I've been avoiding the work of repairing my printer thus far as it's been hard to switch gears.

So I picked another low hanging fruit to work on.

A drag feeder for this project now exists.  It is Lego compatible, and in true Lego style, you build it as blocks on a sheet to suit your needs.

Using the Lego sheet means the positions are indexed, so you don't have to recalibrate your part positions every time you change feeders.  SMT components come on tape in reels, and are provided in increments of 4mm (8,12,16,24).  Lego pin spacing is exactly 8mm.  I made the blocks to snap at either full or half spacing.  Done.

It's printed as two parts to avoid needing to have a bridge across the tape edge area and the sucky-ness that entails.  

The base is printed on its side which makes it stronger and able to withstand designing in a bending interface, instead of an interference fit, for the Lego pins.  It will also tolerate a much wider range of over/under extrusion then also.  I had already worked that bit out, so the rest here was pretty easy.

There are a number of cover plates which snap (hopefully) into matching holes on the top of the base for open, covered, fill, feed and peel slot combinations.  All are rendered out at 6,12, and 24 Lego pin spacings (8mm) lengths in the Github currently.  You can also mix and match the top and base lengths, and so build a 24u length base, with a 12u cover, 6u peel, and 6u pick part if you like.

It got its own project over here, and the source is up on github: https://hackaday.io/project/160857-p1-lego-compatible-drag-feeder

Now if I could only print it...