Ender-3 V3 SE filament guide

Description

This filament guide is suitable for the Ender-3 V3 SE and can be installed in place of the spool mount on top of the frame. ---- ## **Key features:** - Easy to mount - Pre-positioned prints - No supports necessary - Compact design - Integrated hinge - Reverse bowden capability - Center mounted ---- ## **Note:** - I just printed this thing and cannot guarantee its longevity - I might improve the model later on, but it is functional for now - If you want something edited or some tolerances seem to be off, just let me know and I'll adjust the design ---- ## **What you will need:** - PTFE tube (4mm outer diameter, around 250mm in length) - Separate spool holder (I use a filament dryer, but any (printed) external holder will suffice) - Ender-3_V3_SE_PTFE_Guide_bracket (printed part) - Ender-3_V3_SE_PTFE_Guide_mount (printed part) ---- ## **How it works:** The filament guide replaces the spool mount on top of the printer. The guide consists of a piece of PTFE tube to ease the throughput of filament and connect the filament spool to the extruder. The guide also acts like a hinge, allowing the user to place the spool or printer wherever they want. ---- ## **Why I made this:** The Ender-3 V3 SE uses the same spool holder as the original Ender-3. On the Ender 3, this was just fine, the frame was sturdy enough to carry a spool without stressing the frame too much. Also, the Ender-3 is made of extrusion profiles, making it easy to add features like a side-mounted spool holder to lower the strain on the top frame. Since this improved Ender-3 V3 SE has a somewhat less sturdy frame and is capable of higher movement speeds, mounting a 1kg spool on top of the machine will cause some unwanted play and noticeable vibrations. After lifting up the spool by hand, the frame moved to an unstressed position and bent back quite a bit. This printer contains lots of moulded and new parts, resulting in no compatibility in terms of previous Ender-3 upgrades. So there are no side spool mounts available (yet). Also, the printer uses a direct extruder, which requires input from the top of the printer, so just an external spool mount will not resolve the problem. So, I wanted to remove the spool from the top of the frame and guide the filament towards the extruder in a sleek way. The main goals here are to **prevent stressing the frame** and **allow filament input from the top of the printer**. The spool holder is mounted using two bolts in the middle of the moulded top section. This makes it an ideal position to mount a filament guide. The filament guide will also aid the use of a filament dryer box, whose output can be connected to the filament guide creating a reliable reverse bowden setup. If you do not have a dryer box, I would recommend printing a spool holder. There are a lot of different models out [here on Thingiverse], so you will probably find one that suits your needs. Keep in mind that no currently available side-mounted options can be installed on this printer. ---- ## **How to install:** 1. Remove the filament holder by unscrewing the two bolts with the second largest hex key provided with the printer. Keep the bolts and key nearby, as you will need them later on. 2. Take your piece of PTFE tube and guide it through the first two holes of the bracket, one by one. - Start with the hole on the long end. I used a pneumatic fitting to pull the PTFE tube through the first hole since the tube was too slippery to pull by hand. - After pulling the tube about 200 millimetres through the first hole proceed with guiding the end about a centimetre through the second hole. 3. Now you want to take the printed mount and align its holes around the third hole of the bracket, creating the outside of a hinge. You can now proceed with guiding the PTFE tube all the way up to the end support in the mount. You can look through the hole in the bottom of the mount to confirm it is touching the end support. 4. Install the assembled filament guide using the two previously unscrewed M5 bolts. - Position the mount over the holes and screw the bolts a few turns in by hand. - Push the mount firmly up to the front of the frame and tighten the screws afterwards. 5. Heat up the nozzle to about 180 degrees, pull the filament out and cut off the end at a 45-degree angle. You can also use the 'retract' function via the 'prepare' menu and follow the steps as provided on the screen. Guide the end of your filament through the PTFE tube and out of the filament guide. Feed the filament back into the extruder and you are done. ---- ## **How I designed this:** After looking up some filament guide examples, I found [this neat PTFE filament guide] which is remixed from [this guide] I used the remixed file to align the holes. I recreated the part with adjusted hole diameters and designed a mounting part that fits the Ender-3 V3 SE. The mount is compatible with the same M5 bolts as the ones used to mount the spool holder. Since I recently replaced the PTFE tube of my Ender-3, I decided to use this part. The outside diameter of this tube is 4mm, but I adjusted the holes to 4,1mm since I had to drill out the 4mm holes that I used initially. I figured it would be a lot easier to be able to position the spool anywhere behind or next to my printer instead of in a predefined position based on the direction the filament guide is facing. I added a hinge to cover a lot of area making sure the spool can be positioned anywhere behind the printer The hinge makes use of the PTFE tube as the core, which will act like the nail in a door hinge. To prevent the PTFE tube from being pulled through the guide, I made a 3mm end stop inside the mount. I also added a small fillet to allow greater angles if the extruder is high up the z-axis. Since the Ender-3 V3 SE cannot move all the way up to the top, stressing the filament because of tight angles should not be an issue. [this neat PTFE filament guide]: [https://www.printables.com/model/237494-filament-guide-for-mk3-and-sunlu-dryer] [this guide]: [https://www.printables.com/model/219652-filament-guide-for-prusa-mk2mk3]

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