Filament Feeder Hardware.

On Thursday morning I collected the laser cut bits from Acorn laser. I also collected some parts for my customer, had to test them, rush them to his place, whiz to Tesco, cook stuff, buy a marquee 'cos it was peeing with rain, setup the BBQ and do the host thing.

The rain did stop and it all went very well. But I was itching to get at my metal parts all the time.

Friday too was fully occupied with my Brother & family. Then Saturday I was over at my Sister's place so finally I have got the hardware tweaked and test assembled.

The top photo shows the motor mount before bending the tabs. Yes, it does look like a small dog who's parachute has failed to open.

This picture shows the filament feeder chassis with the motor mount clipped in and the gib key wedges holding it all together. (I always wanted to do that since crawling under my mum's kitchen table and realising how it was held together).






The two roller carry plates will be stacked with the three rollers between - note the way the inner parts are angled 2.5 degrees. There are some fiddly M2.5 screws to hold them together. Oh yes, there will also be a couple of bearings to take the thrust and keep the gears centralised too.

The third large disk is the spring carrier - three springs press in to push the rollers against the filament.

Ah yes, the filament - It runs vertically right through the centre.

The chassis is inspired by the design of the fusion reactor that will allow everyone to live in a first-world economy without windmills (which will never work anyway) OR destroying the environment any more. see : WWW.ITER.ORG

The chassis is upside down here (I clipped the motor mount in upside down, but it will actually all work that way too). The three slotted extensions are where the heater will clamp in using a worm-drive hose clamp.