Single-Flexion Mount for Creality CR-10, Ender 3, etc.

Description

This is a mount adapter for the Diabase "Single Flexion" extruder, not the "E3D Flexion" model. For the E3D see Bratan's adapter at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2596560. The Single has the advantage of a shorter filament path which allows more flexible filaments. The short path also means the motor sits closer to the bed for more stability and less ringing artifacts. The Single does cost more than the E3D though. It is for the Creality CR-10, Ender 3, and a number of other Crealty printers that share the same extruder plate. It is tested and being used on an original Ender 3. The main challenge for this design has to do with the small aluminum bar that connects the hotend to the extruder and motor. It gets hot and it wouldn't be wise to directly attach the hot bar to plastic. And the off-center weight of the assembly on the plastic would be a problem with just the two screw-holes that are usually used. So this design holds the entire assembly with a clamp on the back-end of the motor. Nothing else in the assembly touches plastic. The clamp can be easily removed with just two screws on the very front of the mount and the entire assembly can be tilted out and worked on (see photo). Changing the nozzle is easy. The other challenge was the extruder cooling fan. With the assembly facing backwards there is no place to put a fan to blow directly on it. So I made the mount a closed box with the fan on the side and the only significant place for the air to escape is through a hole at the heatsink. I think this is better than the open-air fan the flexion normally uses. The box has a cover with no screws that lifts off and exposes the flexion tension control. So you can get the filament set up and test extruding and then just drop the cover on before printing. Edit: Once I forgot the put the lid on and after running for an hour the motor was cool where the bar attaches. Apparently having the fan blow on the parts from the side and not forcing it over the heatsink works well enough. I'm still going to use the lid to keep out dust if for no other reason. The mount is simple overall. Note that the bltouch is on the side instead of the front so you have a clear view of the printing (see photo of video on laptop screen). The pictures show some black blobs over the nuts. I cover the nuts in heat-gun glue to hold them in permanently. This allows removing and reinserting bolts easily. This combined with square nuts gives the ideal solution for nuts and bolts in plastic. Edit 10/8/21: I adjusted the bltouch height and made it easier to install. The height is intentionally low so you can add washers to the bltouch under the top lip to adjust height. With no washers I had to offset Z to -5 mm which meant the bltouch barely cleared the print.

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