Jeez, this thing is a lot larger than it looks in other pictures. Kind of awesome that they’re using one of those tiny little metal gear motors and that they’re strong enough to drive the filament. This article shows the guts of the device, so it’s awesome to see how it was accomplished.
http://anthony.liekens.net/index.php/Computers/3DoodlerPrinter
They actually have two little metal gear motors in there. I guess one wasn’t strong enough.
What is that blue plastic next to the nozzle made of?
@Billy Looks like silicone to me.
Whilst an interesting hack, it’s never going to make a viable 3D printer without retraction or travel. Or perhaps I’m guilty of taking this a bit too seriously?
@Chris_Roberts_chrisj add an optical mouse sensor to read the tick marks on the filament post-extruder, boom – closed loop system.
@Chris_Roberts_chrisj , retraction is a relatively recent addition to hobby printers. For a few years it was all dc motor constant extrusion. That said, it wouldn’t make a very good printer