I had hijacked another thread so I thought I would start my own thread on my Extruder build.
I will be testing a 1.75mm PLA extruder on my CNC machine.
Once it's working and dialed in I will probably build a stand alone 3D printer.
My CNC machine is way overkill as far as the heavy frame and way slower than the speeds you can get with a super light 3D printer.
So my first bit of mock up is a a spring assisted idler pulley that uses a sealed ball bearing.
The ball bearing came out of an old hard disk drive. In fact there were two of them in the one I took apart
I plan on using my lathe to make a aluminum outer ring that will be pressed onto the ball bearing.
The outer ring will have a groove that will be shaped the same profile as the 1.75mm filament
Some of the items in my photos look warped but it's just the macro camera lens doing that
Here's a couple shots of that idler assembly with a round piece of aluminum that is just a stand in for the real gear.