The extruder assembly on the Printrbot Jr. has been giving me trouble since I first put it together. It strips filament, extrudes unevenly, and wasn’t built to handle 1.75mm filament to begin with. The Printrbot forums are full of people who are frustrated with their extruders, so I know the issues I’m having are pretty common.

I have added many printed pieces to try and fix it, but there’s only so much I can do.

The hobbed bolt that the Printrbot Jr. ships with did not line up properly with the channel that leads into the extruder, which compounds the issue of the filament not feeding correctly. It cannot be adjusted, which makes it very frustrating to use. I heard many good things online about the Hyena Hobbed Bar, so I bought one from their store. It took about 2 weeks to arrive, which is pretty good considering it was shipped from Hungary!

This helped a lot, and the difference was immediately noticeable.

I had only had the Hyena on for a day when another part of the extruder broke.

I sent an e-mail to Printrbot, but I don’t know how long it will take to get a replacement part in.

I tried to cheat and print a replacement small gear from the Accessible Wade’s Extruder, but the teeth did not match up.

At this point, I am convinced the Printrbot’s wooden extruder just won’t cut it. I am having an ABS version of Greg’s Hinged Accessible Extruder made to replace this entire assembly.

Has anybody succesfully replaced the extruder assembly on their Printrbot?