Please note I designed the Superlight print heads several years ago. They were a great upgrade back then to the EVA print heads. My newer and highly recommended Microlight print head is a far superior design.
https://www.printables.com/model/595269-microlight-print-head-for-rat-rig-v-core-31
The Superlight Fast-Swap face plates are compatible with Rat Rig V-Core 3 printers. They enable fast swapping of hot ends (under 5 minutes) and provide a VERY rigid mount for extruders enabling more consistent extrusion. The Superlight carriages including tensioner-less back plates are much lighter than the EVA 2 and EVA 3 carriages enabling faster printing with less artifacts.
There is a separate Superlight Fast-Swap face plate, Thingiverse listing for each extruder.
I also recommend that you consider combining this upgrade with the Gaping Maw integrated bottom plate/duct.
If you decide to contribute to my coffee fund to keep me up late at night doing more of this stuff I would appreciate this, But there is absolutely no obligation for you to do this. My PayPal account is
[email protected]
The Superlight Fast-Swap ecosystem currently supports the following extruders:
Orbiter 1.5
Orbiter 2
LGX Lite
LGX
All Superlight Fast-Swap face plates support the most popular hot ends:
CHC Pro
Copperhead
Dragon SF
Dragon HF
Dragon Fly BMO
E3D V6
Mosquito
Rapido HF
Rapido UHF
Takoto HE20
*Rapido UHF is mounted in higher position on the face plate. This reduces the filament path length by 9.6 mm and means you do not need to swap ducts or move the probe when changing between Rapido UHF and Rapido HF, Dragon or other E3D V6 length hot ends.
Have also now included Rapido and Dragon mini-mounts for use with 2510 heat sink fans.
Probe mounts:
*8 mm inductive
12 mm inductive
Bltouch
Euclid
* To set probe height on the 8mm inductive probe, use a 3 mm cap screw screwed directly into the hole in the front of the mount (which works well for this task) or if you prefer you can drill it out to 4 mm post printing and use your favourite heated insert.
Please note each part of this system is mix and match compatible with a standard EV 2 print head. This is not surprising, as the SuperLight Fast-Swap is a fork of the of the EVA 2.
advantages
1. Lighter than EVA 2 and EVA 3. Even more so when coupled with any of my tensioner-less back plates.
2. Fast Swapping of hot ends. Dual height mounting options allow you to achieve the same nozzle height with all four hot ends options in the list above. In addition the probe holder mounts to the front plate rather than hot end mount so it doesn't get disturbed when swapping between different hot ends. This means there is no need to change ducts, or change the probe height or change Z off-set in printer firmware when swapping hot ends.
3. More Rigid. The extruders mount to the same monolithic piece of plastic as the hot end. In edition there are supporting webs between the extruder ledge and the front of the face plate, so there should be even less flex between the extruder and hot end than EVA 2.4 (which was an improvement over EVA 2.3 but does not eliminate flex at high extrusion speeds.
4. The upper mounting point provides a 9.6 mm shorter filament path than EVA 3 when using the Rapido UHF hot end. Great for printing flexible filaments like TPU.
5. This mod uses threaded heat inserts everywhere.
For Dragon hot ends:
I have included a revised lower support for the Dragon hot end that allows the use of threaded inserts. You can also use the standard EVA 2 lower Dragon mount if you want.
For Rapido hot ends:
You will want to use the Rapido mount I have provided, which has an additional lower support that makes the Rapido mounting very rigid.
All other hot ends:
Other than the Rapido UHF all other hot ends should be mounted in the lower mounting position to avoid the heat block being too close to the plastic of the face plate.
All holes are either 3mm of 4 mm. I have not modelled any clearances in these holes as I prefer to drill them out post printing to get the best possible tolerances to achieve the most rigid mounting.
This mod is designed to use M3 x 4.4mm diameter x 5 mm long brass inserts everywhere to make assembling and servicing faster. The design allows for threaded inserts up to 5 mm long.
I used these ones https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001407970757.html
BOM
You will also need a few different length M3 cap screws - I am sorry I have not detailed the lengths of these as I just used what I had readily at hand. You will need a longer cap screw than stock for the rear extruder mount. This should be long enough to allow you fit a 3 mm nyloc on the end of the cap screw.
While all parts have been modelled from scratch in Fusion 360, the design for the Superlight Fast-Swap carrier started as a fork from Pawel Kucmus's EVA 2 carrier so that parts would be inter changeable and consequently inherit the same GPL license. I have included Pawel's compatible hot end mounts here for downloading convenience.
Updates
9th May 22: Integrated X stop mount into top plate.
10th May 22: Added 12 mm inductive probe mount and improved 8 mm inductive probe mount.
30th Jul 22: increased clearance on DHC Pro groove mount.
1st Aug 22: Corrected error in Rapido mini-mount.
2nd Aug 22: Added Dragon HF mini-mount.
18th Aug 22: Improved 8 mm Inductive probe mount.
23rd Aug 22: Improved 12 mm Inductive probe mount.
9th Sept 22: Added cable management holes to webs on face plate.
MFBS
