Anet A8 extruder access mod (preserving Heatsink)

We all know the problem, we have a slightly more curved piece of filamet that doesn't really want to go through the extruder and into the heating block.

So far, our only two possibilities have been:

Poking around until you finally hit it (rather hopeless)

or

disassemble the entire extruder and solve the problem by hand.

The second approach has always bothered me. That is why I designed this modification to get easy access to the filament.

The idea is that if you need access to the extruder, you just flip the fan and heatsink out of the way and you can easily get to everything.

The approaches I have seen so far all seem to have the problem that either the heatsink is removed (in my experience this leads to dusty filament) or that the heatsink fan combination has not been properly held to the extruder

in my design the heatsink fan combination is primarily held in place by gravity and secured by a few turns of a screw. Due to the interference fit with the lower screw, the hinge cannot move away from the extruder

Before You Make

you will need:

2x Screw M3x25 flathead (or longer)

2x M3 Nuts (I used winged nuts)

2x Screw M3x20 flathead (used to attach the bottom of the extruder to the motor)

1x Screw M4x10 (or longer, used for the bottom resting point of the hinge)

1x original M4 screw that conects slider and Printhead-holder

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Anet

Printer:

A8

Rafts:

Doesn't Matter

Supports:

Doesn't Matter

Infill:

20 - 50

Filament:

Green Post-Printing =============

Just take it of, install it, have fun!