The Ultimaker2 has proved itself to be an excellent - Thingiverse
Using 1.75 Filament on your Ultimaker2 Instructions with examples Overview: The Ultimaker2 has proved itself to be an excellent choice for the 3D printing enthusiast. I have consistently been impressed by its precision and flexibility. The open nature of the product and and the user base places it a unique position to be the printer for the common man. In an attempt to enhance this flexibility I want to contribute this information to open up the use of 1.75 filament to the printers capabilities. Reasons you may wish to use 1.75mm filament: 1. You already have a ready supply 1.75mm filament 2. Your filament feeder stepper motor occasionally skips while pushing your 3.85mm filament through the nozzle. 3. The special filament you want to use only comes in 1.75mm I am sure there may be other reasons to use smaller filament but one reason is not that using 1.75mm tubing is superior to using 3.85 mm products. Required tools and components: You may have some of the tools listed here but all these items can be found on Ebay or Amazon. 2 each Push lock fittings 12 Pcs M5 Male Thread to 4mm Hole Tube Push in Connect Straight Quick Fittings
These fittings have 10-32 threads
One of these 2Pcs Ultimaker2 Hot End Isolator Coupler PTFE Tefon inner sleeve, Ultimaker2 (note there is an alternative to this which I prefer, described in text below)
These are made for 1.75mm flament One of these for your new Bowden tube
PTFE Tefon Tubing Pipe For 3D Printer 1.75mm Filament RepRap Rostock One of these taps to thread your printed parts Hand Tap 10 32
Perhaps a 2mm drill bit to upsize the lumen in you printed parts in case they are not 2mm all the way through
And a 4mm drill to open up your 3mm Hot end Isolator (optional described in text)
Also you may need the following tubing (optional described in text) 5pcs 304 Stainless Steel Capillary Tube OD 3mm x 2mm ID, Length 0.25m
This tube is excellent in adapting your nozzle to use 1.75mm flament
Then you need to print the following parts: (ignore the ones in gray)
elements in UM2for175.scad I printed these parts using ABS at 230ºC with a bed temperature of 100ºC The nozzle was 0.3mm Layer height was 0.1mm I used a very thin coating of ABS in Acetone to prepare the glass build plate. If you should need a thicker clip to hold your Extruder Adapter you can adjust the clip's thickness in the OpenSCAD fle as necessary. The parts indicated in gray are for future development or were trys that as yet do not work. This is a work in progress, My frst successful adaptation was to a length of Watts ¼ in PVC tube under tension between the extruder head and the flament feeder to keep the Tefon feeder tube liner tight against the top of the extruder nozzle. This worked but it did require more attention than this design. With the Extruder Adapter locking the 4mm tubing all of the pressure exerted by the flament feeder is bucked by the Extruder ftting and the Extruder Adapter body. The force generated via the flament pushing against the nozzle and the preloaded tension necessary to prevent melted flament from oozing out between the interface of the nozzel top and the Hot End Isolator may be great enough to fracture the Extruder adapter tube. It would be a good idea to have and extra Extruder Adapter at the ready for just such an occasion.
Putting all this together: Keep in mind that the goal is not just to to replace the original 6mm OD Bowden tube having a 3mm ID with a replacement Tefon 4mm OD tube having a 2mm id. Our goal is to have a complete pathway from the bottom of the Filament Feeder to the tip of the nozzle that is 2mm ID. To do this we will need to address several area. It is the goal of this discussion to assist you in achieving this proper pathway for 1.75 mm flament. The ultimaker2 has at least two diferent flament feeder designs. Although from the outside they look identical the later model includes a metal ferrel at the bottom with a wider pathway up through the ball bearing pinch spring lever. In addition the newer version has a wider flament pathway in the upper portion. With the later model the larger pathway is a problem for 1.75 flament. You will need to replace the metal ferrel with the printed lower flament feeder guide part. This part extends up through the pinch wheel arm and keeps the flament centered between the pinch bearing and the knurled drive pinion.
Lower Filament Feeder Guide tube On the upper part of the feeder there needs to be a way to accept the flament as it leaves the pinch wheel area and guide it into the smaller Bowden tube. The upper guide includes a thicker part that accepts threads to accept the Push Lock tubing ftting. This part replaces the collet that held the original Bowden tube. My printed part ft pretty well but depending upon you print the part may need to be adjusted to give a nice ft in the upper portion of the flament feeder.
Upper Filament Feeder Guide tube
The top of this part needs to be threaded using a 10-32 tap to accept the Puse Lock tubing ftting. It is recommended to remove the o-ring from the ftting since it servers no purpose and in its absence more threads will be in contact with the Upper Filament Feeder Guide
Press Lock Tubing Fitting Fitting the 4mm OD Bowden tubing along the wire loom will require some small pieces of 6mm OD thin wall tubing. Your 6mm OD Bowden will not work for this unless you enlarge the 3mm ID lumen to something the 4mm OD Bowden with ft through. I chose to get some inexpensive 6mm OD PFE tubing from a local hardware that the new Bowden tube easily ft through. To use this just cut this poly tubing in to small segments and install those in the tubing holders along the loom then thread the new 4mm Bowden tube through each of these small segments. The next ftting is the long Extruder adapter that goes into the collet at the top of the extruder. Like the Filament Feeder Upper Fitting this one requires the large end to be threaded using the 10-32 tap to accept the other Press Lock Tubing ftting. With this in place this tube should be inserted into the feeder just like the original Bowden tube and held in place with the original collet. It should go all the way down and rest tightly on the Tefon Hot isolator coupling and secured using the small original clip.
Hot End Isolator Coupling A note concerning the Hot End Isolator coupling. You can order the 1.75mm version on Ebay or if you have a used 3mm ID one that is perhaps a bit rough on the hot end it may be fne to us this. To adapt it you should use a drill and enlarge the lumen to ft the Tefon Bowden tube. If you choose to do this you should also drill the end of the Extruder adapter to accept the liner piece of Tefon lining tubing and be sure that the tube is long enough to go all the way through the Hot end isolator and rest on the top of the nozzle. It is good idea to have a bit extra of the liner to keep some pressure pushing down on the top of the nozzle.
Extruder Adapter To complete the pathway you need to have a nozzle assembly that is 1.75mm. I prefer to use my Olson Block which is 3mm and adapt it using 2mm ID stainless tubing. To do this you should taper the extruder tip end of the tubing to ft into the bottom of the nozzle. Then cut the stainless tubing a bit long (.5mm or so) to make sure it makes a snug ft with the Hot End isolator (or your Tefon liner tube). With this fnal addition you have completed making a full 1.75mm pathway from extruder to tip. My experience using the components and methods described are all positive. The addition of the Extruder adapter and Upper Filament Feeder adapter are superior to the lined tension tube arrangement because having that much tension inside the PVC tube caused it to distort and added some addition resistance to the flament pathway in my opinion. I have logged over 400 hours of printing 1.75mm flament and fnd that I prefer using the smaller flament over the larger. My experience is that it improves feeder performance simply because it reduces the load on the feeder stepper motor. The following are a few photos to try and show how it all goes together
0.3 Nozzle, Steel Liner, Olson Block, Hot End Isolator & Tefon tube, with adapter
Upper Filament Adapter & Extruder Adapter
Tubing retainer with 4mm Bowden passing through
Extruder Adapter in place
Upper Filament Feeder Adapter Installed
These fittings have 10-32 threads
One of these 2Pcs Ultimaker2 Hot End Isolator Coupler PTFE Tefon inner sleeve, Ultimaker2 (note there is an alternative to this which I prefer, described in text below)
These are made for 1.75mm flament One of these for your new Bowden tube
PTFE Tefon Tubing Pipe For 3D Printer 1.75mm Filament RepRap Rostock One of these taps to thread your printed parts Hand Tap 10 32
Perhaps a 2mm drill bit to upsize the lumen in you printed parts in case they are not 2mm all the way through
And a 4mm drill to open up your 3mm Hot end Isolator (optional described in text)
Also you may need the following tubing (optional described in text) 5pcs 304 Stainless Steel Capillary Tube OD 3mm x 2mm ID, Length 0.25m
This tube is excellent in adapting your nozzle to use 1.75mm flament
Then you need to print the following parts: (ignore the ones in gray)
elements in UM2for175.scad I printed these parts using ABS at 230ºC with a bed temperature of 100ºC The nozzle was 0.3mm Layer height was 0.1mm I used a very thin coating of ABS in Acetone to prepare the glass build plate. If you should need a thicker clip to hold your Extruder Adapter you can adjust the clip's thickness in the OpenSCAD fle as necessary. The parts indicated in gray are for future development or were trys that as yet do not work. This is a work in progress, My frst successful adaptation was to a length of Watts ¼ in PVC tube under tension between the extruder head and the flament feeder to keep the Tefon feeder tube liner tight against the top of the extruder nozzle. This worked but it did require more attention than this design. With the Extruder Adapter locking the 4mm tubing all of the pressure exerted by the flament feeder is bucked by the Extruder ftting and the Extruder Adapter body. The force generated via the flament pushing against the nozzle and the preloaded tension necessary to prevent melted flament from oozing out between the interface of the nozzel top and the Hot End Isolator may be great enough to fracture the Extruder adapter tube. It would be a good idea to have and extra Extruder Adapter at the ready for just such an occasion.
Putting all this together: Keep in mind that the goal is not just to to replace the original 6mm OD Bowden tube having a 3mm ID with a replacement Tefon 4mm OD tube having a 2mm id. Our goal is to have a complete pathway from the bottom of the Filament Feeder to the tip of the nozzle that is 2mm ID. To do this we will need to address several area. It is the goal of this discussion to assist you in achieving this proper pathway for 1.75 mm flament. The ultimaker2 has at least two diferent flament feeder designs. Although from the outside they look identical the later model includes a metal ferrel at the bottom with a wider pathway up through the ball bearing pinch spring lever. In addition the newer version has a wider flament pathway in the upper portion. With the later model the larger pathway is a problem for 1.75 flament. You will need to replace the metal ferrel with the printed lower flament feeder guide part. This part extends up through the pinch wheel arm and keeps the flament centered between the pinch bearing and the knurled drive pinion.
Lower Filament Feeder Guide tube On the upper part of the feeder there needs to be a way to accept the flament as it leaves the pinch wheel area and guide it into the smaller Bowden tube. The upper guide includes a thicker part that accepts threads to accept the Push Lock tubing ftting. This part replaces the collet that held the original Bowden tube. My printed part ft pretty well but depending upon you print the part may need to be adjusted to give a nice ft in the upper portion of the flament feeder.
Upper Filament Feeder Guide tube
The top of this part needs to be threaded using a 10-32 tap to accept the Puse Lock tubing ftting. It is recommended to remove the o-ring from the ftting since it servers no purpose and in its absence more threads will be in contact with the Upper Filament Feeder Guide
Press Lock Tubing Fitting Fitting the 4mm OD Bowden tubing along the wire loom will require some small pieces of 6mm OD thin wall tubing. Your 6mm OD Bowden will not work for this unless you enlarge the 3mm ID lumen to something the 4mm OD Bowden with ft through. I chose to get some inexpensive 6mm OD PFE tubing from a local hardware that the new Bowden tube easily ft through. To use this just cut this poly tubing in to small segments and install those in the tubing holders along the loom then thread the new 4mm Bowden tube through each of these small segments. The next ftting is the long Extruder adapter that goes into the collet at the top of the extruder. Like the Filament Feeder Upper Fitting this one requires the large end to be threaded using the 10-32 tap to accept the other Press Lock Tubing ftting. With this in place this tube should be inserted into the feeder just like the original Bowden tube and held in place with the original collet. It should go all the way down and rest tightly on the Tefon Hot isolator coupling and secured using the small original clip.
Hot End Isolator Coupling A note concerning the Hot End Isolator coupling. You can order the 1.75mm version on Ebay or if you have a used 3mm ID one that is perhaps a bit rough on the hot end it may be fne to us this. To adapt it you should use a drill and enlarge the lumen to ft the Tefon Bowden tube. If you choose to do this you should also drill the end of the Extruder adapter to accept the liner piece of Tefon lining tubing and be sure that the tube is long enough to go all the way through the Hot end isolator and rest on the top of the nozzle. It is good idea to have a bit extra of the liner to keep some pressure pushing down on the top of the nozzle.
Extruder Adapter To complete the pathway you need to have a nozzle assembly that is 1.75mm. I prefer to use my Olson Block which is 3mm and adapt it using 2mm ID stainless tubing. To do this you should taper the extruder tip end of the tubing to ft into the bottom of the nozzle. Then cut the stainless tubing a bit long (.5mm or so) to make sure it makes a snug ft with the Hot End isolator (or your Tefon liner tube). With this fnal addition you have completed making a full 1.75mm pathway from extruder to tip. My experience using the components and methods described are all positive. The addition of the Extruder adapter and Upper Filament Feeder adapter are superior to the lined tension tube arrangement because having that much tension inside the PVC tube caused it to distort and added some addition resistance to the flament pathway in my opinion. I have logged over 400 hours of printing 1.75mm flament and fnd that I prefer using the smaller flament over the larger. My experience is that it improves feeder performance simply because it reduces the load on the feeder stepper motor. The following are a few photos to try and show how it all goes together
0.3 Nozzle, Steel Liner, Olson Block, Hot End Isolator & Tefon tube, with adapter
Upper Filament Adapter & Extruder Adapter
Tubing retainer with 4mm Bowden passing through
Extruder Adapter in place
Upper Filament Feeder Adapter Installed
