But I plan on having my hotend wrapped in Kapton tape tomorrow (to avoid filament sticking to the nozzle too much as well as isolating the thermistor and hotend a bit from the fan) and then I really need the IKEA LED mod by ronkeli, with clips from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:620394 ;-). I’ll also install an additional printer head; mostly in order to be able to print even when one of the nozzles gets clogged up… Then at some point in time when my BuildTak is not usable anymore, I’ll also install the MK3 heated bed.
In the far future it would be cool to install some kind of auto-level system on the bed…
So in total my mods will be something along the following lines:
[ul]
[li]Current
[list]
[]Belt tensioners for X-axis belts: thingiverse.com/thing:10082[/li]
[li]Filament spool holder for Innofil3D spools: thingiverse.com/thing:618269[/li]
[li]Vertex carriage alignments from thingiverse.com/thing:606083, thanks to h60[/li]
[li]MK3 aluminimum bed, no glass[/li]
[li]Heated build chamber (works way to good, the chamber gets too hot, so need to add automatic venting)[/li][/ul][/:m]
[li] Future
[ul]
[]Re-locating the bottom fan so it directs air to the drivers instead of all over the place, see https://www.tinkercad.com/things/3G0D8hffC4K and http://forum.velleman.eu/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=13405[/li]
[li]Add small fan for cooling only the PEEK heat isolator[/li]
[li]48 v and relay for initial quick heating of bed[/li]
[li]Fan for cooling at end of print, could be the same as for venting the heated build chamber[/li]
[li]Kapton wrap of hotend[/li]
[li]New non-plastic pulleys[/li]
[li]Additional printer head (K8402)[/li]
[li]IKEA LED strips (and holder from thingiverse.com/thing:620394), thanks to ronkeli[/li]
[li]Re-alignment of bed due to non-level aluminium holder (maybe superseded by:)[/li]
[li]MK3 heated bed with springs for alignment[/li]
[li]LCD panel enclosure to avoid filmanet falling into it[/li]
[li]Closing the bigger holes in the bottom so dilluted glue will not accidentally fall into the PCB[/li]
[li]Somehow fix the small Z wobble I seems to be having on larger prints[/li]
[li]Power switch holder or better yet: New (safe!) power supply[/li]
[li]Automatic nozzle cleaning during startup[/li][/ul][/:m]
[li] Far future:
[ul]
[]Auto-levelling ;-)[/li][/ul][/:m][/list:u]
LOL! I actually made already an excel list of the mods I’m planning to do (with priorities etc.)
Now as I have made some “not so important” modifications out of the way I plan to focus on the basic things
By the way I added couple of alternatives for the LED strip mounting as the one shown was already a third variant!
The alignment rods by h60 are very good! Every Vertex owner should print a pair of those!
Belt tensioning indeed needs a little rework. Maybe I’ll try the ones pmbdk proposed first.
Belt pulleys are not very high quality. Maybe I replace them and belts at some point.
I was unable to perfectly lay the buildtak sheet on the glass the first time, so I might redo this or acquire a heated bed.
Second nozzle is coming one day.
The bottom fan for the drivers is not optimally positioned, maybe I’ll move it closer to the drivers and board. And maybe it needs to replaced as it already sounds like after 10000 hours.
Other plans are to make the bed leveling use springs to simplify the alignment. I already flipped the aluminium plate (viewtopic.php?f=58&t=13316&p=58778#p58778)
To me it seems that the bed holds the level quite nicely so I’m not 100% sure if there’s a need for automatic leveling but of course it would be cool!
You can also make a good belt tensioner with a clothespin spring.
I’ve ruined my Buildtak so I’ll install a MKIII heated bed too.
I’ll also design a power switch holder and an enclosure for the LCD panel as small plastic scraps are falling in it.
A second nozzle is on its way.
I’ll put some springs to level the bed like I did on my K8200 (I used suspension springs for R/C cars).
I just remembered that my Da Vinci has a very nice cleaning startup sequence where it cleans the nozzle after warming of the nozzle by going over some elastic plastic parts. Very effective and basically means that you don’t get blobs in your prints. I need one of those on my Vertex as well…
MKIII heatbed, with a 24V/200W additional power supply. I would like to use a glass, but haven’t yet clips to fix it. So I print on blue tape on the MKIII.
Heatbed on springs
Change the dead pulleys
Planned:
Second extrudeur/head (ordered, still not available in Switzerland)
Ikea RGB LED strips + 7812 voltage regulator as power supply
Z-axis stabiliser
Bottom fan replacement for quieter one,
Heatsinks on all stepper motors
Heatsinks on both sides of all stepper motor driver cards
2 additional fans + holders blowing air over the steppermotor heatsinks,
Additional fan blowing air over the stepper motor drivers
Second extruder
Iphone 5 Timelapse adapter
Switchplate for general on/off power and fan switches
Could you upload your mix to thingiverse? I’ve done exactly the same, but my OctoPi is held in place with a cable tie and the camera is stuck down with Blu Tack! It works fine, but it’s not man’s greatest achievement in engineering…
Finally managed to solve a problem related to layers after 3rd layer. It started slowly but got worse and worse. Finally I was not able to print anything because from 4th layer up surface got huge lumps of filament.
Problem was faulty z-axis linear bearing. By changing those to new ones, I’m back in printing.
Ok, so here is a list of mods with notes I’ve done until now.
New 321W/15V power supply
Replaced original PSU with Mean Well RSP-320-15 to have enough power for all add-ons.
Power switch
Added IEC power switch with fuse and printed closed housing for safety.
Ikea LED lights
Added warm white led lights and printed led strip holder. Drilled holes for proper attachment with screws, power supply directly from new PSU.
New bottom fan
Replaced original noisy one with Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX.
Modified heated bed
Added RepRap MK3 heated alu bed with power expander. 15V power supply is connected via expander to MK3 12V terminals. Setup consists from bottom to top:
added springs to make bed height adjustment really easy
original alu support bed with 3 pcs drilled and threated holes to fix MK3
thermal insulator cork layer
MK3 with countersinked holes attached to original alu support plate with 2 screws in back corners and one in the middle front
original glass plate with BuildTak
modified larger clips
I prefer to have heated bed thus it eliminates problems due to changing ambient temperature. Location of the printer is close to balcony door and during the cold months balcony can be used normally. Also glass plate is easily movable for cleaning etc. works. Should make also ABS easier to print, not tested yet.
Front cover
Added a 3mm polycarbonate window with printed support pieces to cover front opening. This further eliminates temperature changes inside the printing chamber.
Thus far I have installed me a MK3 with the extender and a 24v power supply.
But I have also on order a plate from printinz.com/ to replace the buildtak covered glass.
As I have too much trouble getting the prints off the bed. Small damages appeared on the buildtak and not wanting to print directly on the Mk3 heatbed!
Second I have ordered me 2 E3D-v6 extruders and mk8 gears. So I have printed me 2 new extruders (thingiverse.com/thing:222667)
So I hopefully can print other materials then PLA and ABS without much trouble…
Keep you posted when all arrives and the first tests off it…
