High visibility spiral extruder knob

High visibility spiral extruder knob

Description

The main idea behind this design is to create an extruder knob which will provide visible feedback of the extruder movement from a distance and/or a webcam, especially cheaper webcams with low resolutions where the details of a conventional knob aren't easily distinguishable. The design is consisted of two parts: 1) The main body (Extruder_Knob_v1.stl) 2) The spiral insert (Extruder_Knob_Insert_v2.stl). It isn't necessary to print this part. If you wish you can paint the grooves of the main body if you have more color options in paint than in filament. Tolerances: The main body is <b>designed to fit a 5mm motor shaft with a notch</b> (a flat surface where a grab screw goes.. I don't know how it is called). There is a 0.3mm tolerance for that hole which resulted in a slightly tight fit for my printer. The spirals are 0.5mm smaller than the main body's grooves which should result in a very loose fit. In my case, I could just drop the insert on top of the main body and it would screw itself just by gravity. Nevertheless, It didn't seem to create any kind of rattling. Print suggestions: The main body should be pretty straight-forward. It should be printed standing up but it doesn't really matter which side is up. I preferred to print the narrow end at the bottom with a small raft for a nice top finish (however the top of the main body won't be visible if you also print the insert). I strongly suggest to do a test print with the narrow end down and stop it when the printer starts bridging the hole to test-fit it on your extruder. If it is a decently-tight fit, you can safely print the part. Also, I used 20% infill but I'm pretty sure it should be fine even with 0 (didn't test it tho). The insert doesn't require supports but due to it's small size, I found very useful to lower the print temperature by 5 degrees (Celsius). It might also be beneficial to print it in a lower-than-usual speed

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