Month: January 2017

For the Maker Select V2.1 crowd

Over the last few days I tore the printer apart to change some bearings due to crazy noises when the X axis moved quickly. I posted some of this in a comment on another post but I figured I’d share the whole journey since everywhere I looked online is not current for the new model and there’s a few changes.First, the bearing pillow blocks. If you have printed a rear mount fan already you may have already seen one big difference.. And if you haven’t then I recommend doing so because I love seeing the entire nozzle! The pillow blocks are updated from the metal ones to a plastic one that has metal thread inserts that go all the way through. Common mods that are affected by this are adding the rear fan and cutting the block for belt clearance. You have no need to cut the block since the plastic ones are already shaped in a way that doesn’t need it. When doing a rear fan everyone mentions tapping the hole so you can get a screw in. This is already done for you since the threaded insert goes all the way to the back. An m4 screw goes right in there!Second, bearings. This no longer uses lm8uu bearings. It ships with lm8luu bearings on the X axis. This is another upgrade you won’t need to do, and something to bear in mind if you are ordering bearings. Don’t get lm8uu for your X like I did! The Y axis still uses the shorter lm8uu and there is 4 mounts already as with the v2.Rods. The rod mounts are not like I’ve seen in videos and pictures. There are trapezoid shaped mounting clips that mount to the frame bracket with two m3 5mm screws. At the short side of the clip there is a tiny set screw. It’s still an m3 thread, but it is headless and requires a smaller wrench. You can see the ones on the Y axis rods. The X axis uses these as well, and mine came loose. THIS WAS THE SOURCE OF THAT NOISE. I did not change the bearings since I had not ordered the longer bearings as mentioned above. If you can grab the extruder carriage and rock it back and forth front to back, this is likely your issue. I also found that I had not needed to disassemble the entire printer to do this. You can get to the lower ones with the Z raised up and go from the bottom. The top ones can be accessed through the square hole in the middle. Tightening these eliminated the rocking and most of the noise.The Z axis smooth rods have these clips at the top, but mine did not have set screws in the holes at all. The rod just sits in the clip but is not held in place. The lower side of the Z smooth rod is just in a hole and resting on the stepper. If you reach in and feel it there is tons of movement. I used m3 screws to tighten the rod into the clip. You may need to file the bevel on the bracket if you can’t find headless m3 screws. This killed ALL vibration and noise and the first test print after is my cleanest looking one so far.Here is a link to an album showing some up close shots of the rod clips and what I mean.Next worth mentioning is the Y idler bracket. Mine ended up bending a bit and causing rough movement on the Y bed. I printed the Y bracket from thingiverse and it is just awesome. Big thick brace and support from both sides. Y movement seems smoother and less jerky. This does require drilling three holes in the front plate, but it is thin and drills easily and the bracket includes an stl for a drilling template. You will need a slightly longer m5 but you can reuse the original lock nut.Here is an album showing the new bracket and the holes that need to be drilled.This has made everything smoother, quieter, and more solid and I’m really happy with the results!Edit: Here is the link to the Y axis idler bracket. http://ift.tt/2jjWxyF