Hypercube Extruders

Direct drive and Bowden swappable extruders for the Hypercube design of printer.

See full details and source on github: https://github.com/alanmcruickshank/hypercube-extruders.

More details on the design of the direct drive extruder here: http://designingoverload.com/2019/07/21/new-hypercube-extruder-designs/

Background

These extruders take a lot of their design inspiration from the original hypercube design by Tech2C. In particular the bowden extruder is very similar and credit for that original design should go to Tech2C. The Direct drive extruder is loosely modelled on the PrusaMk3 extruder but with a completely redesigned idler design.

Motivations

Both the Bowden and Direct extruders are designed to be swappable on the hypercube, and to fit within the build volume of a stock designed hypecube without having to move any of the other parts to make it functional. In particular, working out how to enclose the stepper motor and blower fans for the Direct Drive extruder was the most tricky. The latter allows the Hypercube design of printer to print flexible filaments like TPU.

Both extruders use the same print head mounting as Tech2C designed for the orignal hypercube and are designed to fit to a normal hypercube X-carriage.

Neither of the extruders include an inductive Z probe. They are designed for an AnyCubic Ultrabase bed (Glass), and so use a Z endstop rather than a probe. Anyone wishing to add a Z probe mount to the designs, pull requests will be considered, or people are welcome to duplicate and edit these designs on Thingiverse of fork this repository on Github. Please link back to this repository or the designs on Github, I'd love to help people find the right extruder for them.

Design and Assembly

All the CAD work is in OpenSCAD to enable people to edit the designs themselves if they like.

Given that these components will be near heat, I strongly recomment printing in PETG rather than PLA. All of these parts have been printed at .2mm layer heights and have worked fine. Some post processing/cleanup on holes may be required.

The OpenSCAD files also depend on the chamfered primitives library: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1305888