magnets to keep the parts together. In my pictures, the buffers behind are the version 17. These worked equally as well but use plastic tags to hold the parts together. The magnets just work so much better. All of my parts use 10mm Festo connectors. You will need 2 of these for each buffer. You will also need 2 602 bearings and 2 lengths of 6/4 Teflon tubing. I find that the 6/4 tubing works better than any 4/2 tubing. In fact my entire Prusa Mk3 now uses 6/4 tubing. The last thing you will need are 2 8mm strong magnets. Once assembled, the filament simply passes through the buffer whilst it is feeding. When the MMU unloads then the filament spools up inside the buffer keeping it out of the way of the other filaments. The fusion file is included if you would like to adapt the design for your own purposes. Be warned that this has been a WIP so the file is not as efficient as it could be.