Anet A8 Flex Extruder

UPDATES

02/07/2017 : Updated arm for better spacing of the idler and smoother rotation, also updated piece A to fit a nut in place as a better threading solution for the bowden tube as the plastic tends to strip if pressure builds up or after disassembly for maintenance.

I needed to print flexible filament using my Anet A8 that has a Bowden setup, existing solutions online needed extra parts I didn’t have or used hack jobs that resulted in poor quality performance.

With that I designed my own solution around the existing extruder format the A8 uses, this is designed to reuse the parts in the existing extruder including idler wheel and springs and screws. This also means if you’re using the existing extruder in a Bowden setup, this is a drop in replacement with whatever mount you are already using.

The mount seen in the picture that I'm using can be found here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2146021

These parts have been tested and proven to work, for best results I have retractions turned off and ensure the printer is levelled with 0.28 gap between bed and nozzle, (I use a glass bed). Experimentation with settings will be required to get consistent results. These parts prevent the filament flexing and getting tangled resulting in failed feeding of the filament.