Show your MODS

[AbuMaia]

The tee nuts only work one way. raised part must be away from the screw head.

Huh... on my i3v all of the T nuts are installed with the raised part away from the centre of the extrusion. I haven't had any problem with them until I tried to use the X and Y endstop brackets made by Clough42.

[gmay3]

I have been using adhesive backed LED strips to light up my print bed on my Makerfarm Prusa i3v 8" printer but the adhesive failed and the strips fell into my print.
I wanted to design a clip on, light weight tray to glue the LED strips down firmly, without having to glue them directly to my carriage frame.
Behold, the finished product!

Installation is easy, all you do is loosen one screw on your x carriage, press the screw slot of the tray mount on to the screw shaft and tighten the screw. Repeat on the other side and your done!

image__8__preview_featured.jpg

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:438960

[RaySuave]

Clough42 - I noticed you had designed and used fan shrouds and fans for the x axis motor and extruder motor. I just got my i3V printer and have only printed 3mm pla via J Head, however none of the motors get hot. I do have some other experience with stepper motors that have gotten hot in operation but these seem fine. What types of print/materials lead to the extra cooling being needed?

I have the 10" i3v kit. All of my motors get hot when printing PLA or ABS. All of the motors are also at the recommended voltage. I turned the voltage down on the extruder motor from 0.39 volts to about 0.32 and it still gets hot, hot enough to soften and warp the extruder block after about an hour. I now have fans on all the motors except the Z-axis ones. The fans helped a lot, I can actually touch the motors now without pain in my fingers throughout full prints. With all settings relatively the same, seems like some people have hot motors and some dont.....not sure why.

[Zulfe]

I, like other people on this forum, really wanted my prints to be illuminated while the printer was operating. I first thought about going the adhesive-backed LED strip route, but thought that they would eventually unstick, which was exactly what happened to gmay3. I bought a cheap Adafruit LED ring that has individual drivers for each LED and its own custom library for programming the properties of each individual LED through the Arduino IDE. It fit perfectly around the J-Head, not at all tight. It might even work on your bulkier hot ends. I ran the power, ground, and data input wires to the back with the rest of the extruder block wires where I then connected it to a perfboard that had an Adafruit 5V Trinket (basically a mini Arduino that costs less than half the price of an Arduino-Mini, just with less pins). I also connected it to a latched switch that had an integrated LED ring so it looks nice and pretty. You can find the link with some pictures and a schematic below. As of 8-31-2014, there aren't any pictures of the actual LED ring in action, just some pictures of the components and assembly. I'll be adding a picture when I return home.

http://www.shawftware.net/2014/08/pr...d-mounted-led/

[MiniMadRyan]

Not really a mod, but finally got the i3v 10" calibrated last night. Here's a little shot of the new printer along side it's little brother. Mods include my z-endstop mod, and flanged idlers.

10614234_10152684855047177_4507753370026618526_n.jpg

[dacb]

Not really a mod, but finally got the i3v 10" calibrated last night. Here's a little shot of the new printer along side it's little brother. Mods include my z-endstop mod, and flanged idlers.

10614234_10152684855047177_4507753370026618526_n.jpg

Nice! Love the two side by side. I hadn't thought about putting an idler on both axes. Did you notice the belt running on both?

[MiniMadRyan]

Just wanted to throw this out, that anyone looking for the Z end stop mount on Thingiverse, it has been removed. I have removed my files from Thingiverse and switched to YouMagine.com. You can download my new z bracket and new cooling fan from here: https://www.youmagine.com/users/minimadryan


Cheers

Ryan

[AbuMaia]

Also not really a mod, but perhaps a helpful idea for others. I got a pack of "Super Sticky" Post-its, and have mounted a pad to my power supply for an easily-accessible source of paper for whatever need, including Z-axis calibration.

IMG_20141010_001653.jpg

[RobH2]

You guys are posting some great stuff here. This thread is working out exactly as I hoped it would. Keep it coming.

I'm jealous of you guys with the new rail version of the printer. I need to go ahead and upgrade mine. I'm getting beautiful prints with my rod version these days but I do love the look of the new one. Keep modding....

[kd7eir]

I have very little tolerance for messy wiring. I don't like how it looks, and I'm always afraid it will get caught on something and damaged, so I took the time to dress all of the wiring on the printer.

I trimmed all of the cables to length and reterminated them with new crimp pins. I sheathed everything with TechFlex braided sleeving and dressed the ends with heat shrink tubing and cable ties. I found (or made) places to tie everything down nice and neat, leaving slack for the cables to flex and move while printing.

For the wires going to the X carriage, I kept the hot end wires (heater and thermistor), motor wires, fan power and bed leveling (servo and switch) in separate bundles so I can easily swap out the parts without having to redo the wire dressing.

I have no idea why Colin didn't include holes to pass the Z motor wires through the frame on the i3v like he did on the i3, but I added them myself with a coping saw.

Attachment 2282Attachment 2281Attachment 2283Attachment 2284

What size TechFlex did you use?