Spring and washer on filament inlet

Hey all,

I lost one of my washers and one of my springs that go around the screws that hold the filament inlet closed. The design is incredibly odd; if you are not incredibly careful and lucky the parts will go flying (OK done venting). I was screwing the assembly in and the screw angled up and let go and went flying past me and into oblivion.

Does anyone know the washer and spring size?

 

From Melody's FAQ:
- 2x > M4x50mm screw
- 2x > M4 Nuts
- 2x > Springs 30mm uncompressed, 6.4OD, 5.4id, .5mm thick, 3mm between coils
- 4x > M4 Washer

 

FAQ's here: http://melodybliss.org/robo3d/

 

I also got tired of crawling around my basement floor looking for the stupid springs so I modified the standard extruder hinge/idler to help keep the screws captured a bit better. Also it has a nice thumb tab so you don't always need to unscrew them all the way. The STL file should be included below.

 

So freaking cool, thanks! The newer R1's (maybe they will be calling it the R2, who knows) have fixed this issue by never making you unscrew things to change filament, you just pull back on a tab against spring pressure. Forget where I saw a picture of this but it was interesting.

Thanks everyone! Anyone find a supplier for the spring? Still looking: I'm sure McMaster has them...

 

Many local hardware stores will have a close enough spring. Locally our Ace Hardware has them along with lots of metric hardware.

I usually don't have to unscrew them to put in the filament if I straighten out the first few inches by hand and twist it a bit.

Also I forgot I put these knobs from Seshan are awesome: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:194184. You may need to adjust them a bit form your particular screw head size. They just press fit together without glue!

 

Yeah I have those heads on my to-print list. I wish I had an Ace near me as Home Depot sucks nuts in the metric department.

 

Yes I agree Home Depot is pretty much useless for metric hardware.

 

Try using writing pen springs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Once you get your replacement spring and washer, it isn't necessary to unscrew them completely. I always thought you had to, but when I took my printer down to the Robo shop (I live nearby) I watched as they loaded the filament and they simply loosened the springs slightly and pulled back the piece and fed the filament. I've been doing that since and haven't had any issues with flying springs.

 

Coster, yes that is what is so nice about the combination of the screw caps and the modified extruder idler hinge with the thumb tab. After unscrewing a few turns I just squeese them both between my thumb and forefinger to load. With the stock scheme my fingers hurt from the sharp edges and I was afraid that I would stress and snap the Z rod brackets.

 

God I can not find this spring anywhere. Does this look like it would work?

http://www.amazon.com/Compression-S...=8-7&keywords=compression+spring+6.4od+metric