Finally got a few hours over Christmas to knock up the X axis linear rails upgrade for the printer.
Printer seems to run nicely and i’ve printed a few small things….I’ll work on quantifying any improvements next as, right now it only ‘seems’ better, and print quality improvements are really marginal. The biggest difference was on the Y axis bed, and I suspect there are now easy further improvements to be had………
Photos Below
Side view showing the new Carriage (designed by someone else)The new idler mount – this was needed as existing thingverse ones don’t have space for the rail at the topTop down view of the new rail carriageside view of the new idler and it’s tension adjustment screws
Ok, the rails are on and working a treat, kind of…
The right angled fittings I purchased to secure the 20×20 extrusion to the 40×40 have some little tabs on them, I can’t find any readily available way of securely making this connection with off the shelf parts so i’ll have to grind down one side’s tabs…
The slight amount of pressure this tab is putting on the extruision is enough to twist it and stop the MGN rails from running smoothly!
A secure 20×20 extrusion. But slightly twisted due to the small lump
View from below…if I add a little drop down to the right hand carriage, it’ll be easy to re-use the existing limit switch by mounting it on the side of the 2020
Close ups of the existing limit switch and the protrusions on the right angled mounting block.
Overall, minor things , but shows you should plan things a little in advance and test fit stuff before ‘going for it’
Fortunately this is nothing a quick angle grind and carriage print can’t fix….which means re-assembling the original printer to print a new bit, D’oh!
The Cheapy ‘Hiwin’ clone rails and blocks arrived a while back and they haven’t really dissapointed. By that, I mean, I kinda got what I was expecting. Still, only a small premium paid and 3 workable carriages / rails……