TrinityLabs Micro Extruder 1.0

thingiverse

This is the first 1.0 release of the new TrinityLabs micro direct drive extruder platform. This direct pinch extruder uses a small gear head stepper from eMinebea that is 56oz/in holding torque before the 30:1 delrin planetary gear head. So this little motor has way more then plenty of torque to direct drive 3mm or 1.75mm filament. The motor is also so small it only weighs 118grams. And so this entire extruder including the motor, the extruder body, the idler, all vitamins, a 40mm fan and shroud and a Jhead hot end only weighs a grand total of 199grams. Compare this to 560grams for an average Wades or 790grams for a MakerGear plastruder and you can see that this little extruder can allow you to print very fast without the need for a bowden cable setup since the motor is so lightweight. I have tested this extruder with 5 klilos of plastic and print quality is excellent all the way up to 200mm/sec and probably further even. It is even capable of lifting a MendelMax 3d printer off the table and have it climb up the 3mm filament if it it bnot rowing freely from the spool(don't ask me how I know this;). The only issue I had with the entire 5 kilos of testing was during a 12hour + ABS print at 230C I melted the delrin gear head enough to warp it and ruin that motor. So I have added a fan shroud with a 40mm cpu cooler fan that bows on the back of the gear head stepper motor and this has fixed that issue entirely. I am now very confident this extruder is ready for prime time. So I hereby release version 1.0 that is well tested and printing very nicely. Since this thing has so very light stay tuned for a dual extruder version com in very soon that will still weigh less then a single Wades extruder! We now have this motor as well as the hobbled gear and all vitamins and printed parts in our store here >> http://store.mendelmax.com/lightweight-gearhead-stepper-for-trinity-micro-extruder/ Instructions If you want to print the Extruder body, Idler and Fan Shroud all in one plater then print the trinity-micro-extruder-and-fan-shroud-plate-v1.0.stl file. If you just want the extruder and idler then print the trinity-micro-extruder-v1.0.STL file. If you only want the fan shroud for this motor to use with another extruder like RCX(Ron's Compact Extruder) then print the trinity-micro-fan-shround-v1.0.stl file. Assembly is fairly easy. You will need: 1 x 605ZZ skate bearing that is 14mm OD, 5mm ID and 5mm wide. 1 x M5 10mm long bolt for the idler to spin on 1 x blddk or makerbot or mini hyena hobbed gear for a 5mm shaft 2 x M3 25mm long bolts 2 x M3 nylock nuts 1 x 40mm CPU fan 1 x M3 60mm long bolt with a spring on it and a washer on it for tightening the idler 1 x wood or aluminum adapter plate for mounting a wades extruder to a prusa x carriage 1 x eMinebea gearhead stepper model number PG35L-048-USC0 ( available in the http://trinitylabs.com store with the old gear pulled and a blddk or makerbot hobbled gear pre-installed) 1 x set of printed body, idler and fan shroud 1 x hot end with groove mount mounting system Assembly is fairly easy. You can pretty much see how it goes together by looking at these photos attached to this thing. The last 3 photos in the set of images are prints done with this extruder. The printed slot, the mendelmax x-end and the terminator skull were all printed with this extruder in 3mm ABS filament with a jhead 0.5mm nozzle.