Greg’s Wade Bowden Extruder for Rostock-Mini

The original direct drive Airtripper V3 extruder that I had made for my Rostock-Mini was almost able to get the job done. However, my stepper just didn’t quite have enough torque to push the filament directly, and it would “skip” steps relatively continuously. I could still print large objects, but they would have a “foamy” appearance due to using less plastic than they really should. Also, my stepper motor and drivers were getting hot due to all the extra current flowing through them.

I finally decided it just wasn’t going to work well enough for production use, and printed an extruder (Gregs Accessible Wade extruder) that has a printed gear system for a large mechanical advantage. I adapted it to feed into my Bowden tube and mount onto the top of my Rostock-mini frame with two printed parts.
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It made all the difference in the world. My geared extruder can now easily feed filament continuously through the hot end at a 300mm/min rate.

I also printed an adapter plate that holds the stepper motor and attached extruder in the appropriate location/angle. In the future I may integrate this with parts from Gregs Wade extruder design to build an integrated extruder.
IMG_1247

8 thoughts on “Greg’s Wade Bowden Extruder for Rostock-Mini

    • I’m using a NEMA 17 High Torque stepper motor, Bipolar,4.2V,1.5A, D Shaft 1.8 Degree steps, 5.5KG-CM Holding Torque by Kysan SKU: 1124090 Mfg: 42BYGH4803-DC. The gearing in the extruder of course multiplies the torque…this same stepper didn’t quite have enough torque for a direct drive stepper (but it was close….) with the Bowden tube and MakerGear extruder (hot end). The extra torque provided by the gearing has fixed that problem.

  1. hello jay, i have a rostock mini from geeetech (g2s pro) and i can’t go faster than 60mm/s; your speeds are a dream for me ! (i use PLA at 200°C), i have a bowden geared extruder (almost the same as you (gregs updated extruder)) and i wanted to know the type hottend you use (E3D ?, peek, or other….) and if you have a hottend fan

    thanks by advance

    • The hot end was purchased from MakerGear a few years ago (resistive wire wrapped around the tube and covered with some type of clay like material), and it is cooled by a downward facing fan mounted to the top of the blue housing. The extruder/hotend are the hardest part to get working (on any 3D printer) and I dislike the bowden tube arrangement as it leads to issues when you want the flow to stop (retraction, etc…), but it works really well for prints that can be done with one continuous extrusion (single walled vases, etc…)

  2. Thanks for your answer !
    excuse me jay, but one more question; after installing my new extruder, i setup my marlin FW to 750 steps per mm on extruder axis.
    Since this, my geared extruder extrude 100mm of filament if i want 100mm (config is good) but i can’t go faster as 15mm/s ! (my driver A4988 is setted at 1.0V and work at 1/16 microsteps) my motor is a nema17 60mm (42HSC8402-25B)
    i will try to increase voltage to 1.6V tonight… but i am not sure
    What config do you use ? (steps per mm, 1/8 1/16 microsteps etc…)
    thanks by advance and congrats for your jobs on rostocks

    • Since this post I have upgraded my Greg’s Wade cold end driver to a Micron 3DP extruder (rev-2) 1.8deg, 1:13.76 gear ratio, 12mm hobbed gear. I use 1/16 microstepping, full steps would be 73.03 step/mm, but 1/16 microstepping is 1168 steps/mm. I’m afraid I didn’t record the previous settings for Greg’s Wade extruder.

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