Ok, I re-designed the upgraded carriage pieces that I'm going to mill out of aluminum so that the belt attachments aligned better, and added the fan attachment for 50mm fans. Here is the link to the files on thingiverse: D-bot Linear rail Carriage by tmproff

 

Cut out on my CNC last night. Everything matches up and ready to install on my printer:

 

Also, here is a vid of my CNC cutting the aluminum. Pretty happy with the speed at this point and the cuts are perfect:

 

New carriage installed on the printer last night. Unfortunately, the belt material was about 1" too short on both sides for this smaller carriage so I had to order more.

 

I decided to upgrade to a Duet wifi 2, and while I was at it, I tore down my old printer and upgraded it to the new C-beam z axis upgrade:

 

Sure, I can do that when I get home from work.

 

Ok, sorry for the delay. Vertical pieces are 26". Front and back horizontal pieces are 21 1/8, side pieces are 19"

 

Search for d- bot on thingiverse. It has all the instructions. I have changed a few things but nothing major. Its printing well right now. Dont want to mess with it

 

I used a 120v ac 350mmx350mm silicone heater from amazon. I use a solid state relay to turn it on and off. As for my cnc, I started with a Sphinx,but ended up designing my own parts.
Sphinx Upgraded plates / ballscrews and linear rail

 

Well I took the Cbeam concept a step further and switched to linear rails and designed a 3d printed part that connects it all together. I have installed it on my printer and should be attaching the bed tonight. Here is the file on thingiverse if you are interested: C-Beam Linear rail z axis actuator by tmproff

 

Well, this didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. The ABS mount isn't stiff enough (and I think the orientation of the linear rails) , so the bed is unstable. I'm going to rotate the linear rails so they face inward and use a piece of CNC'd aluminum instead of the 3d printed piece to attach the linear rails to the bed. Should have some pics tonight.

 

Ok, got the new piece installed and attached to the linear rail. It's rock solid and moves pretty smoothly. Going to try to get the other side done and the bed attached tonight

 

IT WORKS! I'm super satisfied with the movement and stiffness of the linear rail. I do need to move everything down about an inch so I can use more of the rail (I should get about 400 mm z movement). Also need to rotate the z axis stepper 180 so it doesn't interfere with the bed.

 

Now I just need to figure out how to get prints to stick to my shiny new piece of tempered glass...

 

Update... I LOVE printing on Glass!! Using extra hold aquanet hairspray, and prints stick very well and come off so easily after bed cools down. Never going back to PEI.

 

That video sure didn't convince me looked like he was having a very hard time with it

 

I cleaned my x and y linear rails last night. I was amazed how dirty they were, and also noticed some play in 2 of the blocks. I ended up replacing the bearings in the blocks and it improved them significantly.
Here is a link to a vid that shows how to clean them (which only takes about 10 mins per linear rail):
Here is a link to the ball bearings for MGN12 linear rails : https://www.amazon.com/Inch-Chrome-...ECZW7WH8JP0&psc=1&refRID=2EJBMPZ51ECZW7WH8JP0

 

you don't need the pi if you have the duet wifi. It comes with a web interface and all the nice upgrades of 32 bit.

 

Here's a vid of some rapid printing @ around 130 mm / sec :

 

I'll probably start a new thread about this upgrade but just for posterity sake, I'll add it to the overall build thread as well. I am currently testing out the concept of using an external air source for my parts cooling fan and using a long CPAP hose to attach to the print carriage. This should provide 2 advantages...Firstly, if I ever enclose my printer, since the air source is external, it will be pumping cool air onto the print object. Secondly, it should lighten up the carriage and reduce vibration (I currently use 2 50mm fans attached to the print carriage).

For the air source, I took apart an old CPAP machine and retrieved the 3 phase centrifugal fan:

To control it, I ordered a 3 phase 12v controller off Amazon:

This includes a switch to invert the direction of the motor and a potentiometer to increase / decrease the speed of the motor. I used the 12v 5amp power supply that came with the CPAP machine since I felt like this would be too powerful for my Duet2wifi controller so I purchased a DC-DC relay so that it will use the printer controller fan voltage to signal the relay only. To protect everything, I went to Home Depot and purchase a little electrical box and drilled holes to accommodate the input air for the fan, the fan speed control and wires.

Finally, I needed to re-design my D-bot carriage to receive the incoming air source and divert it to cool the print part. Right now, I'm waiting for the 1/8th inch to 3/16 barbed tubing connectors to come in the mail so I can put everything together. Also, while I was at it, I'm transitioning to an E3D Volcano hotend (can't hurt right?) More pics to come.

 

So I finally got the CPAP blower working on my printer. Works great! I have the blower set to a very low RPM and it still puts out more air (and it's cold air since it's away from the bed). Here is a video of it in action: