Show your MODS

A lot of the noise generated while printing is actually being transmitted into the surface the printer is sitting on and from there into the room, the floor and the structure of the house. I have my printer in an upstairs room in my house, and I could even hear it downstairs, transmitted through the floor.

After doing a bunch of research, I happened on a vibration damping material called Sorbothane. We use it at work to damp vibrations in laser systems. It's readily available from Amazon and other sources in a variety of shapes.

I designed some round feet that clip to the bottom of the printer frame, allowing me to mount 3/4" hemispherical Sorbothane feet to the printer. Using six of these feet with the Durometer 70 Sorbothane, the sound is reduced substantially, and it no longer transmits through the walls and floor of my house.

You can download the parts here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:322915

Attachment 2261Attachment 2262

I designed an articulated print cooling fan shroud and mount that uses a 40mm fan to direct a stream of air onto the part being printed, to aid in cooling the plastic. The shroud controls the air and directs it right around the tip of the hot end to reduce spill onto the bed and other parts of the print.

A print cooling fan helps to keep edges and especially overhangs crisp when printing PLA, helps keep the hot end from re-melting the part when it spends a lot of time over a small layer and even helps when bridging with ABS. With this shroud, I've been able to bridge up to 200mm with ABS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X20j_wKg6A

The parts for the shroud and mount can be downloaded here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:351280

Attachment 2263Attachment 2264Attachment 2265

Nice mods.

My extruder motor has never caused any issues and runs pretty cool. Interesting how different two of the same machines can perform.

For anti-vibration I bought a wheelbarrow inner tube and sliced it up. I cut two-inch slices across the flat tube so I have fat rubber bands essentially. I fold each one and that gives me 4 layers of rubber and I put that under my Makerfarm in 6 spots. It really works well.

Finally, sometimes I want to manually control the two fans I have around the bed. I got some round switches on Amazon, drilled two holes and now I can turn the fans off or on at will.

Attachment 2267

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clough42

With this shroud, I've been able to bridge up to 200mm with ABS:

---

Wow, very impressive, a 200mm bridge....yikes....nice going. It looks dead straight too. Also, really like the black frame. I guess you painted that or is Colin offering black frames now?

I'm using the Hexagon all-metal hot end, and it requires a cooling fan blowing on the fins to maintain the temperature gradient. The fan shroud that comes with the hot end touches the hot end block, which melts it. It also directs the air back into an enclosed space, where it then blows down on the bed, interfering with adhesion.

I designed a replacement deck and a fan shroud that uses a 25mm fan to pull air across the hot end fins and vent it out the top, behind the extruder. This keeps all of the airflow away from the bed and also makes it easy to see what
s going on because the hot end isn't buried behind a fan.

The shroud is very close to the heat block because there isn't much space. I have found that wrapping the plastic in Kapton tape keeps it from melting. I went a step further and made a thin insulator pad out of fiberglass tape and Kapton because I am experimenting with higher temperature materials.

The parts and instructions are here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:335613

Attachment 2268Attachment 2269Attachment 2270Attachment 2271Attachment 2272

I added auto bed leveling to my printer so I don't have to mess around with the Z stop and bed leveling springs. I wasn't really happy with the aesthetics of any of the servo mounts I could find, so I designed my own.

This servo mount and switch arm tuck the switch up inside the X carriage when it's not in use, keeping it out of sight and out of the way. The arm is intended to mount a switch with a bare button (no lever arm) and has the switch element aligned vertically with the servo pivot to minimize the effect of servo position errors.

The mount is sized for a Hextronik HXT900 servo, which is available worldwide for less than $3 (USD).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yazApS1ISxo

The parts can be downloaded here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:335632

Attachment 2273Attachment 2274Attachment 2275Attachment 2276

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RobH2

Wow, very impressive, a 200mm bridge....yikes....nice going. It looks dead straight too. Also, really like the black frame. I guess you painted that or is Colin offering black frames now?

---

I guess that's a mod, too. I used a can of black spray lacquer to coat all of the wood parts of the printer before assembly. I just laid them out on a big sheet of cardboard and sprayed two or three coats on each side, spraying each coat from four different directions to make sure all of the edges were coated.

I did my first frame with clear lacquer, just to try to cover up the smell of the laser burned wood, but when I got the i3v upgrade kit, I decided to try black. I'm very happy with it.

I have thought about getting some black-anodized v-slot and a black heat bed to go with the black frame. I may yet do it someday.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clough42

I have thought about getting some black-anodized v-slot and a black heat bed to go with the black frame. I may yet do it someday.

---

Then you'll have to call it a "Makerferrari" in stead of a "Makerfarm."

I added a 40mm fan to the RAMPS board to keep the drivers and especially the heat bed transistor cool. The heat sink on the transistor was getting warmer than I liked and I think I was having trouble with the bed getting to temperature. I'm not sure if it was a real problem or not, but since I added the fan, it's been fine.

I didn't design the fan mount. I used this one: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:49235

Attachment 2280

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