Note: Holes are spaced for mounting on Printruder II, for plastruder sized holes and other improvements see version 2 here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3744

This is a grooved insulator retainer/mount for a MakerBot plastruder. This is for MakerGear http://www.makergear.com/products/nozzle style grooved insulators. (Pictured here is one I got from Brian Reifsnyder http://www.reprapstores.com/catalog/extruder-parts/machined-parts/tb-hybrid1g who also sells them and should have the same specs)

The idea is with a grooved insulator, you don't need the big washer to attach your barrel. You just slide it into the slot then slide the horizontal bolt to keep it in place. The bolt may not even be required depending on how tightly it fits.

Warning: I haven't actually attached it to a Plastruder nor have I tested it yet. :)

My plan is to get this working well and then modify other extruders like the Printstruder and Wade Extruder to accept groove mounts. I think this would be better than epoxying or drilling holes into the sides of the insulator and is definitely better than the Makerbot washer style mount.

You might wonder where Groove Mount #1 and #2 are - this is just the third version I came up with. The other designs didn't work so well.

Thanks to Cathal Garvey for the idea to use a bolt to hold it in place. Also includes teardrop openscad code from Erik de Bruijn.

This requires some pretty tight tolerances so you may need to modify the barrel_diameter and barrel_inset_diameter variables in the openscad script. That or carve the slots out a bit with a utility knife or sand it.

You'll need 2 M3X15 bolts and optionally an M4X45 bolt and M4 nut.