So what are all the cool kids using as extruders these days? I thought it might be time to upgrade my Greg’s hinged extruder. It works ok, but doesn’t do retractions very well.
Direct drive, not geared, spring loaded arm with bearing pivoting on one of the screw holes of the nema 17. Fairly straightforward and popular design. PTFE guide tube going all the way up to the drive gear and E3Dv6/ lite securely clamped in place.
Same thing but adapted with mounting tabs for remote mounting and the extruder-side ptfe receptacle to accommodate Bowden on the E3D Chimera.
I have a bowden setup and an E3D. Can you link to this extruder design?
It’s my own extruder design but based heavily on other design concepts in the open source community. You can message me on hangouts.
Bowden? 1.75 or 3mm?
Bowden, 1.75mm.
Ok, For 1.75mm I really like the B’struder (which I designed) http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:711401
Have a look at redsalamander s extruder it’s on thingyverse and http://3done.co.za. it’s an arm with a bearing and spring the arm is ptfe lined. Redsalamander’s Extruder found on #Thingiverse Redsalamander's Extruder by Redsalamander - Thingiverse
We have our v2 Alu extruder on sale… $29 and does ninjaflex ;).
Have a look on Bondtech extruder http://www.bondtech.se , high feeding force, no grinding/slipping and very low filament deformation.
yes the bondtech does look like a monster of an extruder that may be considered overkill by some. All things considered would not mind having one and if I was going to buy an extruder this would probably be top of my list.
The bondtech looks amazing but is crazy expensive.
Bondtech recently lowered their prices.
It’s $120 on their website. I can almost build a printer for that price.
@Shachar_Weis You can get the metal only kit for $60, then you need to source a geared nema 17 motor (~$30) http://shop.bondtech.se/ec/kits/bondtech-extruder-v2-175-mechanical-kit.html
Yes it’s a bit more expensive than almost every other extruder (I’m looking at you Micron3dp $250?! you’re joking)
That said, it’s BETTER than any other extruder I’ve used. For bowden it can’t be beat.
The old addage is true: Buy cheap, Buy twice. Buy once, Cry once.
I just can’t bring myself to pay $60 for what is essentially two metal gears and a few bolts.
$60 for two precision-machined gear+hob shafts. The tricky part is getting the hob and the gear in one part such that you get low-backlash gear meshing at the right hob spacing for proper filament bite. Some engineering know-how and some precision machining goes into it. If you don’t think that’s worth the cost, then it’s not for you 
Yeah we can’t say for you what your best $/effectiveness ratio is. But if you want the best extruder there is, then the bondtech is that. It’s incredibly well made and the hobbing on the gear is so perfect the material only has the slightest gear marks perfectly around it. Sometimes I can’t even see it. But it’s impossible to get it to slip, your motor will stall before grinding the filament.
After the bondtech then the Greg’s Wade reloaded is the best extruder there is. I really like the herculien as well but that requires a geared nema 17.
Greg’s Wade reloaded is what I have now
It has never slipped or stripped my filament, but it’s not great on retractions.
I don’t really understand what you mean by that. It’s unidirectional. Nothing changes between extrusion and retractions unless your hobbed bolt has the grooves cut in biased towards extrusion.
If you want something better there really isn’t one. except what we discussed