MakerFarm 8" i3v Prusa build by Printbus

[printbus]

45,000 downloads is a lot. Wow.

It isn't the part I saw that was unique to the Ender 3, but here's a Thingiverse cooling duct with downloads in the hundreds of thousands. That kind of traffic has to almost be annoying in one's Thingiverse dashboard.

...I originally got into 3d printing to build drones.

It's sort of funny that you mention that. RC helicopters was a major reason for my interest in 3D printing. I was new to the hobby, and another user in the Helifreak 130x forum promised to start cranking out designs for 130x parts. I remember describing to the wife all the money I'd save by printing my own replacement parts. Unfortunately, he, I, and the rest of the 130x community grew to realize that the strength-to-weight ratio just wasn't going to be there for 130x parts. I migrated to a larger 300x for a while, but never gave printing parts for it a thought for the same reason.

I did delve into drones a bit before I pretty much gave up on my old eyes ever doing well with keeping the orientation straight. I do have a 105mm quad FPV frame on Thingiverse. Turned out a bit heavier than I was hoping for, but it made for a pretty good back-yard basher.

[printbus]

Dialogue with RobH2 has made me wonder and go look at my Thingiverse data. Across the 33 or 34 designs I've bothered to post there, the most "popular" as far as downloads is my take on a parametric shaft collar, with a thousand or so downloads.

A close second is my hinged Graphic LCD mount for the i3v.

Now that Thingiverse has a way for users to tip designers, the money has been flowing in. To date, I've earned a grand total, after significant PayPal fees of course, of $1.34 USD.

Most of my Thingiverse pool is stuff where I started with someone else's Thingiverse design and refined it or adapted it, reposting the update back to Thingiverse due to attribution or other requirements of the license assigned to the design by the originator. I do have other designs that aren't on Thingiverse, as more posts here will soon show.

[printbus]

Z-AXIS LEAD SCREW UPGRADE

I was never thrilled with the 5mm threaded rods MakerFarm used for the Z-axis. They worked, but were so S-L-O-W. As a result of testing for an upper limit, I ran a z-axis feed rate of 2.5mm/Sec. A full 200mm of z-axis travel would mean 80 seconds of travel time.

From what I recall back in the i3v heyday, lead-screw upgrades always involved new Z-axis motor mounts that moved the motors farther from the frame. Since I overachieved and glued together all the fixed joints in the i3v wood frame during my initial assembly, swapping out the Z-axis motor mounts would not have been an easy thing to do. So, I just put up with the slow feed rate of the 5mm rods.

In a recent scan of i3v stuff on Thingiverse, I realized there were options for lead screw upgrades that retained the original motor mounts. With the right style of nut on the lead screws, new Z-axis nut plates is all that would be required. The i3v Lead Screw Nut Plate by cperiod even provided openSCAD source, so I went for it. I used 8mm diameter, 400mm long 4-start (8mm travel per turn) lead screws and brass nuts from ZYLTECH, along with their 5mm to 8mm shaft adapters. I debated whether single-start (2mm travel per turn) would be a safer bet than the 4-starts, but figured if 4-starts work on the latest Prusa MK3, they ought to work for me, especially knowing my Smoothieboard has a dedicated stepper driver for both Z-axis motors.



I haven't tested for a higher upper feedrate limit, but the i3v is currently configured and running fine with a Z-axis feed rate of 25mm/sec. That's quite swift compared to the original 5mm threaded rods. While the higher rate might help reduce time spent on layer shifts and lead to some marginal print quality improvement, the major benefit will likely just be in homing.

One brass nut in particular took a lot of shimming under one side for it to mount flush in the nut plate, and I had issues with the right-side screw being off-kilter from the vertical rail on that side when I mated the Z nut plate on that side to the x-idler plate. It appeared like the square hole on the x-axis idler plate for the Z-nut plate wasn't properly centered over the rail. Filing the hole wider and the tab on the nut plate narrower achieved the proper alignment. Until I can better understand what caused the misalignment, I'm holding off on posting the refinements I made to the Z nut plate to Thingiverse.

[printbus]

X-CARRIAGE AND EXTRUDER REPLACEMENT

I've had the same Greg's Wade extruder components on my MakerFarm's wood X-carriage since early 2015, and they were continuing to hold up well. The Greg's Wade components used are my refined versions mentioned in the Smoothieboard and Other Upgrades post. Even though my printing has been somewhat infrequent since then, I think it's significant that I've been able to keep the same printed 9-tooth and 47-tooth gears on the printer all this time. Seems like the small gear in particular was always wearing out and needing replacement before. I offer the following reasons for the gears lasting this long: 1) Correcting what appeared to be motor-to-large gear spacing based on an older gear configuration such as 11/45 instead of 9/47, 2) Reducing the amount of edge chamfer on the gear teeth, which essentially made all the teeth wider, and possibly most significant, 3) Reversing the direction of the herringbone pattern so the smaller gear would "dig into" the larger gear during normal extrusion rather than push away from it in the original herringbone gear design.

All that said, I wanted to do something different. I could see my wood x-carriage had a warp or deflection along the upright edge, so it was begging to be replaced. When I would run some thin-wall extrusion tests, I'd see different wall thicknesses on X vs. Y, perhaps caused by the warped carriage tipping the hot end off-kilter a bit. The x-carriage just had an overall clunky look to it, with the large gear, the large stepper motor, the end of the hobbed bolt sticking out, and my hefty part-cooling blower hanging off to the left of the carriage. Finally, I wanted to take apart the e3dv6 for nozzle replacement and some major inspection/cleaning, but doing that on the Greg's Wade installed on the box-style MakerFarm x-carriage is quite an undertaking.

I've migrated to a custom x-carriage plate that holds a Bondtech BMG extruder and an e3d MT-1701 short-body stepper motor. This certainly leads to a cleaner, neater, and likely substantially lighter solution than what I had before. The e3dv6 remains as the hot end, but I've reverted to using the original e3d snap-on cooler instead of my earlier (unpublished) carriage mounted cooling shroud. I liked the concept of a carriage mounted shroud and wanted to retain it, but accommodating something like it was going to complicate the carriage design. For now, I'll just use the e3d cooler. I have, however, retained my preference for flipping the hot end fan so airflow is pulled through the hot end and exhausted to the front of the printer. I've also retained the use of a 10-degree wedge to angle the exhaust airflow up off the bed a bit, should I decide to once again give ABS or some other filament a shot that is sensitive to drafts across the print surface.



As time permits, I'm still working through adjustments and calibrations, but initial prints suggest I've gotten rid of a lot of the ringing or ghosting that I've seen on my prints since day 1. That's a bonus. On the bad side, I hadn't realized how much I always glanced at the large herringbone gear to see what the printer was doing. There's nothing to see on this new setup, and I can't even hear the stepper motor over the hot end fan noise.

The part-cooling blower I had been using with the Greg's Wade configuration is more powerful than the thinner, more common 5015 style, but I opted to shelve it since I believe it is no longer available. Migrating to a new part cooling scheme is another reason why I wanted to redo my x-carriage configuration. Can you see where I mounted a 5015 blower? Hopefully not, since I printed a cover for it in some special stealth-mode filament that I'm testing.

Seriously though, I put the 5015 blower where I always felt the part cooling fan/blower should be on the i3v - behind the carriage, with the blower mounted so the exhaust duct is below the carriage and facing the heater block & nozzle. Glancing at the above images again, you'll see I've changed the wheel configuration of the carriage around so the single adjustment wheel is on top and the two fixed wheels are on the bottom. The duct from the blower will pass from rear to front in the space between the two lower wheels, with mounting holes on the bottom of the carriage to keep it in place.

I haven't finished design work on the duct. Perhaps in a month or so I'll have another update with a completed duct and results from additional printing experience.

I haven't decided whether I'll publish the new x-carriage. I'm not sure how much interest there is in it, especially since it is specific to the i3v (and possibly Pegasus) v-rails, the Bondtech BMG, a short body stepper motor, and the e3dv6 hot end. Many may not like the idea of the rear-mounted part cooler, or the use of e3d's snap-on hot-end cooler. The carriage also requires the right side to be clear of anything, something I already had achieved by relocating my x-endstop to the left side of the printer and my Z-endstop to one of Cloug42's endstops on the far right end of the x-rails. This new carriage also requires use of a specific x-axis cable mount that I'd also have to release. So, we'll see.

Oh - one more thing. It doesn't stand out in the photo, but there is an additional mounting provision on the left side of the carriage, beside the Bondtech. I haven't bought one, but the carriage is also designed for a BLTouch bed sensor. You never know - one of these days I may end up finally jumping on the auto-leveling bandwagon.

[1911ly]

X-CARRIAGE AND EXTRUDER REPLACEMENT

I've had the same Greg's Wade extruder components on my MakerFarm's wood X-carriage since early 2015, and they were continuing to hold up well. The Greg's Wade components used are my refined versions mentioned in the Smoothieboard and Other Upgrades post. Even though my printing has been somewhat infrequent since then, I think it's significant that I've been able to keep the same printed 9-tooth and 47-tooth gears on the printer all this time. Seems like the small gear in particular was always wearing out and needing replacement before. I offer the following reasons for the gears lasting this long: 1) Correcting what appeared to be motor-to-large gear spacing based on an older gear configuration such as 11/45 instead of 9/47, 2) Reducing the amount of edge chamfer on the gear teeth, which essentially made all the teeth wider, and possibly most significant, 3) Reversing the direction of the herringbone pattern so the smaller gear would "dig into" the larger gear during normal extrusion rather than push away from it in the original herringbone gear design.

All that said, I wanted to do something different. I could see my wood x-carriage had a warp or deflection along the upright edge, so it was begging to be replaced. When I would run some thin-wall extrusion tests, I'd see different wall thicknesses on X vs. Y, perhaps caused by the warped carriage tipping the hot end off-kilter a bit. The x-carriage just had an overall clunky look to it, with the large gear, the large stepper motor, the end of the hobbed bolt sticking out, and my hefty part-cooling blower hanging off to the left of the carriage. Finally, I wanted to take apart the e3dv6 for nozzle replacement and some major inspection/cleaning, but doing that on the Greg's Wade installed on the box-style MakerFarm x-carriage is quite an undertaking.

I've migrated to a custom x-carriage plate that holds a Bondtech BMG extruder and an e3d MT-1701 short-body stepper motor. This certainly leads to a cleaner, neater, and likely substantially lighter solution than what I had before. The e3dv6 remains as the hot end, but I've reverted to using the original e3d snap-on cooler instead of my earlier (unpublished) carriage mounted cooling shroud. I liked the concept of a carriage mounted shroud and wanted to retain it, but accommodating something like it was going to complicate the carriage design. For now, I'll just use the e3d cooler. I have, however, retained my preference for flipping the hot end fan so airflow is pulled through the hot end and exhausted to the front of the printer. I've also retained the use of a 10-degree wedge to angle the exhaust airflow up off the bed a bit, should I decide to once again give ABS or some other filament a shot that is sensitive to drafts across the print surface.



As time permits, I'm still working through adjustments and calibrations, but initial prints suggest I've gotten rid of a lot of the ringing or ghosting that I've seen on my prints since day 1. That's a bonus. On the bad side, I hadn't realized how much I always glanced at the large herringbone gear to see what the printer was doing. There's nothing to see on this new setup, and I can't even hear the stepper motor over the hot end fan noise.

The part-cooling blower I had been using with the Greg's Wade configuration is more powerful than the thinner, more common 5015 style, but I opted to shelve it since I believe it is no longer available. Migrating to a new part cooling scheme is another reason why I wanted to redo my x-carriage configuration. Can you see where I mounted a 5015 blower? Hopefully not, since I printed a cover for it in some special stealth-mode filament that I'm testing.

Seriously though, I put the 5015 blower where I always felt the part cooling fan/blower should be on the i3v - behind the carriage, with the blower mounted so the exhaust duct is below the carriage and facing the heater block & nozzle. Glancing at the above images again, you'll see I've changed the wheel configuration of the carriage around so the single adjustment wheel is on top and the two fixed wheels are on the bottom. The duct from the blower will pass from rear to front in the space between the two lower wheels, with mounting holes on the bottom of the carriage to keep it in place.

I haven't finished design work on the duct. Perhaps in a month or so I'll have another update with a completed duct and results from additional printing experience.

I haven't decided whether I'll publish the new x-carriage. I'm not sure how much interest there is in it, especially since it is specific to the i3v (and possibly Pegasus) v-rails, the Bondtech BMG, a short body stepper motor, and the e3dv6 hot end. Many may not like the idea of the rear-mounted part cooler, or the use of e3d's snap-on hot-end cooler. The carriage also requires the right side to be clear of anything, something I already had achieved by relocating my x-endstop to the left side of the printer and my Z-endstop to one of Cloug42's endstops on the far right end of the x-rails. This new carriage also requires use of a specific x-axis cable mount that I'd also have to release. So, we'll see.

Oh - one more thing. It doesn't stand out in the photo, but there is an additional mounting provision on the left side of the carriage, beside the Bondtech. I haven't bought one, but the carriage is also designed for a BLTouch bed sensor. You never know - one of these days I may end up finally jumping on the auto-leveling bandwagon.

Awesome. I have been looking at the Bondtech Extruder as an upgrade. . I am still running the stock Wades on the i3v. There will be a change to it in the future.

Your new carriage would be a direct bolt on for the Pegasus. NP. I would find it useful.

I love the BLtouch probes. I have them on all 3 printers. No more dinking around with adjustments. I think you will like it. I have a hell of a lot fewer issues with prints not sticking these days. The printers are pretty much no touch now.

[printbus]

Awesome. I have been looking at the Bondtech Extruder as an upgrade. . I am still running the stock Wades on the i3v. There will be a change to it in the future.

Your new carriage would be a direct bolt on for the Pegasus. NP. I would find it useful.

I love the BLtouch probes. I have them on all 3 printers. No more dinking around with adjustments. I think you will like it. I have a hell of a lot fewer issues with prints not sticking these days. The printers are pretty much no touch now.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm pretty much out of pocket the next couple of weeks, so give me some time to work out the cooling duct. If nothing else, I'll share the openSCAD source privately since you expressed interest.

[1911ly]

NP, and no hurry. I have a bunch of current projects keeping me busy at the moment.

[printbus]

The X-carriage design has been published. See the "MakerFarm i3v/Pegasus X-Carriage for Bondtech BMG and e3dv6" item on Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3453439.

[CoffeeCup]

The X-carriage design has been published. See the "MakerFarm i3v/Pegasus X-Carriage for Bondtech BMG and e3dv6" item on Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3453439.

Hell Printbus,

It's great to see you still have your 8" MF i3v running. This is the same model I have which I just dusted off last week and got her running again after almost four years. She still functions well. After becoming re-acquainted with it I immediately became a bit tired of Greg's accessible extruder. While the printer serves my purpose for now making small ABS parts, I started searching to see if anybody upgraded their MF with a newer extruder. Can you comment on your experience with your Bondtech BMG?

[RobH2]

Speaking of dusting off, I still have my Maker Farm 8" wood with rods printer still running. It has a dual IttyBitty print head but the printer still works great. I don't use it very often but dusted it off last month after a year of non-use and it worked perfectly straight away. I even used the PETG filament that's been hanging over it for two years, out in the humid open. I had no printing issues and the parts were perfect. Go Maker Farm and PETG.