We sell an Extruder upgrade for the Replicator 2X. It is an upgrade over the original style with a lever you flip left and right to adjust tension.
There is a newer version that also uses the new style that requires a vertical squeeze in order to release the tension. This is newer version will perform similarly to the 3D printed upgrade version so upgrading that version is not necessary. These newer squeeze style drive blocks have over double the pulling power and will often work well beyond where the old style would fail. This is an upgrade we recommend on every Replicator 2X we sell.
When you go to upgrade you will need to reuse one of the longer bolts that hold on your original extruder to go through the corner of the new drive block that acts as a lever. Over tightening this bolt may cause feed issues, it doesn’t need to be super tight. Then the other bolt to tighten is a short one in behind the spring side of the arm. This can be accessed through the small hole directly above the spring.
When installing this new upgrade it is important to have a good feedpath. This means having the center of the drivegear and the opening at the bottom of the drive block line up with the thermal tube opening. We include enough pieces to make this fairly easy to accomplish. We include a spacer for spacing the motor back from the thermal tube. This is only necessary if your cooling bar is a thinner version and your extruder upgrade’s filament opening sticks past the thermal tube.
We also include a spacer for setting the depth of the drive gear. It simply sits under the gear once you have loosened the set screw. You press down on the drive gear against the spacer and tighten the set screw. You may need to fine-tune a small amount by hand to get the best possible alignment as pictured above.
