Anycubic I3 Mega S/Pro direct extruder Upgrade

Status: FINISHED

This Thing includes all parts to Upgrade your Anycubic I3 Mega S/Pro for TPU printing. I created this Thing inspired by ThomasTheCreator's youtube-video (watch here) where he repositioned the extruder directly onto his hotend for direct-extruder-like behaviour beacause the dimensions seemed to not fit properly and i wanted to use printed parts instead of aluminum plates. The whole build is tested with ANYCUBIC PLA and eSUN TPU 95A and works great, softer variants of TPU are planned but not tested.

How to build

Important: Print all parts first before disassembling your printer to avoid doing it multiple times.

1. Print the "extruder_bracket.stl", "tube_holder.stl" and "tube_ring.stl", the file "tube_holder_bracket.stl" is similiar to the original extruder bracket.
2. Unmount the extruder und disassemble it to remove the bowden-tube holder, here the tube-holder has to be inserted to keep the other parts in place.
3. Cut a piece of bowden-tube to XXmm
4. Remove the long piece of bowden-tube from your hotend and insert the cut piece, make sure to insert it all the way to avoid a filament-jam in your hotend.
5. Remove the upper two screws on your sliding rails and the front left screw on top of your hotend-casing
6. Mount the extruder-bracket, the front-left screw has to be replaced by a M3-screw with a minimum length of 8mm
7. Plug the free end of the bowden-tube into your prepared extruder and mount it with M4-screws and washers to the extruder-bracket.
8. Insert the unused bowden-tube holder into the filament-holder and mount it to the tube-holder-bracket. This can now be mounted to the original position of the extruder.
9. Extend your extruder-cables and plug it back into your extruder.
10. Reconnect your extruder with the bowden-tube and you are ready-to-go!

Recommended setting changes:

• reduce retraction to one third, this minimizes the extruder-wear to a minimum
• your build hight is now decreased by approx. 70mm, this should be changed in your machine settings

Needed material

3D-printed:
1x extruder_bracket.stl
1x tube_ring.stl
1x tube_holder_1
1x tube_holder_2

Hardware:
2x M4 screws 8mm
4x M4 washers
2x M4 hex-nuts
1x M3 screw 12mm
4x M3 screws 8mm
4x M3 washers
4x M3 hex-nuts
All screws i used were bought in a set: cylinder-screws black 1080pcs

optional:
1x tube_holder_bracket.stl

Is your 3D-printer too small? Don't own a 3D-Printer? I can help you out! All printed parts are available on my Ko-fi!