Hi,
Was thinking of making the design of a RepRap neater by hiding the filament wire. It is basically an idea of making a fully enclosed 3D printer.
I am sure people thought of this before - I just don't seem to find any relevant threads.
The simplest way, off course, is to place a large cover on top of the machine, large enough to allow for the filament to travel unconstrained. However, this solution makes the machine seems to look 2x bigger - it's definitely not a sexy solution. The other (potential way) is to guide the filament wire in a spiral way around the extruder (similar to what is done on 3D Touch from Bf
. This creates a problem: bending/angles = friction, thus no speed-printing possible. I guess the later is more critical in case of a bowden extruder.
Any ideas?
HLA.
PS: I have been involved with DIY 3D printing for a while now, but never posted here until now.