I’m thinking of changing my wanhao i3 plus to a bowden setup as the filament putting tension on the print head when using direct extruder affects quality. Also other reasons.
So. What is a good all metal hotend and bowden setup that would suit the wanhao i3+ ?
Hmmm, I’d always recommend an E3D so a v6 and a Titan or Bondtech BMG extruder would be the direct answer (pun).
But I’m not a fan of Bowden/ v6 in the case of an i3 - my Di3’s all have Titan Aeros for direct drive - the mount is rigid. I haven’t done the upgrade on my Plus yet but I intend to.
I’ve gone from BondtechQR+bowden+e3dv6 to a BondtechBMG+e3dv6 (my water cooled version) and I will never go back to a bowden setup. Direct drive all the way.
Have the same printer (under the Monoprice brand), and having trouble imagining how there could be enough tension on the filament to affect print quality. Maybe you can offer some examples?
Also I believe a Bowden setup would be a step backwards.
@Preston_Bannister ok, everyone seems to agree Bowden sucks so I’ll take that onboard. After @Daryl_Bond and @raykholo mentioned Bondtech BMG I looked it up and seems it can be used direct or bowden so I can try either way if I want.
I’ll also review my filament delivery system.
@Martin_Dolan Keep in mind, I have the same printer. Not going to over-rate the stock extruder, but in my experience it is not often a problem. In you post an example, perhaps one of the folk here will see something and suggest a direction.
This field has a lot of folklore floating around, some dubious. Normal for a field in an early stage. Problems can easily be far from obvious to diagnose.
We don’t like bowden in this specific application. I have it working well on machines where the head is light and it moves fast - like my MKVS Delta and DICE CoreXY.
Here, where the bed moves, the relatively lightweight direct drive head is appropriate.
@Preston_Bannister ok, I’ll post some examples but first I want to install my Y pulley and belt tension upgrades as I know that’s a problem. The X belt tensioner I installed made a huge improvement to ghosting on that axis.
Also want to install all the wiring for the bltouch and lights while I have the printer in bits…
@raykholo This is in danger of becoming a different topic. I agree in the case of an i3-clone (slamming around the fricking bed and print in Y), the direct drive head is relatively insubstantial in weight.
However … in the Bowden setup the properties of the filament as a spring become essential to printing. This is a very bad idea.
(Yes, we can futz around and make it work, kinda/mostly. Until we change filament - in kind or even new batch.)
To move the motor-mass off the print-head, better to use a remote-drive (with fixed properties) like the Zesty Nimble. At least in concept, this is a much better notion. But … I have not tested such. No notion if there are problems in practice.
@Preston_Bannister
That Nimble looks interesting but by the time you buy the numble and the sidewinder which you also need you’re up for 250+…
Hello
Hi Daryl, could you share how you mounted the BMG + E3D to your i3 plus? I would like to attempt to migrate to this configuration
Hi @BurntToast! This is content that was imported to MakerForums from Google+ when Google shut down Google+ (thus the gplus label), and @Daryl_Bond has not yet logged into MakerForums, so won’t get notification of your question, sadly. 