Tough Extruder – 3:1 Gearing, Bowden OR Direct 1.75mm
$34.99
Geared Extruder with Guided Filament Path, Steel Hobbed Gear, 1.75mm Bowden Fitting Included, Thumbscrew for Tension Adjustment Included, Works with most stock stepper motors and stock boards. Shaft length must be 18mm or longer
Optional Addons
- CR-10/Ender 3: Creality CR-10/Ender 3 for Tough Extruder ABS Mount
- Ender 5 Plus Mount: Ender 5 Plus ABS Tough Extruder Mounting Bracket
- Replacement Stepper (if you have a press-fit extruder gear): Standard Extruder/Stepper Motor – Long Shaft
- Pancake Stepper (for direct drive or replacing a larger motor): Pancake Stepper Motor For Titan, Tough, or Bondtech Extruders
In stock
Get Tough, Reliable Extrusion
Our Tough Extruder is a geared and guided extruder to ensure that your filament feeds accurately and smoothly. This extruder is also great for most TPE/TPU filaments thanks to its tight filament path that doesn’t leave large gaps for the flexible filament to escape. It is our go-to for a solid extruder upgrade for our printers.
This is a tried and true design that is made using the “Titan” Open Source design under the GPL V3 license. These are made by the same factory as TriangleLabs products, with additional QC done by the TH3D team before resale. This extruder is NOT made by E3D, but is compatible will all “Titan” installations and mounts.
- 3x Allen Keys for Assembly
- 1x 1.75mm Bowden Adapter
- 1x Polycarbonate Lid
- 1x 1.75mm White Filament Guide
- 1x Main Housing (ABS Plastic)
- 1x Steel Shaft gear
- 1x Steel Hobbed gear
- 1x Tension arm
- 3x Bearings (2 for hobbed gear, 1 in filament arm)
- 1x PTFE for filament arm
- 1x M4 x 9mm Thumbscrew
- 1x M4 x 9mm Screw (For use in place of thumbscrew)
- 1x M3 x 8mm (Screw under fitting)
- 1x M3 x 25mm (Screw for Cover)
- 3x M3 x 30mm (Screws for attaching to motor)
- 3x M3 x 35mm (Screws for attaching to motor, extended)
Firmware update or flipping motor wiring around are usually required to reverse motor direction. Geared extruders typically require the motor direction to be reversed on machines that have feed gears that mount directly to the stepper motor shaft.
Recommend Esteps: 410 Steps/mm for most machines
Supported in the TH3D Unified Firmware Packs
Made using the “Titan” Open Source Design under GPL V3 – Engineering & License Files
Works with *most* Stock Stepper Motor and stock boards.
Some Creality machines are now shipping with press-fit extruder gears. See here for removal tips: Creality Press-Fit Extruder Gear Removal – TH3D Studio LLC
If your extruder shaft is not at least 18mm in length then you will need to upgrade it. Our Pancake Stepper is a great option to go with this extruder. See our article here about identifying the motor you have: Creality Extruder Motor Shaft Lengths – TH3D Studio LLC
This is for 1.75mm Filament ONLY
Tension Adjustment Note
If you are using your own firmware invert the E direction and we recommend starting with 410 steps/mm and stick with 1/16 stepping on the driver if you have a selectable driver (double the steps/mm if using a 0.9 degree motor, stock printer motors are 1.8 degree).
CR-10/CR-10S/CR-20/Ender 2/Ender 3/Tornado
Compact: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2274222=
Extended: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2474855
Cable Guide: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2690953
Part Fitment/Installation
This is a universal 3D printer part. That means it will work on almost any 3D printer (check your printer voltage and part voltage) with the correct mount for your specific machine. Thingiverse is a wonderful place to locate mounts and we also have printed parts in our shop for some universal parts.
It is up to you to determine and select a mount for your specific printer model (or design one) to install this part on your machine and wire it up to your machine (if applicable). You are welcome to Contact Us for recommendations for your particular printer model for mounting options that are available online if searching yourself does not yield any results.
Warranty Information
3 Months Warranty - Our warranty covers any and all defects with the product. If your product fails or has problems within the warranty period you can contact our support team by using the Contact Us link.
Damage/Failure due to improper installation, improper usage, failure resulting from an issue with the machine the product is installed on, 3rd party products connected to our product, and/or modification of the product are not covered under warranty.
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What others are saying
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jwilliams (verified owner) –
Reading different nightmares about “clone” products I was unsure about this but after talking with Tim I decided to take the plunge. The extruder is fantastic and the ease of adjusting the tension makes even difficult filaments easy to handle.
I haven’t had any issues with skipped steps and installation was quick and painless.
The only item that took me getting used to was with the mount I used, the extruder faces the rear of the printer making it a little difficult to see but as there has been no issues, not being able to see hasn’t been a problem.
For someone who is looking to replace their stock extruder, this is a great product at a great price.
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Jose (verified owner) –
This is a great/awesome extruder. Very strong and with the possibility to adjust the pressure on the filament. Just remember that too much pressure and the filament might loose cohesion. Too little and the filament will not extrude. However, as with any mechanical device I believe it is a good idea to place some white lithium grease on components that rotate excepting the gears used to bite the filament.
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Colin Nel –
Will this DD work with an E5+ and EZ ABL?
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Tim Hoogland –
If there is a titan compatible mount (the Petsfang guy may have one) for the Ender 5 Plus then yes. This is a universal part so the only limitation of what machine it can go on is if there is a mount for it or if you can design one for your particular machine.
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Tim Hoogland –
Lubrication is never a bad idea. We don’t lubricate ours and have some that are over 2 years old now that are still running like they were new. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review and glad you’re enjoying the extruder!
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mjbaldwin0352 (verified owner) –
This product rocks. Across the board it kicks all filaments butts. I have this on my Ender 3 and I am able to push PLA at 215 degrees to 85mm/s and never look back. Right out of the box it delivered great materials and a smooth extrusion while also partnered with the Alfawise Nozzles also from TH3D.
I could not hope for a better extruder for my long term prints.
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James Landfair (verified owner) –
Good tech. Works flawlessly on my CR-10s. Adapted it to my original Bowden extruder mount
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Ken (verified owner) –
Works great. Had a slight problem out of the box, but they were very quick to take care of it. I have it on a CR-20 Pro with the printed mount they sell and it fits great. Only complaint would be that the included bowden adapter clip wasn’t thick enough so I had to use the one that came with the printer. This was very minor and the quality of the rest of it makes up for it.
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Question
striveon –
I have an Ender 3 pro and plan to run PLA and PLU.
I want to convert from Bowden to Direct, is this all that i need are their other items needed ?
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spudmlgnjr (verified owner) –
It’s a nice upgrade, it will need to be calibrated in firmware after installing. Easy to do.
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Steve (verified owner) –
Had tried many attempts at TPU using stock extruder with nothing but problems. Installed this and first attempt at a full quad canopy turned out perfectly. Best purchase I have made since getting my CR-10s
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Adam (verified owner) –
How did you get it to work with tpu/ what temps are you using? Mine just pushes it away from the teeth after a while? Thanks
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Tim Hoogland –
I typically run about 30mm/s with regular TPU. If you are running something more floppy like Ninjaflex you may need to slow it down further.
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Question
kenbarnettpt (verified owner) –
I just upgraded to the Tough Extruder with the upgrade pancake stepper motor (NEMA 17) on my Ender 3 but thinking I must have missed a step. It is seriously under-extruding, with very fine lines. When I run an M93 it reports E 95 (should it be 463?) This is after I have updated my firmware with #define CUSTOM_ESTEPS, #define REVERSE_E_MOTOR_DIRECTION, and #define CUSTOM_ESTEPS_VALUE 463. I know the update took because I altered the machine name to verify that. If I manually change the ESTEPs to 463 with a M92 E463 command, it extrudes more, but it also pushes the Bowden tube from the extruder. This is with decent PLA at 210C through a 0.4mm nozzle, something that was pretty flawless before the extruder upgrade. I am using a stock hot end (so far). I didn’t see any firmware settings for the pancake stepper motor. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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kenbarnettpt (verified owner) –
Tim, Thanks! With the printed Bowden clip and clearing the EEPROM (whoops, was sure I had done that), it’s printing sweet!
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Tim Hoogland –
We have a few articles on the site that can help solve your issues.
Tough Extruder settings: https://www.th3dstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360046870152-Tough-Extruder-Firmware-Settings
PTFE Fitting Lock Part: https://www.th3dstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047297091
If you need further assistance please reach out to our support team here: Contact Us
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Question
thobin101 –
Can you run this direct drive on the new Ender 3 V2?
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Tim Hoogland –
This is a universal part so as long as you have a mount for it to put on the Ender 3 V2 carriage it can be used for direct drive. This extruder works on any machine as long as there is a mount for it (whether you download one from Thingiverse or make your own design). Popular mounts are the PETSFang and HeroMe.
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jlblue1776 (verified owner) –
This is my first aftermarket extruder (not counting an all metal that I wore out). I am using an Ender 3 with the hydra cooling system from thingiverse in a direct drive setup. I did not find it quite as easy to put together as some other have mentioned, but once I did get it together it has worked flawlessly.
That being said I think a BMG for my setup would have been a little better. I’m going to have to do a little altering on the titan mount as this thing seems to be a little too ‘rugged’ for the current setup I have. This is in no way a fault of the extruder though. It works great.
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Question
Perry Kappetein –
How do you make this work for the Ender 6?
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Tim Hoogland (verified owner) –
This would replace the stock extruder and you will need to change your e-steps to 410 steps/mm. You will also need to reverse the motor direction in the firmware. Our TH3D Unified firmware for the Ender 6 has options for both of these settings in it.
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