This Custom Extruder Design Fits the Prusa XL

The Prusa XL is one of the few 3D printers on the market with a true toolchanger system, which means that it can swap between entire extruder/hotend assemblies on the fly. For that to work, Prusa had to design complex toolheads that incorporate many components in a small package. It works well, but isn’t very conducive to alternative extruder designs. That didn’t stop Jón Schone of Proper Printing from adapting his Proper Extruder design for the Prusa XL.

Schone started his work on the Proper Extruder years ago and has used versions of it in several of his projects. And he employed an intern recently, who was able to further refine and optimize the design. The current iteration of the Proper Extruder is particularly well suited to flexible and soft filament, Schone just needed to get it working with the Prusa XL.

That was not a simple task, because the Prusa XL toolheads are quite complicated. Each has its own control board and load cell for probing, in addition to the typical extruder, hotend, thermistors, and heater cartridge. But by cannibalizing one of those toolheads for parts, Schone managed to build a custom toolhead that hosts his Proper Extruder. In fact, he built five of them to fill out the Prusa XL.

There were many challenges along the way, which Schone covers in detail in his video. But the end result is a Prusa XL equipped with five custom toolheads featuring the Proper Extruder. They print well and are especially good at extruding extremely flexible TPU.

While he hasn’t done so yet, Schone tends to release his designs so others can build them. Be sure to follow him and subscribe to his channel so you’ll be the first to know when there is more information about that.