Filament guide tube problem

[b8smat]

I found another problem this weekend that can cause the extruder to fail. My filament guide tube was not dead vertical where it entered the extruder drive housing. As a result the filament started wearing a groove in the side of the entry hole of the drive housing. Over time this got to the point where it caused too much friction and then the extruder stopped extruding.

The filament guide tube seems to be relying mostly on luck to stay vertical and can easily be nudged to one side by the hot end cabling. For now I have a temporary solution - a zip tie arounf the guide tube and through the top part of the extruder motor mount help keep it vertical.

[b8smat]

Picture of the "fix"... (apologies for poor phone camera picture)

2014-06-16.jpg (31.38 KiB) Viewed 9184 times

[outlaw704]

Same problem here. Maybe printing a vertical guide pipe that rises vertically out of the extruder housing and clears the wiring harness out of the way might be a solution.

My filament eventually "sawed" a keyhole shape into the top of the housing.

[b8smat]

That's what I was thinking too. Does anyone have something to share?

[jimc]

i have a couple on thingiverse but the best one is rsilvers drive. believe me I've tried them all. here is his. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:267137

i also took the stock makergear filament drive and added a tube support to the top. that is located here.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:177509

[j-rod]

lol that's exactly what i did to mine initially. last night i printed out my first ABS piece which happened to be jim's drive for the E3Dv6 which has support for the filament tube. (thanks jim!)

turned out alright i think. i took this before really cleaning it up at all.

20140619_073309.jpg (220.37 KiB) Viewed 9136 times

[jimc]

looks pretty darn good to me. i know i have posted this elsewhere but run a 2mm or 3/32 drill bit down the filament path. it just makes sure it nice, smooth and round. also i took some 220 grit sandpaper and spent some time smoothing out the layer marks from the dovetails. it makes the cover slide on and off so much nicer.