My R2 Carriage upgrade

I use my R2 as a production machine and I needed to replace any weak parts. In my R2 journey I found a way to get rid of all of the slop in the print head and also have a rugged design.

The spacers for the steppers are set between thin plastic and the steppers. Over time the thin plastic cracked out on me. I generated new spacers that are glued to the thin plastic carriage and allow the steppers to ride up and down. These will never crack or break.

I replaced the bearing blocks with a much heavier design that uses open loop belting, getting rid of the springs in the belting path and the errors caused by the springs. These blocks are solid and will not break.

I printed out a set of spacers for the carriage gears, where all of the spacers are labeled as to where they go. When installed the belts are all in their correct positions.

I replaced the tensioner arm with a more solid design that allows the tensioner arm mounting screw to also mount the extruder stepper, which the current arm does not. I found that I got improved performance by setting the pressure differently by brand and type of filament.

I put a mount for the print head cable so that the flexing will not eventually kill the cable.

I made two versions of the shroud so that I can use the cheap Chinese E3D hotends. The two shrouds correspond to the V5 and V6 versions. In the shroud I have added the option, which I use, for a thin formed metal plate ( with the PLA printed forming tool) to isolate the fans from the hotend. This allows much more cooling because the air flow does not cool the print head.

I have changed the ball bearing LM6LUU bearing, which is cheaply made and sloppy for a full length sleeve bearing. The sleeve bearings for the 6mm rods are the full length of the plastic ( 55mm and 60mm). The bearings are made from inexpensive brass tubing, cut with a standard tubing cutter. I have purchased this tubing three times from Amazon and it always comes in perfect for this application.

To set this system up the rods are first aligned, the bearings are inserted into the plastic and the 6mm rods are run through. A long setting epoxy is then put on the bearings and they are fully inserted. The print head bottom is the set in the middle and the glue dries over night...The result is a setup where the bearings are aligned to a ridiculously tight tolerance yet move freely.

This reduces ghosting and improves finish.

I will spend the time to generate all of the documentation and necessary files if any interest is shown.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TgfTF3lWHzUXHQwv-___vJVlKMPd-eAZ?usp=sharing

 

Well done, especially on the bearings. My rods are scored from the lousy ones that with the machine, I had vesconite bearings made up for both the 6mm and 8mm rods, just need to get new rods and I can finish up with that. Can you tell me whats the length of the hotend you using? From base of the housing to the nozzle, I also used a Chinese knock off e3d, I just used some washers and longer screws to lower the original shroud which works kinda fine. Just want to see if your shroud will fit.

Thanks

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The picture is of a E3D V6 and it 63.25 mm long with a hardened steel nozzle and matches my Hypercube shroud. I machine my own heater blocks out of brass for long life and no leakage, but they have no effect on the overall length. The E5 measured 6.7 mm longer so I generated a shroud for that. You can find instructions on how to use the forming tool on https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3063864.
If you desire a different length let me know, I will generate it for you. Both the shroud and hotend use m3x45 flat head socket screws. If you require a different length I can accommodate you.

I have found that PD-tech sells the best rods. Hardened steel and almost always dead straight.

 

Thanks for that, will let you know soon. Lol I'm in South Africa so essentially will have to goto the same shop where I got the fake hot end for the rods. Thanks again for the explanation.

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Pleas start a new thread and give us all the info on these bearings.