Bondtech BMG Extruder Review: You Must Try This!

Emvio Engineering gave me the opportunity to do a review on the Bondtech BMG Extruder.  I’ve been wracking my brain on how to do this article; for me, it is a hard one. This is because it was just plugged and play on the Tevo Tornado. I didn’t have to change any firmware or VREF to get it to work.  On my Tevo Tornado, the steps per mm on the extruder is 400.  Even though the recommended value from Bondtech is 415, 400 is working just fine for me.

Want to buy the Bondtech Bmg Extruder Check out Emvio’s website

To Change or Not To Change

In the future, I probably will change the steps per mm on the extruder to get a more accurate 3D prints, but for now, I will stick to the 400.  For this article, I will print two calibration cubes to show you the difference between 400 and 415 steps per mm.  Some people might think that they won’t be much of a difference, but we will wait and see.

Bondtech BMG Extruder Information

DUAL-DRIVE

Two drive wheels grip the filament from each side, providing a robust and reliable feed into the hotend.  From common materials like PLA and ABS to flexible filaments like professional Series Flex or Ninjaflex, the dual-drive gears of the Bondtech BMG can deliver a consistent flow of filament in either direct drive or Bowden configurations.

EASILY ADJUSTABLE TENSION

The BMG is designed with a door on the side that holds one of the dual-drive gears. This door is closed with a spring-tensioned thumbscrew. This thumbscrew enables an exact tension of the drive gears for the proper hold on the filament, with the ability to release the strain and simply load or unload the filament.  All you need to do is pull away from the extruder so that the spring will compress just enough to release the pressure on the material, letting you easily feed it directly into the hotend.

MULTIPLE MOUNTING OPTIONS

Bowden? Direct drive? The Bondtech BMG is constructed for either setup with a mounting slot on the bottom for an E3D hotend or a groove mount for Bowden tubes.  The light-weight style of the BMG makes it useful for direct drive configurations.  This is because it helps to reduce tool head weight.  Having a lighter tool head suggests that the printer can move quicker while not sacrificing exactness or print quality because of wobble.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Filament diameter supported: 1.75mm
• Weight (without motor): 75g
• E-step value: 415
• Compatible stepper motor: Nema17 (5mm shaft)
• Gearing: 3:1

WHATS IN THE BOX

• Bondtech BMG Extruder
• Thumbscrew tensioner
• Interface gear (mounts on stepper shaft)
• Three mounting screws

Bondtech BMG Extruder Installation All You Need To Do

Installing the Bondtech extruder on to the Tevo Tornado was a straightforward task. It was as simple as six steps DONE!

1. Remove the titan extruder.
2. Take off the old gear from the motor.
3. Replace it with the new equipment.
4. Place the motor back.
5. Place the extruder on top.
6. Put in your three bolts.

Calibrating the Bondtech Extruder

Tevo Tornado Control Panel

You can do this several ways Control => Motion => Steps /mm => E Steps /mm and enter the value 415.  If your Tevo Tornado is set up for EEPROM, you can save your new settings if these E Steps do not help.  Head over to this article about Extruder Calibration. 

Conclusion

So why do we like the Bondtech Extruder Compared to the Titan Extruder clone?  It is simple; it just works!  The easily adjustable tension coupled with the dual drive gives you the flexibility to fine-tune your filament tension.  This powerhouse of an extruder just keeps puling. One thing I did notice was when doing an atomic pull, do not do the pull through the whole extruder. What I do, so it does not get stuck in the extruder, is pull the filament away from the nozzle.  Once it’s in the PTFE tube, I then would release the PTFE tube from the extruder.

Instead of pulling from the Inlet of the extruder, pull from the outlet.  This is to help prevent the filament from sticking in the extruder.  When you do a cold pull, the filament is usually more substantial at the tip.  So, if you pull from the PTFE tube side, this will take the thin side of the filament through the extruder resulting in an easy atomic pull and an unblocked nozzle.

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