Stripped filament tensioner nut holder

[Trnquill]

I stripped the nut holder inside the filament tensioner of my Felix 1.5 extruder... I guess there was some dirt or something in the threads of the bolt which cause the nut to seize. I tried not to use too much force but of course the hexagonal hole in the filament tensioner bit stripped. Now I have no idea how to unscrew to bolt to get the tensioner off to repair or replace it. Any good ideas?

I disassembled the extruder until all I had was stepper motor and the extruder body part mounted to it. It would help to remove the stepper motor but one of the mounting bolts sits right behind the filament tensioner! I can see no other way than drilling a hole through the tensioner to get access to the nut.

To get the tensioner bolt off I think the only solution is cutting it in half somehow. There is maybe just enough room between the tensioner and extruder body to fit a hacksaw blade. I just wonder if there is room inside the extruder body part to move the blade back and forth enough to actually cut the bolt.

If and when I manage to get the bolt off i think I'll have to repair the tensioning system somehow. Has anyone done any upgrades to it?

Any ideas would be highly appreciated!

[Kjetilei]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune

I believe I know what nut you are talking about: the M4 thin nut on the extruder arm on page 16 in the 1.5 v4 manual. You could try to Dremel, saw, cut, melt out an access "hole" and jam a screw driver or similar to "lock" the nut in place while you loosen the bolt.

That way you should be able to fix it afterwards with some glue or similar and print a new extruder arm.

Hope this gives you some input/inspiration to succeed with the recovery!

[Trnquill]

I believe I know what nut you are talking about: the M4 thin nut on the extruder arm on page 16 in the 1.5 v4 manual. You could try to Dremel, saw, cut, melt out an access "hole" and jam a screw driver or similar to "lock" the nut in place while you loosen the bolt.

Yes, that's the bolt! Unfortunately it is so jammed I can see no way to screw it open. I already pushed a small sharp screw driver between the nut and tensioner and extruder body but the nut sits too tight to open like this. Maybe it could be done with a good wrench... Sadly there is not enough room between the tensioner and extruder body to fit a wcrench. If I push the bolt deeper (squeezing the crinkled washers) and at the same time push the tensioner the other way I can see a millimeter or two of the bolt peeking from the tensioner. In theory this could be enough to hold the nut with a good wrench but who knows.

I think I'll have to basically destroy the filament tensioner or in bad situation the extruder body also to get the bolt out.

[gfeliksdal]

Hi Trnquill, sorry to hear about this.

This sounds difficult to fix without destroying the plastic parts. Maybe during assembly the bolt went not straight into the nut?

A possible solution could be when pushing the bolt to get the nut a little outside you could use some long thin pliers to get hold of the nut. put some grease wd-40 on the thread on the nut and then try to turn it loose with the allen key.

Otherwise, best bet would be to destroy extruder arm with a drill or something else. Then with pliers you will definately get it off. I can send you a new plastic extruder arm and possibly other destroyed parts.

Kind regards,

Guillaume.

[Trnquill]

I managed to get the bolt out but now the extruder body is sligthly brused and the extruder arm is almost totally destroyed. I managed to do a hack that MIGHT make it work for a little while. I did this because I wanted to be able to print a new extruder arm to replace the old one. I was very exited to get the extruder in one piece again quickly browsed this forum to find the files for the extruder. To my great disapointment the file I found was GCODE! I don't think my printer will hold in one piece for printing the WHOLE extruder, all I wanted was the arm. Oh well, what can you do...

I'll email you gfeliksdal.

[gfeliksdal]

Please check here for the seperate gcode files.
http://www.felixprinters.com/forum/view ... rt=20#p659

Kind regards,

Guillaume

[Trnquill]

Awesome! I'll try them, thanks!

[Trnquill]

It worked! I'm currently priting secong extruder arm since the first one was basically the worst print I have ever made! The remains of the extruder arm were rubbing against the extruder wheel throughout the print, I was getting really intermitten extrusion and had to help the filament extrude by pushing it in with my hand... But the final part of the first try was close enough and I was able to use it as temporary extruder arm. This second go (65% and still printing...) looks really really good!

Thanks gfeliksdal for really quick help! Awesome!