Ultimaker Original Feeder Upgrade (& history)

[antiklesys 3]

Since I got my Ultimaker I was really frustrated with the design of the feeder.

I found it unreliable.

Back in the days the ultimaker feeder was just composed by two pieces of plastc creating tension on the filament.

Here was my first feeder upgrade which I designed to include a cheap bearing: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:21674

Then it was remixed to make it stronger: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25490

I tried both these, and bertho's which is basically the same plus a spring, but I wasn't still satisfied and what I ended up doing was to turn the nut on the spring as much as I could...and that still wasn't enough.

I decided to go back to Geo Hangen's design, which worked fine for me for a lot of time. It is strong and reliable, but outdated (link: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:15897 )

I destroyed my old one (literally, broke several pieces of my print accidentally lol) and printed a new one including in the design the spring concept, but from a different point of view.

In my design the nut on the spring is used to reduce the pressure on the filament rather than add it.

So far I've been printing with it all day with no major issues (apart from burning a polulo stepper driver due having set the wrong ESTEPS initially ).

Your thoughts?

Pictures below:

My idea now is to design a feeder which is based on the same concept but works with the stock UM parts.

Any feedback and suggestions are welcome.

 

[antiklesys 3]

Design has now been finalized and posted on YouMagine: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/modified-geo-hangen-ultimaker-extruder-by-antiklesys--2