Darren's Anet A8 3d Printer

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
I'll update with some pics of the printer later, I'll be adding the support brackets and belt tensioners tomorrow probably.
2016-12-27 23.21.54.jpg


Here is a list of the items & links I've printed/used for mine.

Filament Guide: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1764285

Carriage Filament Guide: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1983882

Y Belt tensioner: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1492411

Y Cable Chain: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1915486

X Cable Chain brackets (used 10mmx20mm R28 commercial chain): http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1975662

X Belt tensioner: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1683070

Frame Braces: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2069466

Belt Attachments: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1433295

Extruder Button: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1935151

Front Frame Brace: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1857991

Upright side Braces: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:295043

Rear Frame Brace: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1852358

Frame supports: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1872162

Main board cover: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1803120

Main board/Mosfet Mounting Plate: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1857006

Pi Mount: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2058740

Sensor Mount, shims cooling fan properly too (no longer used, but did cut the ring off and used the shim for the extruder cooling fan): http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1907394

Sensor Mount on front radial fan: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2111157

Cooling ring nozzle: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1874390

Hold down brackets (replacing with frame braces): http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1683033

Quick change spool holder (highly recommended): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1241566

New Y carriage plate: https://reprapchampion.com/collecti...ate-upgrade-v2-for-prusa-i3-reprap-3d-printer
The above plate requires spacers to clear the motor and a new belt connector: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1698328 & http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:863408

Attached is the Electrical Switch cover. There were several out there, but were for an older model of power supply, and they didn't quite fit the plugs that Brent and I each bought (Power switch used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ME5YAPK/). I'll be pulling my cover off to add some exterior 12v power taps to use with fans and lighting. I currently have to take the power supply off the frame to remove the cover as one of the screws is behind the z motor and I had to use a self tapping screw there, so may be something to consider modifying.

View attachment electrical switch cover.skp
 
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...found the following where user Nephilim66 compiled a bunch of them into a single download: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2003514/#files

I hope I get to start printing later this week.

The whole idea of printing upgrade parts for your printer seems analogous to buying a car kit that's just a chassis and drive train, but it's enough to get you around from one parts store to another so you can buy the rest of the pieces needed to make a hot rod. :thumb: You guys are having way too much fun. :)
 
The whole idea of printing upgrade parts for your printer seems analogous to buying a car kit that's just a chassis and drive train, but it's enough to get you around from one parts store to another so you can buy the rest of the pieces needed to make a hot rod. :thumb: You guys are having way too much fun. :)

Yup! :D

Today I ran another Lithophane, while it was finishing I threw together a torsion box for the printer to sit on. The proceeded to add the new frame braces and belt tensioners. I also added the extra shims to the bed belt, but after all the updates, auto level still works as it was prior, so will have to think through this one some more.
2017-01-16 16.20.08.jpg

Sorry, phone died before I got done, so will have to post pics of the upgrades later.
 
Ok, got some pics. First up is the addition of a 12v terminal strip, which will be used for the fan on the power supply and some LED lighting strips on the frame.
2017-01-16 17.28.03.jpg

The front frame brace and Y axis tensioner, also added fiberglass reinforced belts that won't stretch when tightened.
2017-01-17 07.37.48.jpg

The rear frame brace, which helps keep the extra tension on the belt from flexing the frame
2017-01-16 17.28.07.jpg 2017-01-17 07.37.55.jpg

The X axis tensioner. I'm going to replace this with another design I found that moves the idler pulley outside of the frame though, I found my carriage will hit this if not adjusted properly, which then leave little room for adjustment. Also added a fiberglass reinforced belt here.
2017-01-17 07.38.02.jpg

I'm still going to draw up and print some frame braces for the upright supports as they still wobble considerably during the lithophane prints.
2017-01-17 07.37.39.jpg

Finally a new quick change spool adapter and pi camera case that will ride on the corner of the bed.
2017-01-17 07.38.09.jpg

Next up will be those frame braces and maybe a mount for the pi.
 
I have seen mine shake like hte dickens with it's doing fill on some small parts. I imagine the lithophanes really are just a lot of very small fills.
 
Last night I printed another quick change spool holder (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1241566) and the improved tensioner (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1683070), the other tensioner didn't leave enough room for adjustment and the carriage was hitting it.

2017-01-17 07.38.02.jpg 2017-01-18 19.50.43.jpg

I also seem to have the auto level working now. I had tried a couple of firmwares and think one of them left some settings that didn't agree with the latest versions. I ended up wiping the eeprom to clear out those settings, so seems to be working at this point.
2017-01-18 21.44.26.jpg
 
Part of me cannot help thinking perhaps the whole feature that made this design function was/is the "looseness" of it.???

Are you seeing significant gains for the extra bits you have added to it. Just asking?
 
Part of me cannot help thinking perhaps the whole feature that made this design function was/is the "looseness" of it.???

Are you seeing significant gains for the extra bits you have added to it. Just asking?

Obviously none of the upgrades are a must for making this printer work, other than adding a fuse, it works quite well out of the box. This could be seen also as making a silk purse out of a sow sack, but, with each of them I've seen improvement in the quality of the print either through eliminating shake or tightening the tolerances.

It's on the lithophanes that will be the test, when there is a lot of small detail, the unit looks like it's going into convulsions at times. I've worried that stiffening only parts of it are going to cause areas that are meant to have flex wear down, so trying to cover all those bases and make sure I take care of all of them before attempting more of those.

I can also see with my cnc experiences that the motors could use some tuning. The jerking on the lithophanes can be controlled a little more by adjusting some of the settings available (xy jerk, speeds, etc), I've just not gotten time to research what is recommended. There are also a whole bunch of Mxxx gcode commands I have yet to learn that I've not had to use on the cnc before also. I probably didn't do myself a favor by building a laser that uses yet another controller and set of gcodes to learn. ;)
 
I've been using the OctoPi (Raspberry Pi 3) as my controller interface for my printer. This past weekend I drew up a mount for it and changed to a shorter usb cable to tidy things up. There are just a couple of nubs to hang the existing case on.
2017-01-22 16.23.13.jpg 2017-01-22 16.23.07.jpg 2017-01-22 16.25.43.jpg

I later found out that the case I had drew this up for had screw hold closer than the one I was actually using on the printer. No big deal, just swapped the sd card between the two and I was up and running with the correct case in a few seconds.

2017-01-23 17.07.58.jpg 2017-01-23 17.23.49.jpg

Edit: Added the drawings on thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2058740
 
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Last night and today I printed Frame braces (http://www.thingiverse.com/make:295043).

2017-01-30 06.24.21.jpg 2017-01-30 06.37.59.jpg 2017-01-30 18.25.34.jpg

Here is the completed install. The frame is now very rigid, no side to side movement at all. I also drilled and bolted the new brackets to the other brackets I installed previously at the top.
2017-01-30 19.25.45.jpg

For the installation, the brace is a really tight fit. I could not get the front panel back on and I thought I may need to take the dremel to it. However, I decided to try loosening the other screws at the bottom of the upright, pulled up on the acrylic upright and it had exactly enough play to get the front panel back on.
2017-01-30 19.13.47.jpg

I also took a few minutes to get my Z drive screws parallel to the rails, I had to loosen the motor screws and push one motor over to get it aligned, then re-tighten the screws in the new position. With those aligned, I was able to install the anti-wobble brackets. I did need to file down the top of my screws though to get the bearings to slide down to position. It could be that I just got the wrong bearings, but either way, those are no longer flopping in the top plate holes as before.
2017-01-30 19.14.51.jpg
 
This is just nothing short of amazing tech.
Just consider the machine u bought was a perfect starting platform enabling the printing of all the additional improvement pieces.
For a guy like me that has been involved with discrete product development involving plastic bits being tools and developed and refined integrated with metal bits and electronics, this is nothing short of incredible.

Man when i think back through the bits and pieces and how we evolved them with filing and glue, and then they would break upon testing ...i am just in awe. I dont seem to be able to acclimate to this new situation.

Those braces and the quality of print i dunno its just surreal to me.

There are several gentleman long passed i would have loved to witness them experiencing this technology.

Oh man one guy i had the fortune to work with used to design planes in WW2 and did drawings of wings full scale on floor of hanger.
You should have seen him doing things for a payphone using a draughting board and pencil.

If ever i wanted a time machine would be now. To take this tech plus a few others back in time.

For example, we take for granted the probes with a camera or fibre optic cable that allow us to see around or into tight spaces.
Well when we were developing our payphone validator mechanism back in the day, it would have been fantastic to be able to mount a mini spy camera or fibre optic cable inside the payphone with the door closed and see how the coins traveled through the coin paths.

Then be able to tweak a drawing load and print a new part and test again. Man that would be like our fairy godmother had arrived and granted us many wishes.

I must dig up an image of the payphone and its plastic mechanism to show my point then one can get an idea of just how extremely powerful this tech is.
But the price point for the unit is utterly incredible for what it can do.

Man how i wish i was 30 years younger.
 
Thanks Guys

Further confirmation, these and some I did after these are the cleanest & clearest I've done yet. I need to clean the bed and try either just on glass or using hair spray vs. glue stick. I'm still seeing a few little areas that look like there may have been glue stick globs in the mix.
2017-01-30 22.53.44.jpg 2017-01-30 23.00.34.jpg

Rob, jump in the water. ;)
 
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